Pinball

His battle healing, at this point, had healed up most of the damage the bear had initially inflicted to him. He was probably able to eat another one or two of those swipes, though if he could at all help it, he was going to avoid it. Pinball watched. They were still playing their little game of cat and mouse, the bear testing his perimeter, and Pinball holding it down. It was scared, now. Or maybe scared wasn't the right word. Maybe it was just hesitant. Pinball didn't want to give the mob any more credit than it deserved. It was digital. It had no thoughts, it had no feelings. All it had was

He couldn't let that happen again. He stayed his distance. The bear didn't let up. It wanted him badly. But Pinball was ready for it this time. He kept his distance dancing on the outside, halting its charges before it ever even had the chance to advance. Every time it reared up to charge, Pinball threw a knife in its direction. It was smarter than the other bears, too. It wasn't passively accepting its death. Pinball's blades hurt it bad and it knew it. It stayed its distance, testing for an opening, but Pinball wouldn't give it one if he could at all help it. The bear got brave and charged h

The bear recovered. Pinball stayed his distance. He wasn't going to face it head on, not if he could help it. But it seemed like Pinball wasn't going to get the chance. The bear was quick -- quicker than all others before it -- and it was in his face before Pinball could even properly gauge its speed. It stood up, bringing both of its massive paws up and then down on Pinball. Pinball dropped his knives and caught the bear's paws. Almost immediately his knees buckled, and Pinball's arms were shaking. The power was unreal. What had he been thinking. Why hadn't he just rolled away like he normall

The bear charged. Pinball charged too. He leapt over the bear and onto its back, burying a pair of knives in its shoulder blades, much like he'd stunned all the others before it. And like all the others before it, it too collapsed, its limbs betraying it. Pinball bounced off the back of the bear and landed on his feet. He flipped the new blades in his palm. He was going to take advantage of whatever he could -- but he'd learned his lesson about taking the bear head on. He was playing it risky enough by rushing out and leaping over it like that. No, Pinball hung back. He threw a pair of blades

The bear was giant. Twice the size of the biggest bears he'd ever seen. It stood head and shoulders above Pinball on four legs. If the last group of bears had claws like daggers, this bear had claws like shortswords. Pinball was half surprised that he hadn't been ripped in half when he'd been swatted aside like a doll. If he had bones, he was sure that every single one of them would be broken from its attack if not from the fall after. Pinball set his jaw. All that meant was that he was going to have to make sure he didn't get hit like that again. Or if he did, that he was prepared to run away

He walked along the path for what felt like ages. As far as he could tell, there were no more bears to be found. Pinball was confused. Had he been mistaken? He was just about to call it quits and head back when a massive roar sounded behind him. Pinball spun around, blades in hand -- and he was too late. The bear's giant paw slammed into him and sent Pinball flying. He hit the ground hard. His health dipped below half. His head was spinning. His heart rate quickened. When was the last time a single hit had sent him so dangerously close to the edge? With a practiced hand he pulled out one of hi

Pinball stood still, watching the last remaining bear as it sized him up. It was unbridled fury, all fat and muscle and fur. And teeth. And also claws, too. He reckoned each one of its claws were the same size as his daggers, if not just a bit shorter. Pinball tilted his head as it rushed him. Too brazen. Too rash. But that was alright. He wouldn't complain if things worked out in his favor. All it took was a single smooth sidestep, and a couple of knives in its side to finish it off. The bear, mid-charge, was carried off its feet and slid face first into the grass and dirt, causing the ground

He danced away as the bears rushed him again. They were fast, but Pinball was faster. They were vicious, too, but Pinball hit a tad harder. The bear swiped at him and its paw slammed heavily into the ground. Pinball's response was to bury a dagger between its eyes with enough force to nearly send it flying off its feet. The other one was closer than he'd expected. The bear swiped heavily at its head, and Pinball ducked, feeling the displaced wind and hearing the woosh of its mass overhead. He spun around, looking to finish the last remaining big bear with a slash across its muzzle. He missed n

Unlike the last group, though, these bears were tougher. There was the incrementing difficulty; but that wasn't quite the whole of it, he knew. Pinball's knives buried themselves deep in the flanks of both bears, digging through muscle and fat and fur. They each roared angrily, taking swats at him, but Pinball was quicker than that, and he wasn't going to be caught lacking by a couple of middle of the road dungeon mobs. Pinball let his hands fall beneath his cloak, flipping a new pair of blades into his palms but not revealing them yet. His mind briefly went back to the bears near his house, o

The next group of bears came, and this time there were only two of them. They weren't standing on their hind legs, thankfully, and just seemed to be normal bears. But they were much bigger than the last four, and Pinball was beginning to notice the pattern of their names. He frowned. It definitely felt like a prank, at this point, but what was he supposed to assume? That Cardinal itself had decided that today of all days they were going to mess with one specific person? That was much too far fetched and he wouldn't even entertain the thought. Pinball let the bears come to him this time; he was

Two of the four bears he'd paralyzed didn't get up. They succumbed to their injuries with whimpers, shattering into two distinct clouds of azure fractals. Good. That only left the last two. They struggled to get back up, their massive paws digging holes into the earth with every frustrated stomp. Pinball didn't wait for them to recover. Why bother? The outcome was going to be the same. He buried a dagger in the skull of the two of them, putting them out of their misery. They, too, followed their companions, passing away in explosions of light and dust. Pinball's hands vanished beneath his cloa

It wasn't long after he started down the broken forest path that his suspicions were proven true. Four big bears stood guard. They were standing on their hind legs. What? Pinball had never seen that before, but he didn't have time to question it. He threw himself into the thick of it, his daggers flashing, one in each palm. The bears took swats at him, but they were two slow. He slammed the blades almost surgically into their joints, halting their movements. Each of them roared in pain, and Pinball retreated a few steps, retrieving a new pair of blades. He tilted his head and looked down. He r

Pinball went in for a closer look. As it turned out, the path DID lead somewhere. Just as to where, he was uncertain, but judging from the path of destruction leading to and from whatever destination laid at either end of the path, he could only assume that it had something to do with the ocean of bears gathered on his front door. Pinball ate a piece of cake to keep him quick on his feet and equipped a different knife and trinket. He was gearing up for combat. If he was right in his assumption, he was heading into what was basically a nest of the big brown grizzly bears. And as the old saying

He kept Untraceable just in case he was wrong, and there were still people out there that wanted him dead. He wouldn't be too surprised. If someone killed Mishiro, or Bahr, or even Acanthus, Pinball would probably chase their killer down through every floor of Aincrad ten times over. Pinball frowned even deeper, if that was possible. It was during this depressing train of thought that Pinball noticed a path that had previously not been there. He squinted. It led through the trees, across a path of trampled plants and broken twigs. It was too conspicuous to be an accident. He thought that

Well, he had the free time to take a breather now. Pinball crossed his arms. He was standing by his front door, looking rather annoyed at all the bears gathered in the woods outside his previously isolated home. That was another thing. If he couldn't get all these bears away, was his home going to be hidden for much longer? It wasn't like he desperately needed the solitude like he used to; there came a point when people stopped chasing him down, stopped trying to make him pay for the horrible things he'd done. Now he only kept it hidden out of habit, out of comfort. It was nice, after having s

The last group. He cut and tore his way through them. They, like all the other great bears before them, fell too. Pinball found himself closer to his house then, and he glanced over his shoulder to appreciate his handiwork. Or lack thereof. He'd barely made a dent in the great bear army's numbers and it was more than apparent to see. He frowned. Once again, he found himself lost as to how they had gotten there, and without an answer as to how he was going to make sure it didn't happen again. Because he could dedicate a couple of hours to clearing them out, sure -- but after that, then what? Wh

The end was almost near. He could see the outskirts. Just a few more bears had to fall before he was free of them. Not to say that their numbers were thinning -- Pinball had cut through a great deal of them at this point, and still there was a veritable ocean of them outside his home. He'd need to be a little more efficient when he came back to start clearing them out again. Whatever his plan had been wasn't working well enough in practice. He'd need to adjust. He found himself momentarily wishing there were such things as dynamite he could use. If he could just toss a couple sticks in there,

He cut and tore his way through the passive grizzlies. Still, they did nothing more than huff and snort, stamp their giant paws in the grass, and look otherwise irritated or unbothered, he couldn't particularly tell. Pinball's hands felt like they were going numb every time he buried a knife into the hide of one of the giant beasts. The dull impact Cardinal sent to his brain was not quite pain; his hands could not grow tired or sore, not really, but the sensation was none too pleasant after a certain amount of time of experiencing nothing else but it. Pinball could see the end in sight. Just a

True to his word, Pinball messaged Acanthus a few days later. He waited outside the city's gates. Unlike most floors, the tenth floor's starting city almost immediately gave way to untamed wilderness past its walls. The underground cave system was home to an impressive network of dark tunnels, ravines, and a wonderful little ecosystem of glowing mushrooms. All things that Pinball did not care about in the slightest. Floor Ten was another one of those places he avoided going if he could help it, both because there was little to do there and because it was overall just a tad dreary. Pinbal

The Ninth Floor was their second -- and final -- destination. Pinball was none too pleased with this, of course. He thought that the Ninth was a hellish floor that had no reason to exist other than to make players miserable. But was that really such a far-fetched concept, given the nature of their imprisonment? Probably not. But the Ninth Floor was a very specific level of sucky that he just couldn't quite get over. Their plan was the same. Usually, when Pinball was alone and had more time, he'd just walk between the floors. He stayed on the lower ones for the most part anyway, so it was

Oz moved in to attack -- didn't he just tell him to stay back? -- and paid for it. Pinball watched the broker's health plummet and grit his teeth hard. Damn it. He really didn't want to watch this guy die. He wasn't sure how he would react to it. He barely knew the guy. But regardless of how Pinball may or may not feel about it, he knew that he didn't want his death tracing back to him. He wasn't exactly ready to deal with that whole song and dance again. Pinball charged forward, a far cry from what he was comfortable doing. He saw the molten fist barreling towards him before it hit him

Oz seemed surprised, asking if there was something wrong with it. "Yes, it's stunned." Oz moved to inspect the creature. He poked and prodded at its armor. Pinball could practically feel the heat from the distance he was standing at. He could only imagine how hot it must be in such close proximity to it. Oz was inspecting it for weak points, but stuns didn't last forever. Pinball frowned. "I really wouldn't get that close to it." As if on cue the Titanium Warden seemed to recover, pushing itself to its feet, eyes flaring, shooting gusts of steam from the glowing cracks

"On second thought, why don't you take the first shot?" He didn't wait to let him finish. When he reappeared he was several yards ahead of Oz. Pinball's knives soared through the air, glowing a fiery crimson in the maze's low light. They landed in rapid succession, with definite impact -- but the Titanium Warden hardly stumbled. In fact, it leaned into the attack, walking slowly and confidently towards them. With each thundering footstep, the warden drew closer, and Pinball could see he'd hardly put a dent in the quest boss's HP value. Okay, DoTs weren't working. It was time to brin

<<THREAD SUMMARY>> Mishiro Receives: Mishiro | [Word Count: 6663/10 = 666.3] * [True Tier: 3] * [Group Factor: 0.7] + 500 EXP (Quest Reward) = 1899 EXP 10,296 + 500 (Quest Reward) = 10,796 Col 8 Materials <<Survival>> Extra Skill Unlocked And this stuff: Pinball Receives: Pinball | [Word Count: 6663/10 = 666.3] * [True Tier: 8] * [Group Factor: 0.7] = 3731 EXP Laurel Wreath: 559 Col

Pinball's head shot up. Mishiro calling for him had snagged his attention. Something about her voice. She thanked him -- she told him that he was good at fighting, and that she felt safe around him. Pinball's eyes lowered. "Of course," he replied. His voice was almost sullen, yet strangely resolute. Most days he wished that he wasn't, that she didn't. On others he caught a glimpse of her and remembered why he couldn't stop. Pinball watched as Zamek dropped to his knees, unearthing his most treasured possessions in the world. Letters, jewels, and other trinkets had been locked away