Tsuisuta

There wasn't much time to react, but Awateru did her best with what her ally gave her. The boar was coming towards her a little off center and she was able to rush in and punch it. The diving punch was enough to break the pup into pixels like all the others before it. She looked around, rubbing her hand from the impact she made into the ground. There it was, the last tusk that they needed. "I found the last one we need Rithe," she said, calling them over. "Looks like we can finally make our way back towards the starting town." The quest was complete, or at least this one was. With the pacing that the two of them seemed to have, Awateru realized that it might be best if she went her own way for a time. Perhaps she could find some extra power before making her way further in this game. She would certainly need it if she was going to make any sort of headlines to show up to her sisters.

Though the tusks had dried up once more, there was still hope that they could find one before they got back to the Town of Beginnings. It was still a little ways out, and there was likely to be more boars about for them to kill. Shortly after the latest one was taken down, she heard another squeal. Rithe must've already hit the next target. She tried looking around for either, but they seemed to be obscured by the hills around her. She ended up taking more time than anticipated to find where the two were fighting, and the boar was already getting ready to attack Rithe again. Awateru stood behind Rithe, hoping to catch the boar if it ended up behind Rithe. It was a bit of a desperate strategy, but she felt it just might work. "Try to let it get past you Rithe, I'm right behind you ready to strike at it again!"

Stepping back, Awateru left an opening for Rithe to get her own attack in. The boar had little time to recover before it was punched back. Once Rithe had attacked, Awateru had made her way around and quickly finished off the boar with one more punch. We're getting good at this. Looking around, there was no tusk to be found this time. It seemed their luck had worn off. Still, it had been worth three more tusks found back to back. Perhaps the next time one of them collapsed they would find their luck reset once more and the two of them would be able to get the last tusk they needed. Or they could just keep punching boar pups to death. She would have to wait and see though. "Let's find a few more. The Town of Beginnings is still a ways out. We should be able to defeat 3 or 4 more on our way back if we need to. More if they're denser than we think they are."

"I know that you do see reason. You see that you are causing this pain to yourself in your quest of ambition. You..."

Awateru interrupted him with another punch at the boulder. "I'm not going to deal with it any longer than I have to."

"And this is where you must decide. You have almost discovered just what lies within you, and you must choose how to use it. Do you wish to use it for yourself, or for others."

"I don't see why that has to be a binary choice. Why can't I use it for both."

"It is only binary in the moment. You may think you can always apply it to both, but the root of your intent is always for yourself or for others. Figure that out and you will be well on your way to mastering the art I have taught you."

"But you've taught me nothing."

Rithe was improving, and it as showing on how fast the two of them were able to take on these boar pups. Sure they weren't really supposed to be tough enemies, in fact they were supposed to be easier than the beginner level enemies. It didn't matter though, they were still make slow and steady progress. With a quick check of the latest kill's surroundings, Awateru found no tusk for them to finish off the quest. There was only a need for one more. One more tusk and than the two of them could be done with this quest. "No tusk over here. Look's like we're still going to kill a few more." As she said it, she noticed another boar pup not too far from where they were now. She snuck up on it as best as she could, not wanting to give her position away. As she closed in on it though, it quickly turned and looked up at her. The wind! Apparently this game was detailed enough to give her away if she was upwind. Not wanting to waste the attack, she quickly threw a punch at the boar. It wasn't much, but it did connect and drain its health bar a ways.

With more progress being made, Awateru didn't waste any time scanning the area for their next target. It seemed she wouldn't have to wait for that long, as Rithe was immediately set upon by another one of them. Perhaps all of the killing they had done earlier was turning the boar pups aggressive on them. Pointing at the boar, she did her best to intimidate it. "Hey, pick on someone you might knock down." She knew the boar was not going to respond to her threat, so she did her best to make it seem like she was encouraging Rithe at the same time. She knew that Rithe could take the hits much better than herself, and wanted to make that fact known. Of course, she didn't wish to outright compliment her right now. She charged up and punched the boar, causing it to roll down a hill. It wasn't dead, but it wasn't going to be charging full speed anymore.

The old man backed off a little bit to let Awateru vent out the rage she had held within her for this long. Pain rushed through her mind as she pummeled the rock, cracks were starting to go down the length of it now as it threatened to fall apart. Her anger continued to go unchecked, and there was almost a sense of guilt for beating this rock up for so long now. As that feeling sunk in, the old man approached once more.

"This is what it feels like after you have finished your revenge. You will feel immeasurable guilt for the pain you brought about. No matter what your goals are, you cannot run abandon a set of morals."

The realization was painfully obvious to Awateru now. She had been frantically searching for her sisters this whole time. All she needed to do now was wait and her sisters would likely come to her.

Though Awateru watched as Rithe wasn't quite able to take out the boar pup with her punch, she didn't want to hesitate any longer. They were finally having a break in their luck and she didn't want it to end now. Without any hesitation, Awateru quickly finishes off this pup and excitedly looks around to find that there was indeed another tusk in the grass. It was exhilarating to know that the two of them were almost done with this quest that had been taking up so much time. It was strange just how much that little break seemed to do for them. "One more to go, let's see if we can get it on the way back." Awateru gave a look at the buff she had received from Rithe's potion. There was no timer on it, so she figured it must either be for a hidden length of time or just stay there until she was no longer needing it.

Not the best design choice, but an understandable one for a game about immersion more than anything.

With another boar down, Awateru quickly made her way towards finding another one. The two of them were able to start making leaps and bounds of progress now with their streak of bad luck over. It shouldn't be long now until they were able to finish the quest entirely. Hopefully the amount of boars that they had taken down would count towards something. It was a long hope, but could still be real. She spotted another one. Without warning, she gave it a punch. It was a little off center though as she had surprised even herself with it. The boar pup recoiled from the attack, but it was still alive. Hopefully Rithe would be able to finish it off. If they weren't able to, she could probably finish it off if she got one more lick in. Maybe she should go get some actual training with her weapons before continuing to use them.

Awateru is glad to finally have found a third tusk, though there would still be a few more to go. There was another quick ambush on a boar. It didn't go down as easily, though it seemed to already be hurting. Whether or not they were able to kill it didn't matter at this point. What did matter would be whether or not they continued to get tusks from killing boars. Their morale had received a nice boost, but it could fall back down just as quickly. There was still a gleam in her eyes as she punched the boar, letting it squeal in pain. It felt good to have something so easy to vent the frustration of the quest on, and she was further invigorated by their recent finds. She gave an almost evil smile towards Rithe. "How about we take quite a few out before we get back to town." Perhaps she was enjoying this a little bit too much.

@Rithe

"So be it. Let's at least fight a few boars on our way back. If you don't want to join into combat I don't mind. I'll still fight a few on the way back." With that in mind, Awateru quickly got up and checked that the damage buff was still there. Seeing that it was, she rushed over to a nearby boar and gave it a punch. It didn't see it coming and was instantly vaporized by the punch. "These thing are quite weak once you know how to hit 'em" She searched around, thinking she wouldn't find a tusk. To her surprise, there was one laying on the ground. "And we can finally increase our progress. How about we find a few more boars while we head back." It was nice to finally see their streak of bad luck had ended. She had bonded a bit with Rithe, though was still unsure how much she could trust them.

Awateru decided to sit down and rest her legs for a bit while Rithe got a nap. She made sure to glance around every now and then to make sure nothing would come and interrupt their break. Rithe was able to sleep uninterrupted, and Awateru got some rest of her own. As Rithe got herself up, she could tell that they were embarrassed for falling asleep on the fields. After letting them wake up a bit, Awateru did her best to console her. "Don't worry about falling asleep, we've been at this for hours. If you want to head back towards town and take this on later just ask. I'll finish this quest with you, but I don't want you to die because you're too exhausted." She did want to move forward, but not at the cost of other's lives. There was a shadow for her to escape, but it was only there to keep her in darkness. "Just let me know what you're up for and we can go for it. Whatever you need right now."

@Rithe

Soon after the latest of the boars was taken down. Awateru noticed that she wasn't the only one flustered about the situation at hand. Picking herself up, she noticed Rithe coming closer, but fainting on the way too her. It seemed as if she was going to say something, but didn't make it out in time before going down. She did her best to catch the falling avatar, but was unable to make it in time. Cursing her short stature, Awateru lifted Rithe's head off of the ground. Performing a little bit of first aid on her, she did her best to heal any damage the fall may have caused. It was unlikely that that height would count as fall damage, but she had never wanted to test it. The two of them had been hunting boars for far too long now, and they both knew it. Grabbing a few of the random junk items that had piled up into her inventory, Awateru made a makeshift pillow out of boar hides for Rithe to rest on. It wasn't much, but she let her rest until she was ready to move again.

@Rithe

Awateru watched the battle intensely, not wanting to miss a single moment of it. This time around, there would be no holding back. It was time that the two of them finally finished things once and for all, at least on this boar. She knew there was at least three more to go, and was ready to take them down. She waited for the opportune moment, when the two of them would split up. Without warning, she jumped in and struck like a snake. The boar pup didn't stand a chance. Without any warning, it vanished into pixels. She tried to find a tusk while she recovered from the poor tumbling that came afterwards, but once again came up short. "This is not going well for us, is it?" Though her voice was filled with anger, she was not directing it towards Rithe. She wanted to direct towards whoever the idiot was that programmed this quest.

(OOC: No actual hard feelings towards whoever wrote this quest, just having a terrible string of luck)

With this boar down, Awateru worked her gaze around until she found another. She still wasn't entirely sure how to punch these things that well, but it seemed that whatever she was doing was working. At least, it was working so far as to take out the boars. She was still having trouble finding any tusks with Rithe, and was getting frustrated to no end in their search for it. She thought about taking a break from killing boars, but discarded the idea. She wanted to get this done quickly. She wanted to push herself to the front lines and prove she could be useful to her sisters. She was sick and tired of being seen in someone else's shadow and if she didn't do this, than she would likely be stuck on the first floor until she was free from this game. It was time that Awateru to cast her own shadow.

Awateru watched as Rithe was finally able to finish off the boar with a punch of her own. She tightened up her wraps again and saw a boar pup trying to charge at Rithe. Not wanting to let her get knocked over after finally getting a good achievement, Awateru didn't hesitate to punch it right in the side. Without any warning, it just burst into pixels. She kept quiet, only wanting to draw attention to it if Rithe noticed the attack. She likely heard it, but didn't want to brag to her about it. It would make for a fun story one day, but the only people she truly wished to brag to was her older sister if she could find her again. She looked at the grass quickly for a tusk, though sad that there wasn't one it meant she wouldn't need to draw attention as there was still no sign of progress in this fight. She considered drinking her own potion, though doubted that the effects would stack.

Tsuisuta watched as Rithe and the boar pup they were currently facing traded blows. She began to pull back for an attack, but decided to let Rithe get the kill. She had two reasons for doing so. The first was that she wanted to make sure Rithe was getting her fair share of weight pulled. Though she could almost certainly have soloed this and carry Rithe through it, she wanted to make sure that they didn't lose too much hope in the fight and concede everything to her. There would come a time that she would actually need Rithe and wanted her to be confident then. The other reason she wanted to do it was because Rithe appeared to have much better luck in finding tusks off of the boars than she. It was an interesting dichotomy. She could kill the boars with ease, but Rithe was the one that had found the tusks easier. She remained silent, not wanting RIthe to catch on that she was letting her get the killing blow.

Though the boars without tusks seemed to be unending, Awateru did what she could to not lose hope. She could see Rithe's movements slowing down, almost coming to a halt. They were beginning to just go through the motions of taking down these boars, and neither of them were really caring as to how it would end. She didn't want to let that stop her though, she did her best to summon up more energy to keep throwing punches at the boar pups that they found. She managed to connect one and hit it square in the jaw. After knocking it aside, Awateru hoped that Rithe could finish it off. Though she knew she stood a fairly good chance to beat this quest on her own, she wanted Rithe to feel useful in their endeavors. She remained silent though, not wanting to seem like she was just giving Rithe a chance. She did her best to make the help feel completely genuine and necessary.

With the boar losing it's focus to the new attacker, Awateru made sure that she was able to position herself behind it. She threw a punch straight at its backside and stumbled as it shattered with barely any resistance. She felt bad wasting such a powerful blow on the creature already so low on health, but this quest was beginning to frustrate her more than anything had. She looked around and to her dismay still couldn't find a tusk. "I don't what it is with this quest, but it's certainly not going to be treating us fairly." She began to look for another boar pup as she got up and dusted herself off from her fall. She wanted this to be over quickly, but there didn't seem to be an end in sight.

Let's just hope that this is a string of bad luck and not us doing something wrong the whole time. I don't know how simpler of a quest this could be.

Awateru didn't waste any time with this boar down, taking the opportunity to engage the boar pup this time. She quickly singled one out and lunged towards it. It was caught off guard and Awateru was able to give it a swift blow to its side. She didn't take it out, but it was already hurting quite a bit from the blow. Hopefully Rithe would be able to finish it off. She seemed to be getting lucky recently, so it was possible. If not, it seemed that Awateru might finally be taking a solid hit. She braced herself and made sure to leave an opening for Rithe to sneak in for the attack.

Let's see what you are actually made of this time, shall we. Or are you going to keel over and die to the lightest blow, like all the others before you.

She didn't know why she was silently taunting it, but it did help her keep a concentrated face on even though this quest was draining her.

"So then I guess the mask stays on."

"If you listen, I can give you the hands to take it off yourself."

"I don't feel that that is necessary right now. Why not just leave the mask on."

"Leave it on and you will be stuck wallowing in your own feelings. THere will be no one you can go to. All they will know is the mask, not the person you truly are."

Awateru punched the rock with her still building frustration.

"Fine, then I'll solve my problems myself. I don't need advice from someone who won't give any that is useful."

"Your problems will not go away on their own, even if you address them the mask must first go before the emotions behind it can. Though you feel that you are releasing them, you are only showing what is behind the mask and letting it drain a little before putting it back on."

"So be it."

With all these thoughts in her mind, Awateru threw her fist into the rock and felt it shudder. She still didn't want to acknowledge how right the man was. Though she took the idea to heart, she didn't wish to fully embrace it. Instead she wanted to finally take on the old man himself.

"So if I'm just wearing a mask, than why don't you try and rip it off of me."

"The mask of emotions is not like a physical mask. Though it can be ripped off by someone else, the amount of restraint required by them may be greater than the will of the masked. There is benefit in tearing it off of another, but they will break or reach for the mask again to cover up the shred of their identity."

"Than rip my mask off, I don't care."

"And that is precisely why I will not rip it off. If you don't care for the mask, than why do you still wear it wherever you go."

Whether it was the quest or just shoddy luck, Awateru wanted to push on. She felt it was time that she coudl find herself something to show her sisters when she did finally find them. "I don't know, but if it is broken I don't know how others have supposedly finished it." There was little they could do except maybe reset the quest, but at least they seemed to be getting some experience from killing these boar pups. "I'm really not that much stronger, just got myself some gear from one of the player run shops. I'd tell you which, but the name escapes at the moment." Awatertu was beginning to warm up a little with Rithe, but still didn't want to get too comfortable with her. She let her go ahead and try to prove herself against another boar, not wanting to just carry all of the weight and make Rithe apologize.

Awateru let Rithe get her own hit in, not wanting to hurt herself hitting back to back with her fists. Though they seemed to be effective, she was unsure whether or not she could cause harm to herself with them. She hadn't seen her health bar drain from it, but she was definitely feeling the impacts she was causing. Once Rithe had struck the boar, she went in and threw another punch at the boar. Maybe it was the potion helping or just her getting a little lucky, but Awateru didn't feel like it was that hard to hit the boar this time. It shattered like all the others, and Awateru looked around for a tusk. She double checked, but there was none to be found. "Either we're doing something wrong, or this quest is bugged out. Now I really wish that there was a way to at least contact customer support, then maybe we could get this thing fixed." Even if this quest did have some issues, Awateru was surprised with how polished the game was for being the first of its kind.

"If there wasn't a mask, then there would be no turmoil. You do not show what you don't wish others to see, and try to suppress that which you don't want them to see. The feeling is still there, and you must face it. You do not need to show others the struggle, but you must recognize it yourself."

The old man's words cut deep. Awateru knew he was right, but couldn't fathom doing something else. She threw another punch at the rock, not wanting to drop her frustration. She knew that she was trying to hide the pain, hide the suffering. But everything she did only served to make it greater. She wished to have the feeling go away, that feeling of worthlessness. All she knew was being shunned by others for not matching her sister's greatness. All she could picture was her sister in the spotlight while she just stood in the wings. She wanted to have her chance to shine, but all she could picture was her sister being above her.