Oscar

With one of the enemies stunned, Oscar's first thought was to hammer them as hard as he could while they were down. But there was just something about the way their counterpart moved that seemed to establish him as a more immediate threat. Oscar planted his feet and swung into the enemy, Tessleth's Fury taking on a violet glow as his Explode Catapult Sword Art began to spool up. Black flames licked at the blade, indicated that the Fallen enhancements on the weapon had activated. Much to his chagrin, however, the warrior parried his blow just as the burst of black flame radiated out from the weapon. The motion sent the explosion back into Oscar's face, taking a heft chunk out of his health bar. It had been a while since Oscar had last been hit so hard. Nevertheless, it didn't put him in the danger zone. All he had to do was trust his Battle Healing and keep swinging.

So first things first. Oscar had to take care of Uso-Tsuki's Bodyguards - Difendā and Purotekutā - before he could finish the quest. Freyd hadn't mentioned anything untoward about that particular phase of the quest, but Oscar decided to err on the side of caution anyway. Oscar strolled up to the quest location and looked around. He couldn't really see anyone, but deciding that he didn't want anyone to get the drop on him, he activated Parry. As soon as the hexagonal barrier flashed around his avatar, a hulking armor-clad man came screaming out of the shadows, blade flashing in the sunlight. Oscar's axe flipped up, easily deflecting the oncoming attack. In one fluid motion, Oscar grabbed the brute by the face and slammed him backwards into the ground. At that moment, a second warrior came screaming into the fray, but missed its drop-attack gloriously. Oscar hopped back, placing both warriors in his cross-hairs. Guess it was time to get this going.

"Gives new meaning to the word fast food," Oscar said in response to Freyd's seagull comments. The real issue was running into any flying whales. Oscar was certain that Aincrad had them. Just as certain as he had been about Spider Pockets. He didn't have much time to consider the option of running into an airborne whale before the gunpowder inside the cannon was ignited and he was sent screaming through the air at impossible speeds. The ocean below was just a deep blue blur as he rocketed from the cove back towards the docks. All too quickly, the town came into view. Oscar's aim had been true. A little too true, actually. He found himself on a collision course for the quest NPC that was still waiting on the edge of the docks for his ship. Oscar contorted himself in the air, hoping to slow himself down to not slam smack into the poor fellow. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Oscar came to a sudden stop when his entire body came into contact with the NPC. A purple <<IMMORTAL OBJECT>> tag popped up as Oscar collapsed to the ground in a heap. He shook the stars from his eyes and tossed the half-burnt hunk of wood towards the captain. "Here's your ship. Pirates won't be bothering you anymore." Apparently, that technically completed the quest. Oscar was assaulted with a blast of confetti and an off-key honk of a kazoo. Conglaturation, the window before him said. "This quest is drugs."

Without a word, Oscar hoisted one of the cannons into a ready position. The fact that he was lifting several tons of steel like it was a mere feather was not lost on him. It was almost hilarious in its absurdity. With a dull thunk, the cannon was slammed down. Oscar turned to face the horizon, getting a bead on their heading and then slowly adjusted the barrel by nudging the entire thing with his foot. He repeated the process with the second cannon and held out his hand to the side. As if summoned from the ether, several undamaged barrels of gunpowder landed in his open palm, perfectly stacked on top of one another. He divided their contents into the cannon barrels and then ran a long fuse. Long enough that they would have enough time to clamber in. "Alright, let's do this!" Without any further ado, Oscar stuffed himself into his cannon and waited with giddy excitement to be exploded out towards the horizon.

At Freyd's question, Oscar began to scan the ruins of the two ships strewn all over the beach. After a short search, Oscar eventually found a plank with the name of the ship carved into it. Unbreakable, it was called. Ironic, given how exploded it was. Maybe that only applied to the plaque that contained the name? Either way, Oscar plucked it from the sand and added it to his inventory. "Quest didn't say we had to return it all in one piece, bud." With that out of the way, the more pressing concern was upon them. How were they supposed to get back? This cove was in the middle of the "sea" and they had no method of crossing the ocean to get back. Oscar supposed that they could cobble together some sort of dinghy out of the materials that were strewn about. As he thought on his options, inspiration struck. Or, perhaps, buried itself in the sand. Two massive cannons fell from the heavens and landed with a loud crash. Hearkening back to his experience with the zombies during one of the Halloween events, Oscar knew just what to do. "So, fancy being shot out of a cannon?"

If he hadn't been stunned, Oscar would have laughed. He dropped to one knee, this time a bit taken off guard over the incoming stun. He'd let Bahr have his moment to vent out his anger. The irony of him claiming he'd gotten where he was on his own power while berating him for not turning to his allies was not lost on Oscar, however. Had he not been robbed of his speech, he would have vocalized that. The stun would fade in a few seconds. He just needed to wait out the timer. He figured that, inevitably, it would have always came to this. Bahr was far too stubborn to see the merits in any course of action that he didn't decide upon. Arguing further would serve no purpose. You cannot argue with someone who assumes themselves to be in the right.

As Oscar glowered down at Burlock, the tiny sliver of health that the pirate had managed to remove from his health bar immediately regenerated. He watched as the smug self-satisfied look on Burlock's face melt away into one of horror. Oscar produced a handkerchief from his pocket and began wiping the soot off of his face, somehow maintaining eye contact with the pirate caught beneath his feet. Burlock began to thrash and claw at the sand, desperate for purchase to extricate himself from the madman that was applying several hundred pounds of pressure to his chest cavity. Oscar took his time, content in the knowledge that the pirate wasn't going anwhere to clean himself up. Then, he dropped the soot-stained rag to the ground and let it shatter like glass. "Ya dun fucked up," were the last words Burlock would hear as Tesseleth's Fury removed his head from his shoulders. The pirate shattered like glass and was no more. Oscar turned to Freyd with a grin. "Because I am the badass in this relationship."

"And one murderer can't possibly approach the numbers that five murderers can kill," Oscar replied flatly. "It's simple math Bahr. If I am a bigger threat than Tyson's network, then taking me out is a simple matter. It's easier to kill one man than it is to kill five." Oscar had to bite back the urge to sardonically explain the concept of five being a greater number than one to Bahr. "You seem to have it in your head that I'm some hand-wringing cartoon villain. People - real people - are more complicated than that. Tyson is more complicated than that. But he is predictable. You have to understand that I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. I haven't made any plans beyond a willingness to kill him if I get a chance." Oscar shrugged, absentmindedly twirling his weapon in his hand. "I'm just making the best of the situations as they come. But the goal has always been protecting the people I care about. If I have to kill to do it, that's what I have to do. If you come to hate me for it, then hate me. At least you'll be alive to do it."

Just like with the last round of grunts, the party had been able to whittle them down to the point that Oscar was able to clean up with a single Area of Effect attack. His weapon lashed out in all directions, seemingly all at once. A level of speed that shouldn't have been possible with such a massive weapon whipped up something of a tempest. Jagged stone was thrown in all directions, a storm of shrapnel that punctured the undead assembled before them - honestly doing more damage than the blade of his axe did. Two more fell, two drops in the bucket compared to the endless hordes of undead swarming them. Despite that, the party was doing well at keeping them at bay and giving them all the breathing room they needed to perform their best impression of a blender. Oscar didn't have any words to say. They didn't need it. Most of them were perfect strangers and yet they had created a well-oiled monster-slaying machine. It was almost enough to bring a tear to his eye.
 

"Did you just call me Mike Tyson?" Oscar asked, cocking one eyebrow as he tilted his head to the side. A chuckle rose from his breast as he shook his head. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist." Oscar planted his back foot and drove the blade of his axe into Bahr's gut. His weapon caught, but on the follow through, he was able to send the Crimson Marauder flying. As Bahr bit the dust Oscar capitalized on his momentum, planting his foot firmly upon Bahr's back and holding the edge of his weapon to the man's neck. "I'd be offended that you think so little of me if it wasn't a natural logical conclusion. It would rather defeat the purpose of killing Tyson if I then turned on the people I'm trying to protect from him." With that, Oscar stepped off of Bahr's back and removed his blade from his throat. It was important to him that Bahr listened to his words. If Oscar were being honest, he was a bit disappointed that it was fear motivating Bahr's decision rather than something a bit more... grand. "You're right though. I didn't have to kill them. I did want it. Aincrad's a little bit safer for it. That's one less noob that gets killed by them. Prisons aren't impregnable. And Tyson's good at mind games. I wouldn't have gone for this option if I hadn't already considered alternatives."

After what felt and seemed like an eternity, Oscar was finally able to regain his composure. He plucked his weapon from the ground and rose back to his full height just in time to see Lessa get slapped around like a ragdoll by the massive hulking brute in front of them. Oscar blinked slowly, watching Lessa fly into the air and get swatted back down to earth by a massive meaty hand. That's gratuitous, he thought. Oscar hadn't expected Lessa to get rocked like that so early into the fight. He had hoped that they would at least have time to set up their Parries and Switch before things went completely sideways. He took a steadying breath as the gears turned in his head. On the one hand, he could try to get a Hate lead and take the boss's attention. But they would simply be back at square one if Oscar wound up having the misfortune of getting clobbered like that. Stick to the plan, he thought with some measure of resolve. We can rally.

Oscar spun his weapon around in his hand, the axe and his body becoming briefly cloaked in pale blue aura. Parry activated. Hopefully Lessa she still had plenty of health left and the chance that the boss would have enough left in the tank to deliver a second punishing blow to the blonde was unlikely. "Hold what you got, Lessa! Just a little bit of a tank test before we get into the real fight!"
 

"If this is truly how you feel, it's in my best interest not to let you roam free. It is not your place to play judge, jury, and executioner. It's not the place of any one man. If this is your 'true nature,' so be it. But its not one that I, in good conscience, can willingly subject Aincrad to."

"And if he came after Lessa? What then? Would you simply reason with him?" Oscar didn't budge or move to attack. Even with Concentration active to attempt to pierce the shadows, Oscar just couldn't get a clear bead on Bahr's blurry form. Besides, his question would cut more deeply than his blade ever could. "It's easy for you to sit there and judge when it's not someone you care about in the crosshairs. A friend's head at your feet. Are you sitting there and telling me that if it had been Lessa at the end of that blade that we would be having this same conversation? If you are, you're a fucking liar. You can't willingly subject Aincrad to me? What are you going to do Bahr? Have you been paying attention to this duel? Our health bars have barely budged. Most you could ever hope to be is a nuisance, not a deterrent. So I'll ask you again. Are you content with watching everyone in the Guild die?"

With the small fry dealt with, everything seemed like it was coming to a close. The pirates had either left this mortal coil by merit of alcohol poisoning or acute metal toxicity. Some even lost their jewels in the process. But just as Oscar was ready to head back, the quest tracker updated with one final target. Burlock, the Quartermaster walked through the chaos with a certain level of calm. Blade and pistol at the ready, it was almost as if he were parting the ocean the way the crew members flailed in every direction but his as he approached. Truly, this was a fearsome enemy.

A fearsome enemy that Oscar immediately drop-kicked and slammed Tesseleth's Fury into while he was down. The stars aligned and all of his damage-boosting enhancements applied to the unfortunate officer at the same time. Oscar put his foot on the pirate's chest to hold him down. The force of his sudden impact jostled the flintlock pistol out of Burlock's hand. Oscar grabbed it from the air as it fell and took aim at the pirate's legs. Two shots rang out in quick succession and both of Burlock's kneecaps were destroyed by a pair of musket balls. "Git 'im!"

It would seem that I have struck a nerve, Oscar thought as he shoved against the tree and impaled in the chest. Pain dampeners did little to stop the small jolt of panic that shot through his body at the sensation of something foreign being shoved somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. His mask cracked, if only a little, as he winced reflexively. Bahr launched into his tirade, blaming Oscar for this entire thing. Expected and factual. Oscar wouldn't have opened the door if he didn't expect Bahr to follow him in. Even if it was something Oscar had been all too cognizant of, it still stung to hear it verbalized with the level of vitriol that Bahr was spewing at him. Nevertheless, he didn't utter a word as Bahr spoke. Dusk's Demise, the only thing keeping him from slumping to the ground, was removed. Oscar fell. He lingered for a moment. This whole thing could have been avoided if he'd just gone to the Monument to verify. But, what reason did he have? And, more importantly, how did he know that he would have been able to find Tyson before whatever drove him to his madness swallowed him up completely?

Oscar slowly rose to his feet, dusting himself off. His glasses had been completely destroyed in Bahr's last attack. He tossed the mangled frames from his face. As they clattered to the ground, the shades shattered like glass - reduced only to dust and fragments of data. For the first time during this entire engagement, Bahr and Oscar looked each other in the eyes. Bahr's gaze was fierce and determined - as one would expect from someone trying to make his friend see reason. Oscar's, however, were utterly devoid of the omnipresent exuberance he had once shared with everyone who crossed his path. An icy fire blazed within them, indicative of the wrath burning in his chest. Flames that burned away all guilt or afterthought from what he'd done. What he was about to do.

"Did you think telling me things I already knew was going to make me fall to my knees and beg forgiveness?" Oscar made no fanciful moves. No cunning jabs. His strike crashed like thunder, fast as lightning. A deep bloody gash was carved across Bahr's chest. With his attack done, he thrust the butt of his axe into the ground. He crossed his arms over his chest as the skies overhead began to darken. He clicked his tongue and looked up. "Cardinal setting the scene, I suppose," he said flatly. With a resigned shake of his head, Oscar turned his gaze back to the Crimson Marauder. "My only regret is deceiving everyone I've met in this game. The Oscar you met was a carefully constructed facade to hide my weakness. Weakness brought about by rejecting my nature. Do you know what I did when they killed my friend? I could have began and ended with the one that pulled the trigger. But I didn't. I killed all five of them. One-by-one. I hunted them down for sport and when it was all over, I felt nothing. I didn't even care to remember their names. And this is what I've always been. A beast who cares only for its own survival. A beast who has no need for forgiveness. A beast who has no need for allies who lack the stomach to do the sensible thing and neutralize the threat in. it's. entirety. I never claimed to be perfect. I'm simply no longer denying what I am. And I am the one who will meet blood with blood."

Oscar picked up his weapon and readied himself for the next round. At that moment, lightning lit up the sky as rain began to fall upon them. A bolt struck the tree that served as the backdrop for their battle, its heat lightning the branches ablaze. The tree became the only light in the darkness, its orange glow washing over them. A fitting scene for a fight like this.

3 hours ago, Sv3n said:

Chocolate Beans

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Chocolate Beans
Your Profession: Cook
Your Rank: 6
Roll ID: [ID 173293]
Roll Result: CD: 9 (+1), LD: 5 
Item Type: Desserts
Tier: Tierless
Quality: Rare
Enhancements: ACC II
Description: Various differently colored beans. They're coated with chocolate and in fact just bean-shaped cookies.
Post Link: Here

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Chocolate Beans
Your Profession: Cook
Your Rank: 6
Roll ID: [ID 173013]
Roll Result: CD: 10 (+1), LD: 5
Item Type: Desserts
Tier: Tierless
Quality: Rare
Enhancements: ACC II
Description: Various differently colored beans. They're coated with chocolate and in fact just bean-shaped cookies.
Post Link: Here

Chase's Meal Special

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Chase's Meal Special
Your Profession: Cook
Your Rank: 6
Roll ID: [ID 173298]
Roll Result: CD: 10 (+1), LD: 11
Item Type: Meal
Tier: Tierless
Quality: Rare
Enhancements: EVA II
Description: A special recipe made specifically for Chase. It's a few crisp chicken nuggets with honey slathered all over them and a bit of rice to pair along with them with various bits of vegetables, mostly corn and peas. It's incredibly mouth watering.
Post Link: Here

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Chase's Meal Special
Your Profession: Cook
Your Rank: 6
Roll ID: [ID 173296]
Roll Result: CD: 9 (+1), LD: 9
Item Type: Meal
Tier: Tierless
Quality: Rare
Enhancements: EVA II
Description: A special recipe made specifically for Chase. It's a few crisp chicken nuggets with honey slathered all over them and a bit of rice to pair along with them with various bits of vegetables, mostly corn and peas. It's incredibly mouth watering.
Post Link: Here

Apple Pie

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Apple Pie
Your Profession: Cook
Your Rank: 6
Roll ID: [ID 173294a]
Roll Result: CD: 12 (+1), LD: 19
Item Type: Snack 
Tier: Tierless
Quality: Perfect
Enhancements: LD III 
Description: A slice of apple pie, with honey, a crispy crust and weave-like texture. It's as by the books as it gets.
Post Link: Here

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Apple Pie
Your Profession: Cook
Your Rank: 6
Roll ID: [ID 173294b]
Roll Result: CD: 12 (+1), LD: 19
Item Type: Snack 
Tier: Tierless
Quality: Perfect
Enhancements: LD III 
Description: A slice of apple pie, with honey, a crispy crust and weave-like texture. It's as by the books as it gets.
Post Link: Here

Treasure-Chest Candies

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Treasure-Chest Candies
Your Profession: Cook
Your Rank: 6
Roll ID: [ID 173294c]
Roll Result: CD: 12 (+1), LD: 19
Item Type: Desserts
Tier: Tierless
Quality: Perfect
Enhancements: PROS III
Description: Some small pieces of candy all shaped like treasure chests, filled with caramel, vanilla or strawberry cream. Surprisingly tasty.
Post Link: Here

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Treasure-Chest Candies
Your Profession: Cook
Your Rank: 6
Roll ID: [ID 173295]
Roll Result: CD: 11 (+1), LD: 4
Item Type: Desserts
Tier: Tierless
Quality: Perfect
Enhancements: PROS III
Description: Some small pieces of candy all shaped like treasure chests, filled with caramel, vanilla or strawberry cream. Surprisingly tasty.
Post Link: Here

 

If one had to describe Freyd's tussle with the pirates, one would have to first hearken back to the first days of animation. It had been very difficult to animate choreographed fracases with any semblance of realism. Ergo, cartoon shorthand became just a dust cloud accompanied by a cacophony of sounds and squeals. With that being the industry standard, anything else simply wasn't worth the effort and was prohibitively expensive. So it was basically one of those old-fashioned chaotic messes a la Tom and Jerry.  So much the better as it thinned the herd. But once Oscar saw where Freyd's blade had landed on Amir, he could only recoil visibly.

"Come on now, man. You didn't have to hack off his Pieces of Eight!"

Oscar dashed forward and lopped of the heats of Amir and the two closest Deckhands to him, while leaving the survivor in a terrible state. A mercy kill. No man should have to go out like that, NPC or no.

1. Oscar

2. Male

3. A Lady

4. 

@Koga Order ready for pickup

1 Azrael Dog - Tierless Meal [2 Protein]

Oscar realized that Bahr was being facetious as he lauded Oscar's intelligence. If this was the best the Crimson Marauder could do when it came to trying to get under Oscar's skin, he was failing tremendously. Even knocking him into low orbit didn't really shake the man. He allowed his upward velocity to slow came down just as swiftly for a landing. He alighted gracefully, taking a moment in the middle of their encounter to stab his weapon into the dirt and adjust his collar and sleeves. Once he was satisfied with his appearance, he plucked his weapon from the ground and spun it up into a ready position. "Yeah, yeah. You can be as sarcastic as you want. It's not going to un-kill my friend. Tyson's not going to stop coming for you because you're a dumbass." The Beast rushed forward, closing the gap between himself and Bahr in the blink of an eye. The Crimson Marauder was in a ready position, but it would scarcely matter. His face was already in the dirt with an axe lodged between his shoulder blades before the synapses in his brain could begin to formulate a response.

"You have failed at nearly everything you've set out to do. The Guild? Defunct. Pinball? Still alive. Kirbs? She died alone with nothing but Pinball's spear in her chest to keep her company. Even if you had the guts to do what needed to be done, do you even have the ability? Do you really think you can change my mind?" Oscar ripped his weapon out of Bahr's back and braced himself for the attack that would be soon to follow. "Your extensive history of fucking it up makes me doubt that."

Crafting on 10/15/2020 - Crafter's Respite used

Preparations were set and it was time to get rolling. The group filed out of Oscar's home and took their own routes to town. Oscar's hadn't been the fastest, so he found himself arriving on the field just after Haine's attack. Cleave was king here and of all the people in the group, Oscar had the strongest. Oscar closed the distance between himself and the Diseased Ones with a powerful leap, his sudden acceleration leaving a scar in the earth. He sailed through the air in a high arc, his weapon materializing in his hand with a flash of light and a hail of fractal polygons. Oscar spun the weapon over his head swiftly as he began his descent, driving the blade into the ground as he landed. The sudden burst of kinetic energy triggered a storm of slicing stone and earth, perforating the enemies in his immediate vicinity. He ripped his weapon from the ground and cleared the storm of dust he'd created with a mere slice from his weapon. "Keep it moving. Don't give them time to rally!"

2 hours ago, Benjamin Bookworm said:

10/14/2020 crafting

  Hide contents

Name: Undaunted Spirit Crystal
ID: 172588-1, 172588-2, 172588-3, 172595-1, 172595-2, 172595-3
Item Type: Crystal
Tier: [Tierless] (T1)
Quality: Perfect
Enhancements: Mass HP Recovery
Description: A yellow crystal that shines with a bright light, like a ray of hope.

Name: Lesser Edge Shard
ID: 172592-1, 172592-2, 172593-1, 172593-2, 172594, 172596-1, 172596-2, 172596-3
Item Type: Crystal
Tier: 1
Quality: Uncommon
Enhancements: Damage (1)
Description: A orange crystal with sharp edges.  It shines in the sunlight. 

 

Approved

As the pirate officers arrived on the scene, Oscar got this party started right with an Explode Catapult. They had previously been barking at the pair in their Pirate-ese, but Oscar wasn't having any of it. He stepped into the midst of the officers and what little members of the crew that we're drop-dead drunk or drop-dead splattered by the explosion. Tesseleth's Fury moved in a wide arc, carving through flesh and cutlass alike as if they were butter. The heat from the explosion or the heat from his axe left nasty burns on a couple of them. Before they could turn their ire or their steel towards him, however, Oscar bounded back and handed the Killing Floor over to Freyd who had, indeed, survived the massive explosion that had heralded their entry. "Go get 'em champ. I softened 'em up for ya." Oscar stabbed the butt of his axe into the sands beneath his feet and shot finger guns at his companion. It was fun not to take serious situations seriously.