Oscar

And so it was, Oscar found himself scaling a mountain. Not the first mountain he’d climbed and certainly not the last. Sheer cliffs and deep ravines weren’t anything new to Oscar; it was standard fare when you dropped your house on the side of the mountain. Still, it was cold. Cold enough that even with his <<Survival>> Skill, he felt the chill. He supposed Cardinal wanted to make one work for their rewards. But the signs that this was a quest targeted at lower-level Players were showing through the cracks. After all, why would Cardinal place you up against dangerous monsters during a quest that involved you unlocking what would presumably be your first Weaponskill? That, and, a lower-level Player wouldn’t know that physics were kinda… broken. Which explained why Oscar ignored the ledge paint in favor of Skyrim Horsing up the side of the slope. Was it faster? Probably not. Was it funny? Definitely.

The day had finally come that Oscar was no longer SP-poor. In fact, he didn’t really know what to spend his remaining amount on. He could go down the path of First Aid as he had in the past, but he hadn’t got much use out of the skill and it would have been prohibitively expensive to invest in. In addition to the SP costs, but he would be stuck making the choice between a litany of other, arguably better, Extra Skills. If he was going to start spending his SP on something, it would be something he could get daily use out of. And so he scrolled through the list of locked Skills and Arts. Certainly there was something in there that would fit the bill. And then he found it. Apparently, there was a new TECH locked behind having Martial Arts unlocked. Oscar enjoyed the thought of blasting something in the face, but more than that an AoE stun on any weapon he used was a fantastic idea. 

Breaking the Unbreakable

Oscar found himself surprised that half of Jevi's sandwich hadn't wound up shattered on the floor. Maybe it was the first date jitters that gave her a startling mastery over one of Oscar's messier concoctions. He'd been known to surprise himself on such occasions. An impressive accomplishment regardless. He took a beat to look out over the waters. Opportunities to relax were few and far between. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't feeling the consequences of his actions. Who could have possibly foreseen that pushing away his closest friends and allies would result in not having any friends and allies for companionship? Certainly not Oscar.

"Grandmaster Cook," Oscar said. "I cannot understate the sheer level of farming I had to do to get there. I should tell you about the Spider Council at some point."

Oscar chuckled to himself. More of an inside joke than anything. He was pretty sure he had either been losing his everloving mind or running into some vestiges of Sundered Spire out in the wild. Still, spider pockets made for a fun story. Or, it would, if it didn't come off as the ravings of a crazed lunatic suffering from NerveGear-related psychosis. Still, there was only so many spiders a man could kill in virtual reality before it starts leaving its mark.

"You might be the fourth person I've met from the States. I'm from Boston," Oscar said. The coincidences continued to stack up. A girl recovering from a break up who lived a stone's throw from him. If they weren't stuck in the game, that might have made for an interesting meet-cute. "That's wild, Jevi. How certain are we that these match-ups were completely random?"

"We've got a heading then," Oscar said with some measure of excitement as he clapped his hands together. "Less information than I would have liked. Can't expect a solid tactical work-up from a bunch of scared kids, I suppose. Let's ride."

One quick jaunt to Lhasri later and Oscar stared up into the dark eyes of his chosen mount with trepidation. The color had all but drained from his cheeks. "Y'know. When I said 'let's ride,' I meant it metaphorically." Flashing back to his days mucking out stalls and shoveling manure, beads of sweat began to form on his brow. "I agree with the merits of the plan, but let it be known I go along with it under extreme duress." He took a steadying breath and - before he could talk himself out of it - clambered into the saddle. His shoulder throbbed as if it had just been struck - an echo from the first time he'd attempted to ride one of these beasts.

He took to being in the saddle like oil to water. Every synapse was screaming at him to abandon ship and his mind raced with every justification to go on foot instead. Oscar clamped his eyes shut, his fingers tightening around the horn of the saddle as he willed the intrusive thoughts silent. As the calm descended, he opened his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. He made no effort to apologize for his setback. Instead, he waited patiently for his two companions to mount up.

Together the three of them made for the nearest gate out of town. As they did, Oscar urged his mount to match the speed of Lessa's. "Ex-boyfriend?" Oscar asked. "That's rough. Sorry to hear." The conversation was doing some good. It was helping to keep Oscar from emptying the contents of his stomach over the side of his leg. Some people just didn't belong in certain places. Oscar simply did not belong in a saddle. Neither did Lessa belong in this posse. "I don't want you killing anyone unless absolutely necessary," Oscar said suddenly. "You're here. You care about the kids. I'm not going to turn you away. Freyd and I have more than enough bloodthirst to go around. You're not a monster so let's keep it that way. "

Oh, word?

It was a shocking turn of events. Oscar had expected this to happen any day now and he was still reeling. He'd held out some glimmer of hope that Tyson wouldn't go that far. That at least some level of restraint remained in the kid. 

He hates me, but there's no way he'd go after some grade-schoolers right?

Tyson isn't much older than they are.

He can't be that stupid.

But he did, it didn't matter, and yes, he is that stupid.

It was because of this, Oscar let the silence drag to allow the gravity of the situation to really sink in. What had happened and what needed to be done. He didn't doubt that Freyd would come to terms with it all in fairly short order. Lessa, on the other hand, was a different story. The blonde warrior was the personification of why Oscar broke ties. Some people don't need to be in situations like this. They deserve to be able to keep their hands clean. To do otherwise would destroy them. All of Tarot - with the exception of his former brother-in-arms - were such people. Oscar operated the way he did so that they didn't have to. Oscar was content being the only one torn apart by this. And so, after being confronted with the fact that this impromptu posse existed solely to kill, Oscar expected Lessa to balk, turn a blind eye, and do her best to come to terms with the fact that she chose not to act and allow lives to be snuffed out.

"Anyone fucked up enough to target orphans deserves to die."

What.

"Hold up," Oscar said. Without breaking his gaze from Lessa's, Oscar opened up his menu. A few quick presses and a pair of shades appeared in the air. He plucked them from the air and slapped them on his face. Then, in an exaggerated fashion, he leaned forward and lowered the shades down the bridge of his nose. "You're serious?" He paused, examining the steadfast resolve that had crept across her features. "Damn, you're serious." He tossed the sunglasses away and shrugged. "Okay. Wasn't expecting that."

The only problem that remained was finding them. It was all good and well that Lessa was ready to snatch some weaves on behalf of the kids, but it didn't mean a thing if they weren't able to find the people who needed swords buried in their chests. It was as if the universe had green-lit their hunt because no sooner had Oscar set himself to trying to figure that puzzle out, Freyd spoke up.

"I have something."

Turning on his heels, Oscar crossed the room calmly. He peered over Freyd's shoulder, craning his neck in an attempt to see what he'd found. He noticed Freyd was locked onto something across the room. His eyes flicked in that direction, then back to his friend.

"Whatcha got?"

Skill(s) Being Dropped: Katana R5 (30)
Mod(s)/Addon(s) Being Dropped: Precision (2), Ferocity (4), Stamina (4), Tech Shift (10)
SP Incurred Towards Limit: 50 SP
SP Refunded: 50 SP
Cost: 50,000

"Who is Tyson? What don't I know?"

"Several things," Oscar said quickly, his eyes flashing gold as he activated his Searching skill. He wouldn't put it past Tyson to leave a couple of bodies to keep tabs on Oscar, even if the tactic had failed so gloriously before. He quickly swept the room behind Lessa and paused to respond. "I don't have time to go into it all. Long and short of it is that I've got an entire guild of Player Killers gunning for me at the behest of a real-life associate. I'm surprised Bahr didn't tell you about it." He started to turn to face Freyd, but stopped himself. "Gunning for me and everyone in my immediate vicinity. " Oscar repeated  the same precaution behind the man.

"I'm sure he's smart enough to maintain an untraceable mod for himself, but the kids that should be here wouldn't have access to the same.  Even if he's clever enough to think that far ahead, he'd also assume that we'd assume that we'd be walking into a trap.  This is going to get messy."

Content that they were alone, Oscar finally lowered his guard a bit. Cracking a smile at the Whisper in the Shadows. "For Tyson, maybe. I wouldn't count the children out. Especially after I took the time to max out their Sneak skills."

The Orphanage was a prime target. An easy way to get under Oscar's skin if hit; truly too good a target to pass up. The children would be bait to draw Oscar in to wherever Tyson was in the most advantageous position possible. Smart money was on wherever the kid set up shop with his inner circle. "I expected something like this to happen at some point," Oscar said. "So I made a point to insure that the kids and caretakers weren't entirely defenseless. I think that, by now, Tyson will have realized he got more than he bargained for."

After all, the only thing worse than a bunch of hyperactive tykes was a bunch of invisible hyperactive tykes.

"And before either of you come at me with some 'child soldier' shit, take a minute and consider the alternative was them probably dying the minute we showed up to get them," Oscar quickly added.

"So, am I here to shatter him into a million pieces for you, or are we just getting the kids back?"

Rather than answer Freyd, Oscar turned back to face Lessa. "I want to be perfectly clear. We're moving out to kill a man today. Probably several. If you want to come along to make sure the children are safe, I know better than to try to stop you. But do so without letting your bleeding heart drip all over our shoes."

Thread Summary
Word Total - 7,601

Oji - 1267 EXP [Base Rewards], 300 EXP [EaL: Artisan], 89,276 Col [Farmed], 110,724 Col [From Oscar], 400 Col [Base Rewards], 36 Materials [Farmed], Jigen kōtai [Crafted Trinket ID: 202833]

Oscar - 10,133 EXP[Tier 8 EXP Rewards], 4 Demonic Shards
Random Dungeon Map - 201479a, 201479b, 201758a, 201758b
T4 Perfect Weapon - 200230a, 200230b, 201480b, 201481b, 201481c
T4 Perfect Armor/Shields - 200164a, 200164b, 201480a, 201481b  

Oscar rarely slept anymore and when he did, it was never for long. It seemed as if whenever he slept for more than a few hours, he had half a dozen fires to go put out. Such was the life of the man waging a war all on his own. Occasionally, however, his mind simply gave out on him and forced him to slumber. Exhaustion was his greatest enemy and it had a tendency to sneak up on him. And so, Oscar awoke from one of those involuntary deep sleeps. And, true to form, he was greeted by a cacophony of chimes as messages hit his conscious inbox the moment he was aware of his surroundings. The staccato chirping immediately had him rubbing his temples with his fingers in a vain effort to combat the headache that had so quickly been delivered to him. After what felt like hours, the sounds ceased, though the throbbing in his head remained. With a loud groan, Oscar peeled himself out of the booth in his shop that served as his bed and swiped open his menu.

A cursory glance over his inbox quickly put the throbbing pain in his head to the back burner. Without even opening them, Oscar dashed out of the building in a hurry. He zipped through the familiar streets of the Town of Beginnings, arriving at the Orphanage in short order. He blew through the front door and stepped into the main hall. Ruined furniture was scattered across the floor, dusted with shards of glass from the windows. There was not a soul to be found, child or caretaker. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Fuck."

This was Tyson's next move then. Oscar allies were too strong to face head on, so the boy moved on to the thing Oscar cared the most about. It was one hell of a blow. There was no way he could canvas over two dozen floors all on his own and Oscar didn't really have much faith that Tyson was above slaughtering children. He needed help. So he turned to the only person he could think to ask in a time like this. His menu was open and Oscar was typing before he even really had his bearings on the situation.

Quote

To: @Freyd

Floor One. Orphanage. Largest of Emergencies.

No sooner had Oscar hit "send," did he hear the crunching of glass behind him. His sword was in his hand - for what little good it would do in a Safe Zone - in a flash as he turned about. The black blade of the Vampire stopped mere inches from a very familiar face. Oscar clicked his tongue and put away his weapon.

"What do you want? Now's really not a good time, @Lessa," he said quickly.

Oscar was careful to give Oji ample time to get back to town before he started on his own meandering path back to town. He'd not seen much of his enemies since the incident on Floor 13. That being said, Tyson was too pragmatic to let Oscar go completely unobserved. The goal here being to avoid roping anyone into his personal war unnecessarily. Especially not a guy who had only just gotten his courage together enough to engage with the game. A swift dash carried him around to a farther entrance to town. It was closer to his shop and far enough to make any distant observer assume Oji and Oscar's paths hadn't crossed while both of them were away. As he crossed the threshold to his shop, he closed the door around him and breathed a sigh of relief. The stress was beginning to wear on him and he couldn't deny it. He couldn't be everywhere at once and working from the background was exhausting.

"Not much longer," Oscar reassured himself, his voice scarcely louder than a whisper. "Not much longer."

Oscar didn't sleep much these days and today's excitement had gassed him out. In the fading light of his shop, Oscar slumped into one of the booths and rested his head over his folded arms. The slow, steady breathing of the man was quickly the only sound that could heard in the dim light of the restaurant. For now, the Beast would rest.

Dumbstruck, Oscar watched as the scene before him played out. Had the Frontliners finally lost all semblance of sanity? Speaking to Gabrandr as they were was little different to speaking to a rock. It wasn’t real and any “sentience” it displayed was an insulting facsimile created by a very sophisticated AI. Bound to Cardinal and doomed to be wiped from existence the moment the servers shut down, Gabrandr constituted nothing more than an obstacle standing between the thousands of remaining Players and their freedom.

An obstacle they should have dispatched five minutes ago.

As Morgenstern and Raidou continued to belabor their points, Oscar’s incredulity quickly gave way to exasperation; exasperation to fury. Fury that built until, finally, he couldn’t keep his silence. With a smile on his face, he strode into the fore while sheathing his blade. He approached as if he were going to add something to the conversation directed at Gabrandr until, suddenly and swiftly, he turned on his heels to face the Raid.

“You all are aware that there are thousands of people outside that door waiting on us to kill this thing, right? So which one of us is going to sit down with little Sally from the Orphanage and explain to her that while she’s trapped in here missing her family, that we’re having morality debates WITH A FUCKING VIDEO GAME CHARACTER?!” For a moment, Oscar dropped all pretense. But like a flash in a pan, it subsided. Oscar took a brief pause to gather his composure. “The question was rhetorical,” he added in a deadpan voice. “I’m the one who has to explain this farce.”

He cast one look at Gabrandr, then back to the group. He was struggling to come to terms with the fact that people that he'd possessed no small measure of respect for had gotten themselves so swept up in things that they were talking to a construct like it could even really comprehend what was being said to it. As if its reactions weren't scripted. As if it could do anything beyond what Cardinal told it to do. They even made a point to highlight those facts and still treated this non-entity as if it was worth speaking to. “I get it. Gabrandr has a good story. A fallen king trying to liberate his people or whatever. Really tugs at the heartstrings. I can’t fault you for getting immersed into the video game. Hell, if it were a book I was reading in the comfort of my own living room, I might actually give a shit. But it’s not. And we have a job to do. Every single person trapped in here is depending on us to get them home. So where the fuck do you find the audacity to extend their suffering any more? Kill the bastard so we can all go home sooner.”

Oscar then turned his attention to Morgenstern, specifically. "And of all the absolute stupidity, you got this dumbass spouting nonsense like trusting a mob over another Frontliner. If that's how you feel, you got a teleport crystal. Fuck off. Don't sit here and act like you care about "a hundred actual players" when you're actively forestalling the escape of thousands with your inane debate. " Oscar let the last hang before finalizing his choice and rejoining his party. He had nothing more to say, nor would he spend further time defending his position. He would not allow himself to be sucked into argument and further propagate the very issue he'd brought into the light.

<KILL>

They were in the back half now. Oscar had expected some big phase transition at this point, but it had never come. He found the boss's attempts to mimic sentience and tug at the raid groups heartstrings amusing, though equally disappointed that people were responding to the nonsense as if the amalgamation of binary before them could even truly comprehend what was being said. Kayaba was successful in creating lifelike caricatures, but at the end of the day, they were just that. Once this boss was defeated, there would be nothing after for it. Outside of the lingering memory of the encounter left by the Players, the entity would have left no lasting mark. There was too much at stake for Oscar to allow himself to suspend his disbelief and get immersed in the game.

He calmly strode forward, through the chaos of the battlefield. He struck with a second Tech-C in the form of a wide horizontal slash. Once his attack had concluded, he promptly got out of the way for whoever else needed to take a plug out of this thing. Having regained something of a Hate lead, the situation wasn't as dire as before. Unless Lessa crit, he could breathe for now.
 

Chaos abound on the battlefield. A veritable clusterfuck of Players throwing themselves against the boss, frantically disabling explosive machinery, and - with this particular foe's mechanics - hoping to end it quickly. Gabrandr's blade had already shaved off a healthy portion of Oscar's health bar, even through his immense mitigation. If this turned to a war of attrition, the Frontliners simply wouldn't have the resources to deal with something with this much Phase.

Sprinkled into the combat was dialogue from the boss. Oscar tuned it out. He didn't know what the story was and, frankly, he didn't care. At the end of the day, it was just set dressing to him - an unwelcome distraction from attaining his goal. His concerns were for his party and himself, in that order. He didn't have the time or luxury to feel anything for the life story of the binary code standing in before them.

And speaking of his party, Oscar strode forward with a chilling calmness. He stepped past Lessa, tapping her on the shoulder as he did. "Ugzeke all over again, right?" He cracked a grin and dashed forward, baring steel for the first time in this encounter. With surgical precision, he buried his weapon deep into Gabrandr's should and in one fluid motion, kicked back off of the boss. Kyuketsuki wrenched free of the boss as he sailed backwards through the air, coming to a soft landing just ahead of the blonde warrior. "I'm going to need you to stop popping off for a sec so I can get a lead," Oscar said. "You're one crit away from catching another elbow drop."

Was it nerves that had Oscar hesitating? He'd wasted an entire window of opportunity to leap into the fray. Everything that had transpired in the moments since the fight began in earnest whipped by him like a blur. It couldn't be his nerves. He wasn't shaking. It couldn't be fear. His heart wasn't racing. Had he merely zoned out for a moment? Oscar had never been one to particularly enjoy the scripting that all of the bosses followed. He was already about as immersed in the game as one could be so all this grandstanding that the bosses tended to do just disengaged him from the task at hand. A weakness that he would need to correct moving forward. But, for now, he was here and he was in the moment.

It was time to get to work.

Oscar had never used Howl before. Was it a verbal trigger or just a button to be "pressed?" It was past time he found out. Activating the skill, a discordant roar ripped from his throat. The guttural noise could be heard keenly over the din of combat. Obviously by design. How would one be expected to get a boss's attention with a soft squeak? Oscar was on the board now and the boss would be forced to regard him, in terms of local threats, as the one he should stick his weapons into expediently. It was the best Oscar could hope for. He was a step closer to getting the situation under control so no one else in the party got Lessa'd.

"Let's head back so I can get this quest done, and then we might go to the tavern for a few drinks? It's the least I can do for saving my ass."

"That's... probably not the best idea," Oscar replied quickly. With all the people gunning for him - looking for any vulnerability to exploit - it wouldn't be a good idea for a newbie to be seen hanging with Oscar in public. The situation had escalated to the point where he doubted they would bother to hold a Oji hostage. Indeed, they would be far more likely to just kill him. It was one hell of a situation to be in. Couldn't be seen around him, nor could he really explain why that was. "You don't really want to be seen hanging around me right now. It's one thing to chitchat in some remote part of the forest, but there are far too many eyes in taverns. That being said," he trailed off. Quickly navigating through his menus, he sent the man a friend request.

"Best thing you can do to repay me is to stay alive. It's one hell of a task to level up in this game without taking a Weaponskill. So, next time you're on a quest, shoot me a message. There ain't many quests that I can't simply rock out for you. I'll meet you outside of town or something." He started off back towards town, but then quickly turned on his heels and opened the trade window. Into it, he dropped a king's ransom of Col and the materials he'd gathered from the impromptu grinding session.

"Get yourself a house or something. There's some perks for crafters that you just can't turn your nose up to."

Oscar transfers 36 Materials and 200,000 Col to Oji

"The skill will help you out, man, but this Tyson business if what you really need to put to rest."

Oscar shrugged. "I really gotta hope that after our little skirmish on a while back, he doesn't have the bodies to throw at me anymore. I've come to terms with the fact I might need to kill the kid, but that doesn't really mean I'm looking forward to it. That's something my old guild never really understood. Tyson builds a PK guild and goes on a tear across the game and that's all well and good and understandable, but the minute I draw a line in the sand and commit to doing what needs to be done, they lose their minds. Dozens of lives are somehow worth less than one insane child. It just doesn't make any damn sense." With their task completed and Oscar's venting done, it dawned on him that the pair were essentially standing inside of an active volcano. The heat swept across his in-game sensors, almost immediately eliciting an uncomfortable grown from the man. "It's too fucking hot out here for me to be venting like this. Imma head out. I'll shoot you a message the next time I got a mind to take on one of these quests." Ordinarily, Oscar would have no problems marching back to town, but the sweltering heat was uncomfortable enough to give the man who generally didn't give a fuck a sense of urgency. He produced a Teleport Crystal from his inventory and shattered it. The magic contained within took effect and swept him off to the nearest Teleport Platform in a flash of bright light. Anything to get away from this infernal heat.

"Git 'is ass, Freyd!" It was times like this that Oscar forgot himself and his thick Bostonian accent bled through. The once-haughty "floor boss" was now on his last legs with Oscar up to the plate. The Beast of Aincrad stalked over to the demon, now cowering on the floor. Having been brutalized so by a pair of dumbasses, it was no small wonder that this thing's entire worldview was turned upside down. He struck, fast as lightning, reducing the enemy's HP to zero. Or as close to zero as possible to trigger the end of the fight. The moment Beelzebub's health reached zero, Oscar was greeted by a purple Immortal Object tag. He chuckled and tossed the Sanctified Sword away as it melted into slag. 

"Oh look. Mommy Cardinal protecting the big strong demon," Oscar said in a mocking tone.

"I-I am a FLOOR! BOSS! YOU WOULDN'T BE THIS COCKY IF I STARTED PHASE TWO!" Beelzebub began to scream like a child as the injuries of their fight began to be unwound by the System. The hole in his torso filled itself in, his glasses reappeared, and his arm flew back onto the stump and stuck there as if nothing had ever happened. As with the demon, the System undid the damage the pair had caused to the castle. Even Lilith had respawned at this point. The only difference was in the expressions of the mobs. Beelzebub glared at them with impotent fury and Lilith and her entourage looked shocked that their Master had been so thoroughly thrashed. Beelzebub stamped his feet and roared with maniacal rage, continuing on and on about how they couldn't handle the later phases of his encounter. Oscar stood in silence until the demon calmed himself. He almost began to wonder if the NPCs were starting to gain some degree of sentience. Was Sundered Spire truly as dead as Firm Anima thought it was or had Cardinal simply incorporated the anomalous code into itself? Ultimately, as fun as it was to think about, it didn't matter. 

"So do it then," Oscar commanded, growing weary of the demon's whining. "Start Phase Two. Or three. Hell, jump straight to your final form, you petulant whiny fuckass. Otherwise," Oscar approached the NPC, almost gliding across the floor. He grabbed the "Floor Boss" by the collar and pulled his face in close. The Beast glared into the demon's eyes, utterly done with this tripe. "I thought I said skip." His voice was a low growl as he uttered his threat. Oscar pushed the demon away and dusted off his clothes. With a shriek, Beelzebub dashed out of the room and Oscar was greeted with a new message.

<<RESTORATIVE STRIKE>> UNLOCKED.

"Oh neat, new skill."

They were absolutely demolishing this "Floor Boss." For all his pomposity, he was getting torn a new asshole by a duo of Frontliners barely paying any attention to what they were doing. As Freyd blasted a hole into their new host's chest - taking an arm in the process - Oscar readied another swing. As he charged up his attack, Freyd regaled him all about the end of the Spire and how Firm Anima had taken out the Queen. Losing his concentration for a moment, Oscar bolted upright, his arm flying out too the left.

"Oh no shit?" he asked as the force of his would-be attack flung itself from the tip of his blade and demolished the western wall of the castle. Light poured into the new hole Oscar had ripped into the castle as, finally, the facade faded from from Beelzebub's face. Gone was the sneer of arrogance to be replaced only by a delicious mixture of fear and confusion.

"Who even are you guys?"

Oscar looked a Beelzebub, then back to Freyd. Then back to Beelzebub. With a shrug, he said: "It's Britney, bitch."

Oscar took one look at the demonic git approaching them and had to suppress the urge to groan loudly. He just shook his head and sighed. "I preferred the sexy vampire, I'm not gonna lie." As the demon just droned on and on about... something, Oscar hummed the melody to Take On Me as loudly as he possibly could. It was almost as annoying to listen to as the mob's exposition dump that Oscar just didn't care about.

"Could you stop that?" Beelzebub snapped.

"Stop what?" A brief pause in his humming as he spoke, only to quickly begin again.

"That infernal racket!"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Oscar replied.

"I am trying to give an intro speech here," Beelzebub retorted.

"Oh, I know. You're just real fuckin' boring. All that talk about how you made Cardinal your bitch. I still know you got a weakness."

"What are you ta-"

"SKIP," Oscar exclaimed as he sliced through Beelzebub's torso and, in one fluid motion, grasped the back of the demon's head and slammed his face into the floor. The castle trembled in response. Oscar removed his hand and blew on his seared palm. In the span of a single second, the demon had lost almost a third of its health. "If he's really on some Sundered Spire shit, why don't we show him how those guys wound up."

"S'pose we do," Oscar remarked as he watched the vampress strike his companion. Freyd definitely wasn't one to let a slight like that pass. She retreated to the rafters. A bad call. Vampire or not, poor footing would be the death of her. Freyd followed and Oscar watched with a smirk as she was rocketed off of her perch into a nearby wall. As gravity took control of her stunned form, Oscar sheathed his blade. Lilith fell into his strike zone and he let fly a powerful slash. His blade bit deep into her side, cleaving through muscle and bone as if they were butter. Pressure from the blow vented out in all directions, blasting her through the nearest wall with an explosion of force. 

Flicking the remains off his weapon, he returned the katana to its scabbard and calmly strode over to the mess he'd made. Through the dust and debris, he could still make out a heavily battered health bar through the miasma. He craned his neck backwards, calling up to his companion. "One more like that and I think this one's over. Gotta wonder about how weak those soldiers had been if this broad could run roughshod over 'em."

"Is that shit over and done with, or are we still in the aftermath?"

Oscar shrugged. "Part of me wants to hope that the kid knows when he's outmatched, but I know better." The Whisper disappeared into the shadows and Oscar paused as the man performed the swiftest of executions on Lilith's admittedly attractive handmaidens. When the Whisper reappeared, Oscar continued. "Somehow, I don't think that this is going to be over until I put the kid in the ground." If Oscar thought for a moment that there was another way to keep the people he cared about safe, he would hop to it in an instant. But he didn't know how far Tyson's reach went; who was in his pockets and who he held sway over. Oscar would love the thought of putting the behind bars, guarded by the strongest Players he knew. But the strongest Players he knew were in Firm Anima and they had more important tasks at hand. When a hound goes rabid, you don't try to save it. You just put it out of its misery as quickly as possible before it hurts anything else.

Oscar readied his weapon, hoping to take advantage of Lilith's momentary lapse of attention seeing her servants pixelated so suddenly. But he'd been relying on Absolute Accuracy entirely too much, so when she suddenly dipped out of the way of his attack, Oscar had lost the ability to compensate. His weapon bit into the ground, plunging deep into the stone of the Castle Raszak. A thin line traced itself past the vampress and up the wall behind them, the force of Oscar's cut distributing itself however it could now that he'd missed his mark. He pulled his blade free of the stone and looked to his right, getting an up-close view of the Lady of the Night. He smirked and then called back to Freyd, his voice fighting with Lilith's melody on the air.

"Ayo, she kinda cute. You sure we gotta kill her?"

The bodies that will never be found...? Oh right. That, Oscar thought. His hand shot out to catch the weapon that Freyd threw his way. Apparently he was meant to use this weapon to clear the quest. He almost laughed at the thought of the Beast of Aincrad wielding a holy relic in battle. This quest's narrative was absolutely bonkers. They still had a bit more traveling to do. Plenty of time for Oscar to tell Freyd the full story. He put the weapon away and shoved his hands into the pocket of his jacket as they walked.

"It's not entirely complicated. I'm surprised I haven't told you the story," Oscar said. "I was a social worker back in the real world. One of my cases was this real problem child. Absolute sociopath. I'd worked with him for a couple years. Really took him under my wing, y'know? We'd started to turn things around. He was going to school, making good grades. Kid was starting to look towards the future beyond his next meal." Lilting laughter could be heard in the distance. If Oscar wasn't 110 percent checked out of any sort of atmosphere this game was trying to create, it probably would have sent a chill down his spine. A creature of the night stalking the hunters? Creepy.

He waited for the laughter to fade before shaking his head with a chuckle. "Anyway," he began again. "Well he got me into the game. And we went through the first day the same as anyone. It was just a game then, after all. Well, we got separated after the announcement. I thought he'd died to a boar but he hadn't. At some point, I think he found out that I'd moved on and he took that personally. While I was busy hiding in town, he was building an organization of malcontents that, among other things, were very skilled at taking out other players. He put that organization to use against me. Went after my friends, stalked me, and, well, you were there for that last fight."
 

Oscar shrugged. "It can be as in-depth as you want it, I've found. You can let the System guide you through the motions and automate most of the process or you can be in control of every minute detail," he said. "I've spent so much time in the kitchen, I'm not entirely convinced that this death game is some do-or-die tutorial for real-life trade skills." Oji's pondering about the state of the real world sent Oscar's thoughts in the same direction. How was the Major? How were things going with the kids? He brushed the thoughts away as quickly as they came. There was nothing he could do about it in his current predicament, so why let it gnaw at him? He didn't have the time or inclination to handle things he couldn't actually handle. Still, Oji wasn't wasting his time worrying over the real world. It was only prudent to keep one eye on the future.

"I'm sure it's fine," Oscar said. "You'll be surprised how people rally around victims of crisis. Sometimes people you didn't even knew gave a shit about you will step up on your behalf. I imagine someone's taking care of it and it's just waiting on you to come back." Oscar gestured up towards the canopy "Look alive though, spiders had friends."

Reinforcements had come, arachnids seeking vengeance for the death of their kin. The sunlight glinted off of the jointed plate that covered their spindly legs. Steel plate covered the quartet's abdomens. The only spot their armor left exposed was their spinnerets. It was a surprising and impressive effort. Oscar felt touched that the spiders would go to such lengths just for him. It was plainly obvious that the Spire was affecting their behavior. But, just like their kin, they would find themselves ripped apart in a howling frigid gale and reduced to equipment and items.

Oscar sheathed his blade and let out a heavy sigh. As much as he would like to keep playing with his arachnid enemies, he wasn't sure how hard he could push it would Oji being in tangible danger. Still, it was good to know that the reset hadn't changed everything. He pulled up his menu and scrolled through the loot they had collected thus far. "Alright Oji. I think it's time we headed back. We're running out of sunlight and I'm running out of Energy."
 

Skill(s) Being Dropped: AoE Shift
Mod(s)/Addon(s) Being Dropped: none
SP Incurred Towards Limit: 10
SP Refunded: 10
Cost: 10,000