NIGHT

one by one, individuals would trickle in. oscar, then freyd and star and alkor. somehow ariel afterwards. familiar faces – though mostly veterans. despite the flyer discussing it's focus on new players, more old ones seemed to have popped up instead. to freyd and alkor, she gave a curt nod, a brief acknowledgement of his presence amongst others. and for @Oscar and @Morningstar, she tilted her head. "is there something you two want to tell me, coming here together from the fourth?" (no, she wasn't so much as interested in those matters herself.) her second greeting

night hadn't expected an outburst. in hindsight, maybe she should've. still, she listened – in shock, before with intent, especially at the realization that dazia had been there herself before. the fallen angel wasn't a fight she was familiar with – the furthest back she could recall was tales of the twenty third from hirru – so she made a note of it mentally while hearing what she had to say. very quickly, everything she'd experienced from the other veterans was beginning to make sense. "So why should I risk my life tangling with the most dangerous bosses in the

"So let me just make sure I've gotten this straight..." and night listened and nodded, pulling up a friend request for vigilon with a few slight hand movements; her personal mastery at the interface. "if things go well, you'll see me at an important event real soon. i can hand it to you then. otherwise, just contact me directly. i mean to uphold my end of the deal, after all – " "I want it." "'scuse me?'" it wasn't so much as though it was an objection. night was simply taken aback. from the banter between the two relatives, she was l

if lessa's vice was a drink, night's own was her thoughts, and the constant feeling of sinking, drowning, dreaming. so they didn't match, not really. but it was still lovely to hear, she thought, and had wanted to say. "we haven't," night finally mentioned, a little late to the moment. aincrad didn't uphold the concept of lag, wasn't meant to, hence it benefitted when its players' spaciness accounted in its stead. she did try to stay within the present, doing her best to parry. but between the amount of words she had to say, she was starting to get lost in their arrangement. there wa

"I'm Vigilon. I'd say my equipment's decent enough to get the job done for most enemies, though I would agree that an upgraded Cerberus wouldn't be 'most enemies'." oh, alright. it was better safe than sorry in aincrad, anyhow, and seeing how his weapon appeared to be somewhat of an unusual make proved it to night that he was likely better than he looked. fair enough. "so what exactly does it need?" and in the most casual sense, she was to pull up some additional consumables. and they were there, summoned on a platter, with the player knowing best how to present a number of c

oh, so they both had reason aplenty to hunt down cerberus, then. just night's luck. she was contemplating on backing out until the swing of dazia's sword had caught her off-guard – night wasn't exactly paying attention in the middle of brief thought, and she quickly forgot about revising her earlier decision. the whole expedition was in search for something to destroy to begin with. so what better way then punishing some monster in lieu of helping someone else out? night shrugged upon hearing of dazia's toss into the ring. "i'm game if you are," she added with a shrug. "i'v

<<gatekeeper of fire.>> okay. easy does it. she was back on the ninth. night hated the ninth floor. nothing good ever came out of it. and still, time and time again she would find herself trying to brave its obstacles, just so she could feel a little more than general unease and nervousness when she was on its soil. she was wandering, simply, until she remembered the route she was taking was somewhere down towards cerberus' lair. or, at least, the stop before it – knorlit village. it was surprising to encounter players present, but more so that

scattered about the first floor (and a few other select places) are a messy lot of flyers in parchment paper. it is questionable who was the individual behind the littering. the following is written on it: FIGHTING TO GET TO FLOOR 28 Attention, all individuals of Aincrad! We will not remain dormant. The frontline is about to commence their fight against the Floor Boss on the 27th floor. To those who have wondered the status of our progression, look no further than the raid meeting, and join us should you be well equipped to handle the fight against the F27 Floor

[ ♬ ] "watch me. i will go to my own sun. if i am burned by its fire, let me fly on scorched wings." NAME SEIKO UEDA. AGE 22 -> 24 GENDER F ORIGIN TOKYO, JP. HEIGHT 172cm WEIGHT 65kg BIRTHDAY NOV 2. FACECLAIM HOSHIGUMA ARKNIGHTS ICHIKA & AN PROSEKAI ______________________________________________________________________________ ADMITS O

that ore in the ground was precious. that it was best with hard work applied to it – and night was putting in her effort to try and pull stoneheart to the floor. there was also the element of heat needed, but she’d be damned if she shelled out cosmic devourer now – the heat it generated was likely noy enough to eliminate it from the world. if adjudicator was graced enough to cough and sputter, black fangs eating away from its enemies as it was expected to do, then perhaps this would be one of the final strikes – flames and effort be damned. still, she dragged herself away from the boss’ body e

just a sliver left, and adjudicator was buzzing, as she abused the system as much as she could to lodge just a little more health off of the guardian’s health bar. by her feet, again, was another crystal, whose effects kicked in quickly enough to have avoided a negative impact on her execution when the protector broke it in another attempt at catching the player. night had to do her best to be tricky, to be running, even if she wasn’t the best at it. an accidental glance towards one of her companions sent shivers down her spine, as though she knew that she was being watched by her antagonist w

by now, night believed, she could catch sight of the golem’s health bar pushing orange, if not red. because why would it be red? she wasn’t doing that much damage to it, was she? but she popped a crystal with a crunch of her hand. trying to outlast a boss as tough as this was difficult, though she knew there had been much tougher fights before – and by all means, she would do her best to work through this one, just like the rest of them. her thoughts did drift briefly to her friends beyond the doors, waiting for her return, before she snapped to a quick dodge out the way of another s

so she kept her eyes on the prize – the door at the back of the room – and the messages in her hand that she could only glance at so often, so long as she was able to stay alive, and active, and away from the guardian. there was mention about the summer heat, she’d read more carefully. trees that were linked with raindrops grown from the earth before. perhaps the pattern of elements would chain together, all at once – or was it the attack pattern of the boss? not that she knew what it could do on the field, nor did she want to test aggravating it if she’d gone inside the room. night

she would lose track of the amount of times she’d ducked under an arm, trying to get close towards its legs instead, though they were narrow and difficult to strike at. the golem’s lower body was a better choice, and she did her best to avoid the gem – at one point, her strike had missed on accident and grazed the crystal, so the system was to warn her of her incapability to do so in the fight. night recoiled at that message, of course, and tried to recover her position in competing with the boss for survival, and yet she couldn’t get it out of her mind that her toil was in the worse kind of e

earth, water; her next was about fire, wasn’t it? but then it was also about trees. traditionally, she felt as though she should have recognized that the four elements should’ve been with the inclusion of air instead of wood. but then something clicked in her mind about the foo guardians she’d seen earlier, and things slowly started to make sense. if she’d gotten pummeled, it was because of the sudden awareness of her capability to decipher it. something about taoism, surely? or at least about her culture – if she had been so in touch with it, at all. she was able to recognize the w

then there was the rain, the drops from the skies. they spoke nothing about a rubbled fist in her notes, but she was well aware of the threat coming her way, and so had to prepare to skid out just in case it got another hit in, plain and simple. there was the way it tore into the wall, leaving a crater too massive for even her blade to have created, too cracked and laced with dust in its punches, only underlining how much damage the boss was willing to deal just to get rid of intruders. night simply skittered away, doing chip damage where she could, and progress was looking steady – if only sh

then there was the becoming dust part, if she recalled – something about life? rejuvenation? was it something like the phoenix she’d fought just a little while ago? night danced with her sword again, trying to remember the proper positioning of her crystals on the go – one mistake and she’d be down a critical resource, though nyanko seemed to run down the golem’s shoulder just to leap at her and make sure she’d gotten the right piece from her toolkit. her swing was accompanied by a dodge underneath the boss – she slid out, trying to escape, running away from the attack again as her health chip

well, the idea of taking down a floor boss solo was enough to make her stomach churn, so they had better show up, or else. had she shared her quest findings with bistro yet, even? the fact that she couldn’t remember said something, night was certain. as certain as she was in trying to evade an on-coming strike, and failing, only to need to clench a fist over a crystal that wasn’t meant for healing super quickly. she had to focus, if she was wanting to get anywhere. each of those words were representative of places they’d been to, starting with dagan. if that was mountain, t

and to pay attention to the boss meant trying to decipher its madness, the act of protection for the people – if the floor was the people it was protecting, then what exactly was the boss going to be? night blanked for a moment, only to stagger on her dodge out of the way of another fist – she’d kicked off the boss’s hand reaching out towards her in an attempt to grapple, to widen the distance between her and her threat’s range for a moment of time. night had plenty of time to fight and just a little to think – damn her poor memory, that she couldn’t remember those scraps of information she’d

for a moment, she wondered if bistro was right. that the golem’s health would go down nigh easier if she’d just taken a second to try and strike its core. but there was nothing to target, from what night could see, and she wasn’t going to waste a bit of energy just to see if it would be stunned – even tempest wasn’t in right shape to bring down an enemy of this size, usually! a tap on her shoulder as they both skirted danger – night caught the sight of her companion and knew quickly she had to stop herself from sinking deeper into her thoughts. her strategy of just hitting the boss as hard as

because what if that meant actually destroying the protection on the world outside, beyond them? taking down the boss itself was one action, breaking what it stood for was another. and night switched gears, pulling out her crystal, the first of many to be wasted upon such a fight. she thought about her friend as her voice filled the room – nari would hate for ronbaru to be eliminated from existence, if that were the case. even night would feel a little disappointed, she had to admit, if the entire floor’s settlements were slowly removed, demolished bit by bit after the crack of the core.

night thought about how much she’d wished to have left nyanko at home, because surely the ambient damage would’ve gotten to him after a while. as she thought of that, however, her gaze was upon the tiny black dot that had leapt from day’s shoulder over to the golem’s, and she’d struggled between laughing or crying. how much more dangerous could it be up there on stoneheart’s shoulder, than to be below him, fighting the guardian head on? it turns out, protection also lent itself to nyanko – which pressured night to consider the outcome of this fight a little more as she continued her

hellstorm worked well. so too did shatter. and with every growing strike, night was becoming more aware of her need to be quick on her feet, because the golem’s reach was much larger than what she was used to. a brush here, and her companion on the other side of the room followed. her gaze was upon the walls, wondering if she could use any outcrop in reach to her advantage in dodging the hazardous attacks, but to no avail. there was the ambient damage, too, whenever the guardian would reach out towards night and smash against system-fortified walls instead. the rumble itself was alre

if anything, she was decently sufficient with the presence of a familiar figure and their familiar, because the long fight meant that it required intense focus, and that meant no time spent worrying on if she was going to make out of a claustrophobic room alive. no – her broker had prepared her, as best as her immediate community could, so after she’d applied the necessary materials, it was time to spring into action. the doors closed behind them, and night had to release her companion’s pinky before raising her sword for the fight. stoneheart was the guardian’s name, and it was diff

four players? night wouldn’t have it. part of her was afraid that they’d get stuck on the way over, and the other part of her was engaged with the challenge itself – if not on part of herself, then perhaps in part due to bistro, who had been rallying her contacts over trying to determine how best to counter the boss. so the plan was simple: get to the crystal as soon as possible, and demolish it before demolishing the golem. night wasn’t bent on having any of that, however. the more she thought about it, the more it seemed possible that suited for a party larger tha