NIGHT

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 whole game? For them? Hell no. For the weapon? That depends on the risk."

change of tactic. night had never liked the strategy of the push-to-fight, and she wasn't going to continue that narrative of sending players to their deaths, if they hadn't the will to stomach it. she folded her arms, speaking only when dazia's outburst had died down.

"... you're absolutely right. though i don't remember ever agreeing to be such a hero you believe they claim themselves to be. not because i'm noble, but because i don't remember ever signing up to be 'with the frontlines' in the first place. no contracts, no recruitments." she held up an open palm. "i can change the terms of the deal then. i did say you could say no. one of my friends is an information broker, so i'm sure she'd be happy to take note of what you'd said about the turn of conduct on... whichever floor boss fight that was. a fallen angel, is that right?"

even after listening to vigilon's reassurance, and dazia's reluctance on accepting the terms of the trade as mentioned earlier, night was still wary. it was sensible to consider one's own survivability in aincrad, after all. but part of her dilemma was in the fear that other players weren't going to show up, and she toyed with the secrecy of her own undertakings. should she mention her own vulnerability earlier, or not?

night decided to wait until later to disclose it, if she felt more certain, then. "if you're sure," she iterated. "you're still free to back out of this condition, and go with the sharing of information instead. i'll ask you again once cerberus has gone down, alright? there's no need to rush to meet death, after all."

and, as a joke, "of course, if vigilon's got your position covered in the raid, then i'd also consider that a deal done." but maybe that was more in selfishness than jest. when night turned around, checking in on dazia, her form was absent – she must've been in stealth, night figured. and she would've followed along, too, but with oathkeeper in her hand, she felt free to be loud, and brash, and reckless.

seeing the hound minions come out to play once they'd entered the cave, night gestured them out to vigilon. "whenever you're ready."

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 was 'there's no need to apologize', and 'i think i should've checked in on you and the rest of our friends more so we're even', and 'come to think of it, i did reach out once and never heard from you; it's not your fault, but are you alright?'

instead of on lessa's face, night's gaze was on the swords. distraction. she was listening to the sounds of their clashing blades – tap, tap, tap...

tap. on night's side.

and suddenly night realized her slowness to generate a response.

"... i don't think i should be hearing a sorry from... you right now."

she withdrew, swords disconnected, pulling back from close quarters to preparing for another set of strikes. a shake of her head, and a release of a moderated breath, expelling what she could of her inner anguish. fun. she was supposed to keep things light and fun.

 "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 consumables to different players. but the moment she saw vigilion swap his weapon, she stopped. she stared, instead, mouth agape.

"Night, isn't that yours? I remember seeing you using it back on floor sixteen."

"... i'm surprised you even remembered."

night would admit, she had been trading around her valuables as much as possible back when she'd disappeared from activity – the zero was a bit different in terms of negotiations, so no amount of col nor materials would have got her anywhere. a vehicle, especially personal, often meant equipment.

so to see it circulated back into someone else's hands made her wonder what exactly the transaction had meant to its traders in the first place.

the light of her blade remained trapped in night's eyes, and now that annoyance was gone (well, most of it). so in turn, she held out her tray for dazia to hold, before summoning adjudicator, a white trail circling her hand as it was brought to life.

"vigilon, i'd like that sword back, so i'm making you an offer."

the player held out the fallen sword, length set against oathkeeper's own in parallel. the two swords crossed each other, edges meeting. "this is adjudicator. i'm not sure if you need another sword, but i'll trade it to you if you're willing to hand oathkeeper back."

her gaze went down towards adjudicator's guard as she raised it, considering her deal twice.

"after tomorrow. i need this for a fight i can't concede, but i'm willing to hand it to you once i'm done with it. 'two fallen, absolute accuracy, and a vampiric.' it's not another oathkeeper, but oathkeeper's a rare forgery to come by."

but beyond her concerns over her bargaining chip, night quickly realized her focus on its likely non-importance to dazia, and went back to picking up the tray of food again. she waited for the assassin to eat her fill before holding it out to vigilon. "and these, if you need them. on the house."

from notes, for party consumption:

•  Smores (2) | EVASION II
•  Yaki Hatahata | T4 | (2) | MITIGATION III
• Crème Brûlée (2) | ACCURACY II
•  Beef Stew (2) | OVERHEALTH III
•  Breakfast Fry (2) | PROTEIN II
•  Liquor of Light (1) | DAMAGE III

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've got a fowl mood to get rid of, too. the upgraded cerberus needs some form of preparation, however." the player was quick to pull out some consumables, preparing them on her hand before she examined the players before her. she already knew the assassin – or not? – was capable, but the other, the male...

she tilted her head, examining him up and down. his attire didn't seem to show for much, unless he was a practical guy – which gave her reason for doubt, since most would lean towards complete casual wear or plated metal fashion. leather armor existed, but at least, she believed, they were much showier than this...

liquor of light in hand, she tossed the potion up and down. bistro would've wrestled it out of her hands if she knew of her nonchalance with her efforts, but night held a heavier weight than the burden of a broken bottle, now. she gestured to the male with a hand. "hey, er, you... – what's your name? how's your equipment like?"

night's gaze then shifted over to dazia's, holding the bottle firm in her hand as she offered it, cork-first to the player. "what about you – do you need this?"

<<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 one someone was trying to hunt down. kind of like those wanted posters she'd joked about having, if the ganker had wanted to serve a witch hunt against them for the consumable they demanded from the phoenix fight. maybe it was solidarity, camaraderie, or simply just trying to find familiarity in this hostile environment.

all night found herself doing was approaching dazia, talking to some other player she couldn't quite remember having seen, overhearing her conversation with him.

or... not conversation. it sounded as though dazia was grilling him for intel. one-sided. night but waved to grab her attention. hands in her pocket, her mind made up on the spot for cerberus as her target, at the very least, to let off some steam. 

"so is this with regards to that cove of yours?"

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 even when it appeared as though it was on its last legs – was its heart, the core, trying its best to keep it alive?

it would be a little late and a little more risky to try and dive towards the crystal and bring it down, but the assurance from nyanko climbing back onto her outerwear and into her pockets allowed night to focus on their original goal.

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 with every step she took away from the boss, and she tried her best to lean back into the fray, hoping that she could shed a little bit more health off of stoneheart.

there was that last element she was considering, as she was bringing stoneheart down.

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 slam, and went in again for the hit-and-run. if she was any better at the fight, she would’ve tried climbing up stoneheart himself, trying to get away from his arms smashing into things – but there was the possibility that he’d slam her back into a wall instead, while she was on her climb. it would be best for night to not risk it.

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 focused better on her present fight, with nyanko and a light-hearted spirit doing their best to wear it down, the same way that she was doing – and admittedly their effects appeared to be arguable, now. was she sure that the system was allowed to tackle its own members, especially one of high importance?

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 effort, that it would be better to have tackled stoneheart with a full squad rather than alone.

aye, perhaps. but all the same that she was unable to reach out to people, schedules unclear and the difficulty of easing them through the labyrinth all over.

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 way that they were categorized, elements according to their birth years – hers had been metal, after all. but the messages hadn’t mentioned anything about it, lest she had missed it, and night made it a point to go back and decipher them better after she’d put stoneheart in the ground.

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 she could keep this up with luck.

even the smallest of them, she remembered, would be able to do something. was it a mechanic? maybe it had to do with aligning into elements. there was one more message than she did remember, leaning into the affinities she was familiar with seeing in the scouting venture.

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 chipped further downwards. not good, but not a poor status at the moment, either.

if anything, she took the chance as stoneheart was turning around to preview her messages, trying her best to decipher what was necessary. life and death, returning to dust… should she extend this even to stone? 

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, the affiliation to that was earth, and she’d slid under the next attack coming her way as she recognized its animated rubble trying to put her out of the way of its purpose, in defending the floor from some unnamed, and presently unrecognizable threat.

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 worked so hard to get from those quests.

if only the rest of those so-called frontliners could see where she was now – locked in a room, trying to take down a guardian on their own. then, she bet, they’d crawl out of the woodwork for the floor boss…

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. 

and she lunged for the opening against stoneheart in between its attacks, once she’d gotten used to them – adjudicator fit nicely in between its make, and there might be a real chance of breaking the sword if she wasn’t going to pull out just in time.

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 assault on the boss. this was the last of the defense she could promise to shed from stoneheart, and day, who had been joining in on the destruction effort, was deciding to switch to a battle-axe midfight. stone never seemed like it wept, and neither did she feel comfortable breaking the gem lodged in its body, as she continued staring at it in between hits.

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 already strong enough and capable of knocking her to her feet, guard off just for a moment. and yet, battle healing and holy blessing were doing their best to put the work in. would their efforts be enough, if they just kept hitting against the boss?

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 different in the manner that it could speak – except she didn’t know if it was based on its capability for language and interactions than its programming for a cool setup upon entrance. with a swing of her arm, adjudicator reformed in her hand, and she started out with a quick rush of the boss, just to test its defenses against her preparations.

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 than just herself, there would be time to go in for the weak point. but the boss, in its current iteration, had behaved akin to the sentinels she’d been fighting ever since she entered the dungeon, especially towards the entrance. and they didn’t have a weak spot to contend with, so in turn, why should she bother with one?