NIGHT

if they were venturing out within the night, perhaps she would've agreed, somewhat. because didn't clouds move? and beyond them, a vast blue, colors remaining the same unevenly throughout the floor? the player shook her head when nari couldn't see her -- no, she wouldn't get it the way her companion did, after all -- and was only a tad relieved when her sights were taken off the canopy. that was her cue, too, to search for the nest as well. "I wonder if it's going to be like the last one, where we just...stumbled upon it entirely by accident." so they did stumble upon it entirely by

too fast, too eager -- a jab in the face was nothing more than insult in the system, but boy was night furious about it afterwards. she threw herself back into the fray without hesitation, grabbing the revenant's shoulder and throwing it against the wall before her mind could process the lack of strategy, just rage. the bell tolled for it, in that brief pillar of light that followed, and once more again when she kicked off the wall to halt the construct from getting up. now, standing in a field of dust in that dark gothic hallway within the keep, night took a pause to reorient herself wit

the housemate? "we did." if night could grow extra eyebags there and then, perhaps she would've. now she would've had to consider if that match up was by accident, or coincidence (and she wasn't sure if either was any better). the lack of eye contact meant that they were both liable to stew in the information, both at their own pace with incredibly different reads of the situation, before nari retorted back about the broker. night only snorted, turning back down the path. "a better one would've spelled out what was to come for you instead of giving you a riddle," she clarified, befor

never been wrong, once she'd deciphered them? wasn't that a fallacy, given that there could have been a bias at play? "oh, tell me you know about the death of the author," night tossed behind her shoulder, uncertain which between the mix of loss and concern she should lean towards regarding the message. "i'd say have more faith in yourself than the message, but i'd be more adverse to them given that you don't even know of them in the first place." then quiet settled between them, giving night the time to navigate through the woods. if only they'd started walking sooner, perhaps they'd be

she slowed her brisk pace once nari got her attention. and the block of text on the interface -- night nearly stopped in entirety just to read it, pace to a snail's crawl. all she could do was squint, eyes running over words and tripping. mostly clear? half of it read of emotion, which only distilled to confusion in the player, and a few ounces of annoyance. two fingers pinched the bridge of her nose. "no," night concluded quickly, brows furrowed, eyes shut tight as realization of how little information she'd absorbed from the text washed over her. what was even the point of such obf

silence, as she walked on a little. confusion, then, when she'd realized her companion was circling a tree. so surely, there must've been something up with it. a ghost, somewhere? night started to approach, even as she saw hirru's figure halt movement. wanted to say something -- but hadn't the time. all she could do was whirl around as he zipped past her, catching the glimpse of something visceral on his face -- then he was gone, headed towards the distance. what else could the player do but take off after him, with a holler of surprise underlined with a grave concern? "hirru?!"

limiting their search to a specific region on the floor narrowed their destination choices. night wanted to look over nari's messages, too, but thought it impolite. instead, eyes glued to the map, she simply drew over the interface, circling out the lakes within the forest, before shifting perspective over to the route ahead. fifteen minutes wasn't going to cut it. the nest could take all day to look for if they let the game decide its location. "i don't need to take anything," night stated, closing her map. a shifted gaze examined their surroundings, comparing it to the charted path in h

thread summary. total. + 12,138xp | (327 * 14 * 1) + 7560 + 286,492col | (228,000) + (56,672) + (xp * 0.15) + 94 materials | (38 * 2) + 18 + combat loot.

from one source, to another, each of them dodging the sudden growing tail inhumane and hadn't even seemed like a squirrel's part -- that growth a last surprise once night had polished clean the last slashing claw that missed all but air. overhead sunders were the best tactic, there -- and though she'd presumed the same for the tail as she jumped right in to demolish it, the easiest maneuver to perform was a low cut into an upper, which wouldn't destroy the end of the almost serpentine figure the rodents had cut for themselves. not one to worry, that night, once her shadow was part of the

no stopping her momentum -- if she'd lost it once more, night would've thought better to retreat. so she leaned into her swings, changing course with the shift of her head. instead of a singular quick strike, she went for a prolonged series, one set she was certain any formidable and likeable foe would've appreciated, that upfront and personal closeness, the dance almost enviable from the stolen glance out of day's peripheral. so to match, not to be taken for the lesser entity, the machine threw out her shield in a pelt of light against the arm swarm, willing her weapon's edge to morph yet aga

what came rising out of the ground from that point on were echoes of the original form they'd seen before. multiple thinner arms, squirrels stacked high, managed to build themselves from the fading crowd -- multiple of them were struck down, but few had managed enough to nick night for a number of strikes. battered around in an arena, arms closing in, the one she trusted around her wrist pulled her out of the fight -- "don't corner yourself," thrust her out of the ring before slamming out an exit for herself. night rubbed her head as she stopped herself from the mess, the waves -- this wa

down on the ground. but night got up quick. a shield had been held to their opponent's claws, seeming almost blunt a strike, and the squirrels started to dissipate in formation just as a second figure was appearing behind day. but of course the construct knew. a simple glance exchanged, and day pushed off the tumbling batch of rodents, in time to move for night to deliver her blow instead. one clean cut of white was simple enough to halt it from getting back up. so another started to reform elsewhere instead -- and it would've been quicker, but stardust was beginning to rise from the

instead of thinking about the alternative ways of eliminating the threat, ahead, however, night should've been considering how lucky she was, that the sea of squirrels hadn't also been targets, for given the mass of individual actors they surely would've been overwhelmed before spying the amalgamation, worn down by the scouting units on their own. whilst she wasn't paying attention, giving the squirrel strikes off her blade, it started to separate, sinking into the sea, and she'd almost unleashed a blow where the other had been found on the other side of the would've-been creature. day du

with one combatant on each side, the mass of prey was definitely at a disadvantage, if it didn't react as cognizant as they were -- day pushed forth with a swing of the same mace, dismantling part of its hind legs that started to reform with even more squirrels latching onto the core body. and that was also the question too, as night continued forward too with an attack of her own. if the ones at her feet were particles, then it made sense that they shouldn't have been able to interact with the main figure, what consisted of multiple creatures, most of the smaller units almost inoperable to th

to fight against the grain instead -- that was what she chose to focus on before thinking about its ecological implications. and day, too, followed up once night had her blade brandished, choosing to tackle the enemy with a number of skips and leaps than a regular run. mace in hand, she chased that shifting figure that faded into obscurity, leaving day the deer in headlights -- just how she liked it, centre of attention. one swipe wasn't good enough to catch the all-knowing, and it took two before the first few squirrels fell from their positions on the beast. the thump of steel against a

"they're just squirrels, night!" because they knew the player couldn't tell, not so quickly, not in the dark. and squirrels were never meant to be in abundance in a single location, so when they came crashing over the party like a wave up to calf height she understood how such tiny figures could've been monstrous. two eyes, glowing gold in the dark were finally seen as night hobbled towards the source of the flood, day holding onto her with every step, and the king of squirrels looked exactly like a writhing mess out of nightmares, but still distinctively a giant autonomous unit in itself

but it wasn't enough, as night would soon find out. multiple attacks from various angles, and the player had to stop on occasion in her shifting, simply because she felt a misstep, ground giving way. moving with caution gave her an advantage, and she took it, hurtling down stem after stem after stem. more bones only added themselves to her inventory. and then she could feel the massive threat that day had warned her about earlier. once most of the structure had been eliminated by the trunk, the entire field looked as though it had been snapped to a clean, undisturbed wilderness inste

night shrugged her concerns off. part of it was in trusting her doppel, but the other was in trying not to juggle the mental load of their situation in the moment. there were many things to consider, regarding what to deliver -- the best thing, bistro would've said, albeit a smidge too haughtily, was to deliver herself back safely from the unknown. and if they were going to take out the stampede (or whatever) it was beyond hurtling themselves towards this way, then so be it -- no traps in the environment. which meant the auxiliary baskets had to be eliminated first. the player swung her b

"i meant the wave of creatures coming up behind it, actually." day glanced to the baskets and the pitfalls, lost in pause. "there's going to be a lot of them. and sure -- the plant's going to consume part of that horde--" "that thing is a plant?" "-- but i'm pretty sure they're capable of scurrying out of it without an issue." night but blinked, trying to estimate the foreign creatures' time of arrival. "with that mass of materials," day reasoned absentmindedly, "i'm also sure you could show up that client, whoever they are." the system was right, but night was thinkin

a "what is it?" whispered to day, with the latter turning her sword into a mace. night followed her gaze to the tree trunk, noticing an odd silhouette there, too, that was obscuring part of the tree from view. almost as though it was a wire mesh model of demolished ruins, incomplete, structured out from the floor like coral. night drew closer to it for inspection. then tripped on something -- that was when day's hand grabbed her back, fingers on her collar, and the player did her best to balance herself on two feet once more. where she was standing was a hole, dug through the dirt, with w

the third burst in the air, from an upwards cut once it was raised, too, jaw lowered further than night had initially expected -- and two canines fell from there, only picked up by the outstretched hand of her companion. the fourth had sent night stumbling backwards, it coiling around her legs when she hadn't been paying attention. and in her concern, she faltered, in time to see it lunge towards her in her moment of weakness, though she recovered faster than it expected. one pierce, clumsy despite, and it too shattered into pieces, leaving only the interface to contend with the efforts of the

night struck first, at the tell, despite not knowing where her foe was going to be. but she figured it to be the orb of light, and the snake that jumped at her struck back, along with several others that had happened to find themselves lurking in the same spot. a roll backwards -- and so too did her secondary lunge. a single-handed side sword of light that cut through the dark, enough to illuminate just barely the lack of skin that their opponents had. translucent, and in the flash night could've caught the innards of their foe -- and the sight was gone, once the first of the pack had bee

"oh of course you would--" so they continued, day's arms slung over the back of her head, grin towards the would-be sky. and night's gaze scanned the path ahead of their steps, before it drifted to the side, and she caught a glimpse of some round objects where what little light that would've been reflected in the area was caught on its edge, gleaming round like mirrors. the moment night started to approach them with a -- "this way," day started to lower her arms. "wow, night," she said, following. her tone was hushed, eyes narrowed with the spark of her weapon flaring up. "you s

eventually, night waved the interface away, grumbling, to the light chuckle of her companion. an eyebrow raised, and a sour mood, night couldn't help but ask -- "what?" "you like what you see?" "the map? no--" and her eyes went back to check where the interface was. nothing registered in the first place. then day shifted, hand holding herself beneath the cloak and where the cloth hadn't folded was exactly the spot she was using to verify the data-- night simply recoiled, skin prickling. day shifted her weight onto one foot. "i-- i wasn't looking." "oh, you don't have t

so the estimation: she still wasn't sure. the marker stopping had almost tipped her off that the area seemed to work a little differently. instead of a moving icon whilst the player shifted too outside of the forest, perhaps within it, there were certain points of depth. hence, the game was spelling out how the environment worked simply through the interface as they advanced. then surely, this was a clue that anyone could've deciphered through wandering the woods as they did, right? but if given that the game was running off of waypoints than position, the map data wouldn't be incred