Koga

Watching NIGHT momentarily deflate as suddenly all the pieces fit together for NIGHT, Koga wasn't sure if he was relieved or just glad that they weren't shouting at each other like they were going to stab each other anymore. Although, that in an of itself was a relief, due to the fact that if NIGHT stabbed him, he would probably be joining all those mobs she'd spent the better part of thirty minutes blowing up.

All the fervor and zeal were gone from her as she quietly, but firmly responded to him. The motion of her blade less frenetic, murderous intent seemingly having sublimated from the blade itself, despite it's work being done.

Sadly, as NIGHT went on, whatever it was she was saying seemed lost on Koga. His head turned to the side ever so slightly. 

"the consequences are lessened in games like these."

Sensing that the immediate danger of being made a foot shorter had passed, he felt safe to give her a questioning squint of the eyes. He didn't interrupt her though, trusting that she'd somehow make it all make sense to him by the end.

"there are many things you could see, and try, and feel and do. that, there are many reasons to life to appreciate, and however our progress goes cardinal is giving you this chance to find out what they are, and why. before you get out of here."

A moment's pause before Koga could no longer restrain his sarcasm. "You...are aware that Cardinal is also ninety percent of the reason I've lost all the things in my life I've appreciated, right?"

"...Sorry..." Maybe the sarcasm still wasn't a great option given their conversation.

"I thought that's what I'd been doing with you," Koga answered honestly, a bit of a confused look on his face, when posed with NIGHT's question. "Well you and others. I do in fact get out of the house every once in a while." Koga's thoughts drifted to his recent adventures, quests, even the more mundane things that he'd come to take note of. "I mean, as much as I try, I can't really avoid meeting people every once in a while...and, I guess, I'm getting a bit more out of life than I used to, thanks to that."

It wasn't anger or annoyance Koga felt at the growing pile of insults and accusations. Instead, it was surprise. It really did seem as if he was a stranger to NIGHT. And likewise, she was just as much a stranger to him. "I can't pretend that I understand half of what you're saying anymore. In fact, I think we're reading different books at this point. And its not pride that keeps me from changing. I'd love to see you try and change your entire outlook on life in a day." Exhaustion crept into his voice, despite the fact that the man had stopped dealing with the witless mobs that kept charging at NIGHT's perilous blade. "And I've always known what I wanted from Aincrad. The right or wrongness of that desire doesn't inflict any guilt in me." What reason was there to feel guilty over desires? "It's not pride, or guilt that's got me, NIGHT," Koga clarified for the woman, his voice even and steady despite the scowl that had made it's way to his face. "Its desperation."

Was that difficult to comprehend?

"I want, so fucking desperately, to believe that there's something out in the real world worth living for. But I can't see it. I mean, pardon me if I'm wrong, but getting trapped in a fucking death game doesn't exactly give us a lotta reasons to believe that the real world is a good place."

"better to have hit you, and now, than anyone else i'd have this talk with."

Oh. Lovely. He'd been demoted all the way down to punching bag now. Way to add insult to injury. A small twitch of Koga's jaw was all that hinted at the errant thought, as pointless and off-topic as it could've been.

Not that it served as any form of distraction from the immense amount of annoyance as NIGHT just couldn't seem to figure out how to shut up for once. Normally, it was the other way around between the two of them. It was a struggle getting more than two sentences out of NIGHT, but now he was lucky if that was all he got.

"Make up your mind, NIGHT. Am I feeling guilty, or am I just brimming with pride?" Koga said over the unheard curse. it came out almost on impulse. This wasn't worth the venom he was about to incur, but at this point, how much worse could it get? He'd have been lying if he'd said this conversation hadn't left him feeling wounded. Less so because of their differences, but more so for how viciously NIGHT was willing to dig into him. How vicious they were both willing to be.

"Oh, sweet fucking baby Jesus Christ," Koga sighed aloud, more exasperated at this point than anything else. "Will you quit it with the name-calling and shit? For someone who keeps calling me a child, you sure do seem to like acting like one too," Koga said, anger just giving way to annoyance. He was tiring of this.

"I came here to ask you a question, NIGHT, and get your feedback. Clearly you do not agree with me. I'm not asking you for solutions, or to give me the answers to life. Or god forbid, 'say what I want to hear,' as you put it." Koga crossed his arms and stole a glance behind NIGHT, gauging the time they had before the next group of wandering undead encroached upon their little battlefield. "'Life is not better in Aincrad.' Fine, message received," he stated as his eyes drifted back to hers. "But you obviously have a problem with the fact that I feel otherwise. So yes, I'd say I'm done here." Koga's weapon reappeared at his side as his hands shifted to his pockets. "Unless, that is, you feel like punching me again. Ya know, get your righteous retribution or whatever the fuck it is."

"Oh, don't fucking patronize me, NIGHT," Koga fired back, turning back around to watch as she dispatched some more stray mobs. "What, do you really think I could just watch on the sidelines, content with some fucking fantasy that I know is just gonna crumble to dust one day while everyone else is trying to fight for each other and get out? I couldn't look myself in the fucking mirror if I did that, what I want be damned."

If the whole conversation, if it could even be called that at this point, hadn't made Koga seethe with anger, the last few accusations had. What was supposed to have been a hypothetical discussion, sharing outlooks, had somehow degraded into some conflict of morality.

"What you don't seem to get is that this is still real to me," Koga said gesturing around them, the whole of Aincrad, "even if it's in the barest sense. I'm not gonna pretend that it's not, I'm here living and breathing it, just like you. I care about it. But I still get that it's gotta go. I'm not gonna lie to myself and say it doesn't or make up some bullshit rationalization that its fake and that makes it all okay. This is our reality NIGHT. And for me, it's gonna be a shitty day when it all goes away."

"But DAY? Are you kidding? You're trying to tell yourself she's not real, 'cause why? 'Cause it'll make it hurt less, or make it easier, what? I don't see the logic there, or maybe I'm just missing something else entirely, but she seems plenty real to me. What, to you, makes her unreal?"

"Oh, and don't start getting all high and mighty on me about what games I played, or what the message is. Please, you don't think I'm that dense, do you? I get all that, it's fucking why I wanted to make games in the first place. Because I wanted to believe that there was more to life, that it really could be better. And even if it wasn't I wanted to at least put something out there that could help make it better."

Everything about Jon seemed to indicate a degree of impatience. The words, the near-blinding speed. Were it not that Jon's impatience actually seemed to be of some benefit to him, Koga would've made some kind of snippy quip.

But the opponent's speed surpassed Koga's own, the blitz-like attack hardly giving Koga anytime to move. Attempting to move with the blade, Koga swayed the left. Not quick enough. The wooden blade connected with his shoulder with a dull smack, some paltry padding provided by his shirt. Not that it made the blow hurt any less.

Undeterred though, Koga continued with his movement, gaining a bit of momentum, the pivot and twist of body intended to lend strength to his uppercut as he stepped closer to his opponent, closing what little space was between them. With the blade already well past his body, the tightened fist of left hand intent on driving itself into Jon's sternum.

| 206381, BD6, ouch
| 206381. BD8, attacking

There was nothing at first. Just silence. Heated glares. Words hanging between them like a brick wall that neither could breach to get through to the other. That is, until NIGHT shoved her fist through it.

The blow came entirely unexpected, just the solid connection of her fist colliding with his jaw. Koga's head whipped to the side as everything span for a moment, no presence of mind to take note of any subtraction from his health gauge. Just the flicker of NIGHT's cursor as it transitioned from green to orange.

"...you have to make peace with the fact that we're getting out of here, one way or another."

"I doubt I'll ever make my peace with it," Koga muttered just loud enough for NIGHT to hear before spitting onto the ground. He swore he could taste the metal of blood in his mouth, but no red spots blossomed into existence. "But I've accepted it."

The man righted him himself and turned back to his...could they still be considered friends after all this? He turned back to NIGHT and stared back at her, his gaze meeting her eyes, distant as if looking out at some starry plane of existence he couldn't see.

"when we get out of here, things are going to get better. they have to be. they have to be, koga."

"Well, I'll leave the optimism to you then," bitter words that could only speak to depths of how dark an outcome he foresaw.

Clarity seemed to return to her eyes for a moment, determined, or perhaps, simply focused.

"why the hell did you like games in the first place, you fucking idiot?"

Koga's eyes flitted across NIGHT's face, now more alien to him than the day they'd first met. Any sense of familiarity seemed to have shattered. Or maybe it was just his sense of self that had broken.

The man turned away from NIGHT, step by step, hands retreating to his pockets, as if erecting some barrier between them. He looked out into the distance. The high mountains. The gothic buildings of the settlement, and the ruins that surrounded them. All of it grey and bleak, save for the hues of blood splattered across it all, like some macabre child had thrown a bucket of bright red paint across the floor.

"You said it yourself," he answered her. "Escapism." That's all his life has ever been. Running from one bad thing or another, off to some other world, be it words in a book, or the setting of a game. That was what he'd always done.

NIGHT reached out and pulled on Koga's shirt, drawing him down to her as shouted and shook him. "Are you listening to yourself?" Koga shouted back as she finally pushed him away. "You keep saying she's not real, and then you turn around and cry about how you can't do anything for her. If she wasn't real then what the fuck does it matter?" Koga stepped towards NIGHT again, close enough that he could just reach out and touch her. "This isn't about her being some lines of binary or some shit, NIGHT! That...construct, AI, whatever you wanna call her, she's just as alive as you and me, in case you hadn't noticed we're all made up of ones and zeros right now!" Koga jabbed a finger in his own chest as he spoke. "This. It's not flesh and blood. The only difference between us and DAY is that we have bodies in the real world. Just some more avatars for us to go around and pilot until we fucking bite the dust."

"What in the hell about DAY tells you that she's not alive? That she isn't thinking, and feeling, and just as fucking human as us? Is that not enough for her to be real?!"

Without enough room on the couch to sit beside Kasumi (thanks Gaius), Koga elected to sit in the recliner next to the couch as Bacon buried his face in his tasty milk, quick to make a mess of...well, everything. "Down on Floor One," Koga answered her, thinking back to the few weeks earlier when he'd stumbled upon the miniature boar. "NIGHT and I were helping out a couple of new players, and there wasn't really much to do, so I just kinda started to play around with him." The man reached out and gently rubbed the top of the boar's head with his index finger. "He was hostile at first, obviously," he went on with a chuckle, "but it's not like he could actually hurt me so I just kinda made a game around trying to dodge him, last minute. Guess he found it fun, 'cause by the time we actually left he was friendly." The man leaned back in his chair as people slowly began to filter out, waving good-bye as they exited. "I dunno, I just thought you might like him. It seemed like you could use some company over at your place too, so...yeah."

NIGHT's words stung more than Koga cared to admit. Though he'd never considered himself a martyr, the accusation held some truth. He wanted to die in here. To go out in some blaze of glory for the greater good. It had always seemed like a better end than he deserved.

As to the who...Koga bit back the names he'd refused to utter for years. Stories he'd not told in ages. Old wounds he thought he'd healed. No one had asked him, but he'd sworn it anyways. He couldn't just sit back and watch others suffer, even if this was a life he'd preferred to live in with blissful ignorance.

"You're right NIGHT, I don't know jack-fuckin-shit about DAY. Just like I don't know shit about you," Koga finally spat back, his own weapon disappearing into the virtual ether as he threw his hands into the air. "I've known you for years and I don't know have the slightest clue who you are! But you know what I do have? Eyes! And I can see that you care about her, and that she cares about you, which is why I'm so fucking bewildered by the fact that you can say that she isn't real! Explain that to me, please, because it just doesn't make sense to me."

k o g a the elder wolf Spoiler notes: none Koga Lvl 32/47 | HP: 860 | EN: 120 | DMG: 23 | EVA: 2 | MIT: 30 | ACC: 5 | LD: 3 | BRN: 56 | BLT: 32/20 | FALN: 8 | REC: 4 | B.HEALING: 47/94 equipped battle-ready inventory T4 Demonic Katana <<Tsuki no Hikari>> [ CRSED // BRN I // BLT I // FALN I ] T4 Perfect Light Armor <<Twilight Coat>> [ EVA II // REC I ] T1 Perfect Trinket <<Kashira Cable - Wolf>> [ ACC III ] none skills Spoiler | UTILITY Gathering: Fishing I | Successfully forage for materials on a LD 14+ | 0/49 EXP  Searching III | +1 LD per rank. +1 to Stealth Detection per rank. | 14 SP Night Vision | Ignores any penalties from low light or darkness. Negates the bonus Stealth Rating from low light or darkness. | 3 SP | COMBAT Combat Shift: Single Target | For the following Sword Arts, +3 to multipliers and +2 to EN cost; ST-I, ST-II, ST-B. No other Shifts may be taken. | 10 SP Mastery: Damage III | Gain 1 * Tier Damage per rank | 13 SP Battle Healing V | Recover 5% (rounded down) of your maximum HP at the start of your turn | 30 SP Emergency Recovery | When non-fatal damage would leave you with 25% or less of your maximum HP, recover 10% of your maximum HP after the attack resolves. Effect cannot occur more than once per thread.  When activated if the player has lower than 10 energy remaining, simply reduce the player's energy to 0. | 6 SP EN Cost: 10 Energist | Increase Base Energy by 5 * Tier | 8 SP Charge | Perform a single attack/Sword Art with +5 base damage. Charge attacks have a -1 Accuracy debuff and cannot be affected by any auto-hit effects. | 10 SP Cooldown: 3 Posts | WEAPON Katana V | +7 DMG when equipped with a Katana | 30 SP Stamina | Reduces the energy of all Katana attacks by 2 EN | 4 SP Precision | Gain +1 ACC. | 2 SP Ferocity | +2 DMG when using Katana Sword Arts | 4 SP | ARMOR Light Armor V | +30 MIT when equipped with Light Armor, -2 Stealth | 30 SP Meticulous | +1 DMG when equipped with Light Armor | 4 SP Resolve | +1 ACC and +10 * Tier HP when equipped with Light Armor | 6 SP | EXTRAS Familiar Master: Rending | You and your familiar attack in tandem, applying Rend [7*tier unmitigatable damage] to the target that lasts for two turns. | 10 SP Cooldown: 5 Turns Survival | Increases Healing effects received from all sources by 10%. Grants immunity to all damage dealing environmental attacks/effects. | 0 SP Parry | Apply the energy cost upon proc, not activation. Reduces the final damage of the next successful attack against you by 50% (rounded down) and negates stun/paralysis effects of that attack. If hit by multiple attacks, only apply parry to the first attack against you. Parry lasts for three turns. Cooldown starts when the player activates the Skill. If the player is hit when using Parry, the cooldown is reset to 3 turns. | 10 SP 9 EN, Cooldown: 3 Turns Vengeful Riposte | A successful Parry also returns 50% (rounded down) of the raw damage that would be dealt to you back to your opponent. The reflected damage can be mitigated by the opponent. | 6 SP Cooldown: 4 Turns Justified Riposte | A successful Parry also stuns the target for 1 turn. | 5 SP Cooldown: 4 Turns buffs Spoiler | PARAGON REWARDS Lv. 5 | Earn Col equivalent to 15% of player’s EXP earned in thread. Lv. 10 | +1 LD to Looting | BUFFS <<Well Rested>> | -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat. <<Squeaky Clean>> | The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down). <<Filling>> | Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot. <<Item Stash>> | +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot <<Tasty>> | Turn 2 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Lesser Feast. A Lesser Feast contains 4 portions of the food items sacrificed. Lesser Feasts created this way cannot be used outside of the thread they are created. Limit 1 item created per thread. <<Relaxed>> | Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts. <<Multipurpose>> | Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll.

Letting go of a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, Koga's face slowly lit up into a soft smile. All the pent up nervousness he'd felt seemed to melt away as the woman reached out towards the tiny boar, who immediately began to nibble on her sleeve, drawing out a quiet chuckle from Koga. "Yeah, he might be. He likes milk. I think," the man said as Bacon pulled back against Kasumi. "Oh, you don't have to go anywhere, I got some here. Uhm, go ahead and find a seat, I'll be right over." Gently handing Bacon to Kasumi, Koga went to his kitchen and to what passed as a fridge in Aincrad, an oversized box of ice in a pullout drawer, and procured a glass bottle of milk.

He went over to Kasumi a few moments later with a small dish and the bottle in hand. "He seems to like this stuff well enough," Koga said as he opened the bottle and began to poor some of the liquid into the dish. "Doesn't complain about it like Okami does, at least."

"people who aren't real."

"What?!" The man questioned as he grasped the blade in his shoulder and wrenched it out. How could NIGHT, of all people, think that? NIGHT, who had a goddamn NPC living with her. NIGHT, who acted like that woman mattered to her as much as any flesh and blood person. "How in the hell could you say that?"

"...it matters despite the fact you don't want it to."

And so, what? It mattered that this 'existence' that they were owed was just more suffering? Slower, more drawn out, even more powerless against it? That didn't sound like much of an existence at all to Masato. It just sounded like a life without living, pointless, doomed.

"isn't that selfish? something unfair?"

Another flash of black flames removed the last of Koga's opponents. The man wheeled around to face NIGHT, something akin to rage and fury in his eyes. "You think I don't fucking know that!" he shouted at her, stepping closer. "Of course I know it's fucking selfish, of course I know it's not fair for everyone else to be stuck in here. They have something to go home to." Koga pointed his blade towards the settlement, stabbing the air. "They're why I joined the fucking Frontlines. Because it matters for them!" Koga stopped dead there, eyes boring into NIGHT as he forced himself to take a breath. "But don't pretend that the people in here don't matter either. Don't pretend that DAY doesn't matter, or that any of this is fair to her either."

"She's not bad," Koga explained, going into his inventory to dispel his coat, boots and weapon, leaving him in just a shirt and jeans. The man bowed before stepping onto the mat and continuing with what he was saying. "She's just...eccentric as all, can take a moment to get used to her sometimes. I like her well enough otherwise."

"Sure, let's do it," Koga replied, cracking his knuckles before shaking them out and taking up a fairly basic stance, his hands held up in a guard. It was noticeably looser than what most would consider appropriate however, not a single tensed muscle in Koga's body to hinder his movements.

Jon technically had the advantage in a fight like this. With the blade's extra reach, and the fact that it was...ya know...a deadly blade, Koga would be forced to play on the defensive and look for openings. His only hope of actually winning a fight like this was to find a way to sneak within Jon's guard and make sure he was able to stay there. In the real world, Koga would have just turned and ran from a fight from a fight like this (well, if someone was walking around carrying a sword as opposed to a gun, he had other concerns), but this wasn't real life.

As Koga circled back around to make another strike, the behemoth bellowed in pain, black tendrils spreading across it's frozen body, enveloping it in a viscous liquid. Something about it all seemed familiar to Koga. Was that?

Figure out who that is later, focus on the objective first. Eliminate Zero first.

The giant's health bar was in the red now, Astreya and Nari rushing in and chipping away at some more of its health as they let loose their battle cries. Calls to end the creature came, and Koga abided by them.

All that was needed was a single hit. Coming up from behind the two tanks, Koga sprang into the air, Tsuki no Hikari held low at his side as her rocketed through the air, trailing a crimson light that faded to black. A thundering rumbled through the air as he collided with the giant's chest, his momentum doing more to bury his weapon deep into the giant's chest than any effort of his own.

A low was emitted by the felled creature, like the creaking of a door as it fell to its knees and began to fall forwards, exploding into snow before it could crush those beneath it.

Koga landed on his feet some yards behind the two. "Good work."

"But we do have agency in here," Koga spat back, feeling a swell of anger rise in his chest. "What does it matter that this place is just ones and zeros?" The man turned to engage the next set of enemies as he spoke, his blade igniting as he struck out at the first of the skeletal beings.

Was none of this real to her? Were their actions within Aincrad just figments, doomed to be lost once the servers were finally shut down? "We can act in here. Choices we make matter, but out there?" The first revenant burned to ash behind Koga as his weapon dug into the chest of the next, and then another. "What the hell does anything we do out there matter? We just work our asses off in the hopes we can make ends meet," Koga raised his blade high, "but at least here we can help people." He brought the blade down, but the skeletal figure leaped back, Koga's blade driving itself into the ground. The Red Cloaks then retaliated, and Koga winced as the point of a sword buried itself into his shoulder.

A part of Koga was tempted to inform the two women who'd trailed behind him that he was, in fact, not stone-cold deaf, and that he could indeed hear them. The rest of Koga, which had enough sanity and societal wherewithal to recognize that that was not likely not a very smart move if he intended to keep his paltry few remaining friendships intact.

Besides, it didn't take a genius to figure out what they'd been doing.

As soon as the trio were seated, Koga slouched in his chair, crossed his arms and let his head hang back, eyes closed, only opening them again when a server appeared. "Coffee for me, please. If you've got any honey, I'll take some of that as well," he said when it was his turn to order, and then promptly going back to his pseudo-sleep.

A couple of moments of silence passed before Koga actually said anything to the other two in the form of a question. "So did you guys really burn Col for that last night?"

"If we're being honest," Koga grunted ducking beneath another blade and retaliating, the steel cutting cleanly through the Red Cloak's torso this time, splitting it in two before it disappeared, "if this was all just a figment of my imagination before I died, I wouldn't be too upset." This wasn't the worst thing to see before one died after all. A good friend and a meaningful, if troubling, conversation. The adrenaline and excitement of the fight fell by the wayside for once.

"But, to your point," Koga went on, his words punctuated by the act of thrusting his katan through the throat of another Red Cloak, "I fail to see how us being on the verge of death, the extreme as you say-" A brief clang of steel interrupts him as he parries aside a blow and dispatches the attacker. "I'd prefer to die in the world where I can still act, instead of bed-ridden."

The last Red Clock collapsed to the ground as Koga turned to look over at NIGHT. "Or am I way off the mark here?"

k o g a the elder wolf Spoiler notes: none   Koga Lvl 32/47 | HP: 860 | EN: 120 | DMG: 23 | EVA: 2 | MIT: 30 | ACC: 5 | LD: 3 | BRN: 56 | BLT: 32/20 | FALN: 8 | REC: 4 | B.HEALING: 47/94   equipped battle-ready inventory T4 Demonic Katana <<Tsuki no Hikari>> [ CRSED // BRN I // BLT I // FALN I ] T4 Perfect Light Armor <<Twilight Coat>> [ EVA II // REC I ] T1 Perfect Trinket <<Kashira Cable - Wolf>> [ ACC III ] none   skills Spoiler | UTILITY Gathering: Fishing I | Successfully forage for materials on a LD 14+ | 0/49 EXP  Searching III | +1 LD per rank. +1 to Stealth Detection per rank. | 14 SP Night Vision | Ignores any penalties from low light or darkness. Negates the bonus Stealth Rating from low light or darkness. | 3 SP | COMBAT Combat Shift: Single Target | For the following Sword Arts, +3 to multipliers and +2 to EN cost; ST-I, ST-II, ST-B. No other Shifts may be taken. | 10 SP Mastery: Damage III | Gain 1 * Tier Damage per rank | 13 SP Battle Healing V | Recover 5% (rounded down) of your maximum HP at the start of your turn | 30 SP Emergency Recovery | When non-fatal damage would leave you with 25% or less of your maximum HP, recover 10% of your maximum HP after the attack resolves. Effect cannot occur more than once per thread.  When activated if the player has lower than 10 energy remaining, simply reduce the player's energy to 0. | 6 SP EN Cost: 10 Energist | Increase Base Energy by 5 * Tier | 8 SP Charge | Perform a single attack/Sword Art with +5 base damage. Charge attacks have a -1 Accuracy debuff and cannot be affected by any auto-hit effects. | 10 SP Cooldown: 3 Posts | WEAPON Katana V | +7 DMG when equipped with a Katana | 30 SP Stamina | Reduces the energy of all Katana attacks by 2 EN | 4 SP Precision | Gain +1 ACC. | 2 SP Ferocity | +2 DMG when using Katana Sword Arts | 4 SP | ARMOR Light Armor V | +30 MIT when equipped with Light Armor, -2 Stealth | 30 SP Meticulous | +1 DMG when equipped with Light Armor | 4 SP Resolve | +1 ACC and +10 * Tier HP when equipped with Light Armor | 6 SP | EXTRAS Familiar Master: Rending | You and your familiar attack in tandem, applying Rend [7*tier unmitigatable damage] to the target that lasts for two turns. | 10 SP Cooldown: 5 Turns Survival | Increases Healing effects received from all sources by 10%. Grants immunity to all damage dealing environmental attacks/effects. | 0 SP Parry | Apply the energy cost upon proc, not activation. Reduces the final damage of the next successful attack against you by 50% (rounded down) and negates stun/paralysis effects of that attack. If hit by multiple attacks, only apply parry to the first attack against you. Parry lasts for three turns. Cooldown starts when the player activates the Skill. If the player is hit when using Parry, the cooldown is reset to 3 turns. | 10 SP 9 EN, Cooldown: 3 Turns Vengeful Riposte | A successful Parry also returns 50% (rounded down) of the raw damage that would be dealt to you back to your opponent. The reflected damage can be mitigated by the opponent. | 6 SP Cooldown: 4 Turns Justified Riposte | A successful Parry also stuns the target for 1 turn. | 5 SP Cooldown: 4 Turns buffs Spoiler | PARAGON REWARDS Lv. 5 | Earn Col equivalent to 15% of player’s EXP earned in thread. Lv. 10 | +1 LD to Looting | BUFFS <<Well Rested>> | -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat. <<Squeaky Clean>> | The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down). <<Filling>> | Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot. <<Item Stash>> | +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot <<Tasty>> | Turn 2 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Lesser Feast. A Lesser Feast contains 4 portions of the food items sacrificed. Lesser Feasts created this way cannot be used outside of the thread they are created. Limit 1 item created per thread. <<Relaxed>> | Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts. <<Multipurpose>> | Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll.

Koga stepped out of his room rubbing his eyes tiredly, his perpetual exhaustion seemingly unperturbed by the soft bed and relative quiet he'd had the good fortune of enjoying last night. The man wondered if the other two were awake yet (he hoped not, he wasn't ready to deal with people yet, no matter how close he was to them) and turned his gaze down the hall, just in time to watch NIGHT and DAY walk out of the same door together.

The same door.

Koga squinted for a moment, and then rubbed his eyes, trying to confirm that his near sightedness hadn't suddenly returned in-game.

Yeah, no, they just walked out of the same door.

"Morning," the man waved at the two before turning and heading towards the prospect of some food and caffeine, far too tired to try and puzzle out why DAY had been so set on having a room for herself, only to spend the night with NIGHT anyways.

The wet bandana slapping against Koga's face lamely slid down and draped itself across the edge of the boat, revealing a clearly displeased look on the man's face before he looked over in the direction that Freyd had indicated. "Yeah, I got it, one sec," the man replied, tossing his sword into the boat, unappreciative of it's added weight in the water, before swimming over to the oar, grabbing it, and swimming back to the boat, tossing the oar in along side Tsuki no Hikari with surprising speed. Perks of being a former surfer.

Koga grunted as he pulled himself back into the vessel and seated himself once more. "Sorry. Uh, what were we talking about?" Koga asked as he took his coat off and began to wring the water from it over the edge. "Oh right. I didn't know you knew NIGHT, if I'm being honest," Koga admitted, his eyes focused on his task. "But yeah. Saying she's 'private' is putting it lightly. I've known her for...I dunno, years, and I hardly know anything about her. And she's my closest friend." Was that commentary on him or her though? 

NIGHT dispatched each of the Red Cloak's lazily, almost no effort was required on her part to eliminate them in scores. With the next batch gone in a flurry of glowing digital snow, she began their topic of conversation.

Her disagreement with days old statement however...it surprised him. The man neglected to answer at first, formulating his response as he engaged the next set of Red Cloaks. The Wolf took a couple steps forward, lifted his sword, and brought it down, biting into the rotten flesh of the four undead.

"Because," the man began to answer, as he leapt backwards, avoiding one of the Red Cloak's counter strike. "What do we have to look forward to out there?" It was an honest question. One that probably varied from person to person when it came to the details, but that was not the subject of Koga's line of questioning.

"How long have we been in here?" The man ducked beneath another horizontal slash and danced around another blade. "Six? Seven years? No matter what, we'll be so far behind everyone else when we get out." Koga grunted as he attempted a basic attack, if only to give himself a little bit more room to finish speaking. "That's not to mention the physical toll on our bodies."

"Thanks!" Koga called back to Freyd as he pulled the trigger again, the gun rumbling fiercely as the slug tore into the hull of another vessel. "You're not too bad yourself!" The plan was working. Koga could see the tides of battle begin to turn in their favor as the Landonian vessels fell from the skies, or flew about in the confusion wrought by friendly fire.

Hopping off the gun, Koga drew his weapon again, before opening his messenger again and notifying NIGHT that they were making a push to the bridge, before following behind Freyd.

--

The fight to the bridge was brief. In fact, it was easy, compared to the scuffle in the cargo bay. These soldier, they were a pittance stronger than some low-level floor as far as Koga was concerned. That fact, and the quickly gathering friendly reinforcements had made their final push towards the bridge simple.

What came after they'd all gathered on the remarkably large bridge (seriously, how were they all fitting in there, and still had room to fight? This place was as big as a throne room!) however, was far less simple. The red-haired woman from before tore a steal door from it's hinges and hurled it as the enemy commander. A gust of wind throws the projectile off it's intended flight path, striking someone else entirely. The wind grows in strength, pushing against the players, driving them back from the sheer force. Koga found his boots sliding along the smooth metal of the deck. Igniting his weapon with flames, Koga buried his blade into the floor, anchoring himself so as to not be sent flying until, finally, the wind stopped, a player having cast a barrier to around the Imperator's apparent source of power.

Koga quickly launched himself forward as soon as he was able, engaging the first bodyguard he came across. The clashing of steel began to echo through out the bridge as battle commenced. These were no cannon fodder like the soldier from before. These bodyguards were more than capable of putting up a fight. Ducking beneath a wide swing, Koga retaliated by lashing out at the guard's legs, succeeding in only creating a flash of sparks. Their armor was thick and strong. "Man, I really wish I'd brought a warhammer now."

The blonde haired man was the first to respond to respond to Koga, first explaining that they did not, in fact, all wear traditional garments, and then asking his identity to which, Koga responded with a nod. "Yeah, that's me. Good to meet you guys," he replied looking first at the blonde man, then the woman.

Koga held up an open palmed hand when Baldur offered to let him borrow a gi from the tournament. "No, I'm good, thanks though," he said with a shake of his head before eyes drifted over to the lady of the trio at Baldur's behest. "Yeah, it looks great on you," Koga said with a small smile before returning to the matter at hand.

"Ah...Astralin. Yeah, she's a bit of a strange one," Koga admitted. He'd met her on several occasions, and even fought with her a couple of times. The one thing he'd never really understood was her obsession with trying to replicate magic in Aincrad...but whatever floated her boat.

"I'm good with whatever," Koga answered to his now would-be audience. "I'm just here to beat up and get beat on."

A briefest glance was all that was given to the dissipating bodies behind NIGHT, a not uncommon sight. Were they not NPC mobs, that fact would make the woman sound like a serial killer. Maybe that would make them both serial killers.

Koga gave little more than a shrug to NIGHT's response. "Alright, sounds good to me, I guess." The man would've been lying if he'd said that he wouldn't mind the seclusion. Preferred it even, a fact NIGHT was sure to know.

"As prepared as I could," Koga answered back, opening his stats window to check on his buffs one last time. The man's consumables inventory was woefully empty compared to nearly any other player. He'd always just made due with his base stats in the past, save for a few occasions or particularly difficult boss fight. He'd never liked relying on temporary buffs, despite understanding their necessity.

The man started just a pace behind NIGHT, saying nothing as he allowed her to lead him to their destination, not being familiar with this particular floor. It was macabre in appearance. Dour, foreboding, practically stinking with fear, although that was certainly just Cardinal enforcing the Floor's atmosphere.

A broad, but lopsided grin spread across Koga's face as Freyd created a makeshift eyepatch and asked if it was any improvement. "Perfect, now you look the part," he joked in return, finding that he couldn't remember the last time he'd had such a light hearted exchange with someone. Too often Aincrad bored down heavily on it's residents. Freyd was a bit like a breath of fresh air. An admittedly crazy and deadly one, but what wasn't these days?

Koga looked over at ... Slim Jim? as Freyd addressed the man, apparently knowing far more about the quest than Koga did. Then man momentarily blinked in surprised. "Well, I guess that answers that question," he said flatly before reeling his line back in following Freyd towards the tiny dinghy.

The wood vessel rocked side to side, even in the calm waters, algae and barnacles growing on it's hull. The boat sloshed back and forth as the pair took their seats and made way.

Koga cast another line off, the floating arcing through the air before landing in the water with an audible plop. His face darkened, however, as he heard Freyd's question, the quiet splashing of the water against their boat undercutting the serious question with a layer of discordant calm.

"She's fine, just...She had a falling out with a friend of ours..." the man explained sourly, his lips drawn into a tight line. The man took a deep breath as he felt a swell of anger roll in with the tide. "They fought in Baldur's tournament. "'Friend' went into the fight with intent," he went on, excluding the 'to kill' part of his statement. "Really freaked NIGHT out. It's...being sorted out though. Thank you for your concern."

A moment of silence followed as Koga dropped the subject. He was still seething about the matter, pissed off with Nari. The woman hadn't just tried to hurt his closest friend, but she'd betrayed the trust he'd put in her. The thought alone made Koga want to-

"Ah!"

Koga felt a sudden, harsh tug on his line and the man suddenly pulled overboard splashing into the water with a surprised yelp. Thankfully, this wasn't a game where you instantly died for touching water. It felt cool against his skin. His hair floated like a small black halo around his head as he swiveled about beneath the water, searching for the pole he'd unwittingly let go of when he'd gone into the drink. The water wasn't terribly deep here, no more than perhaps twenty or thirty feet to the bottom. It only took a moment for the man to spot his fishing pole, and right beside it, a small treasure chest.

Koga surface up again near the boat with an excited look in his eyes. "Yo, hold up a second! I found something!" the man shouted to Freyd before diving back beneath the waves and swimming down to the chest. Koga first picked up his fishing pole and dispelled it into his inventory, the blue fragments scattering about just like they would on land. Then, with both hands, Koga grabbed the side of the chest and gave it an experimental pull. It had some weight to it, but not enough that it would hinder his ascent. Taking the container in a firmer grip, the man kicked off the ocean's floor, clouds of sand forming as he kicked his way back to the surface.

The water broke with a gasp, followed by the appearance of Koga's head right beside the boat. Gripping the side of the boat with one hand, Koga heaved the barnacle encrusted wood box onto his seat and hung from the side of the boat. "Look what I got!" he said cheerily. "What say we open it?"

His first treasure chest as a fisher! How exciting. Koga reached out to undo the latch, mysteriously lacking any kind of lock. No sooner had the man touched it did the box literally come alive, swinging open violently, and baring weird fleshy teeth and a massive tongue. "Oh what the shi-"

"Ptui!"

The treasure chest spat something out a Koga, striking him square in the forehead and forcing the man to let go of the side of the boat in surprise, splashing back into the water. Whatever it had spit at Koga landed on the man's seat, glimmering in the light before the chest let out a strange sound, it's whole body shaking as if it were chuckling before jumping over the other side of the boat to sink back down to it's home.

Koga broke the water again with his sword in hand, and an angry look on his face, "Where'd that little piece of shit go!?"

| 205574, CD nat9, LD nat7 +3, +1material, +6exp
    > total exp earned: 14
    > total materials gathered: 1

Koga crossed his arms and felt his posture relax as he watched Ghost prepare fall into an unfamiliar stance. One she somehow seemed confident in, even if Koga had never seen it before. Perhaps she had some sort of martial training in the real world? Koga had found that it was not an unlikely occurrence in this world.

The girl seemed to take a moment to analyze her situation, watching the boars carefully and examining them before making her move. A quick dash was followed by a leap into the air, with Ghost diving down towards the boar's back before either even had a chance to react.

Only for her blade to bounce off the creature's thick hide and sending Ghost careening into the next one.

Was it rude to laugh?

Koga did his best to stifle his laughter, sputtering as his attempts quickly failed. She had been oh so confident, and yet, it was all for naught. "You uh, might want to trigger a Sword Art," Koga reminded the girl. "Cardinal will take over once you activate it, and guide your movements so uh...that doesn't happen. Unless it wants you to miss, in which case, that'll happen anyways."