Freyd

Taking her hand, Freyd lingered for a moment, looking deep into her eyes. Whether gauging her well-being or searching for something else couldn't be told. The Whisper could still remain frustratingly inscrutable when the mood struck, despite the Coriolis wind of emotions burgeoning within his apparently scrawny frame. A quick and sudden tug put him on his feet, his gaze still beaming into hers with the same defiant determination she and the other were accustomed to seeing. "Everyone will come home safe. I... promise." Bold. A lie? Maybe. A good lie? Probably. The rig

Freyd bounded acrobatically along the rock face, landing at Katoka's side with a barely controlled puff of moss and dust and tumbling back to his feet with a competent level of grace. "Falling with style," he added, before Persi came barreling down behind him and made the entire verdant patch explode like some sort of over=pressurized plant fart. His back side was instantly covered in grass stains and the scent of mildew, his familiar wisely nowhere to be found. "Yeah. Switch. I guess," he grumbled under his hood, jaw clenched and making silent promises of retribution. The tunnel net

Feeling a bit like a favourite stuffy, Freyd just accepted and played the part. It was what his friend needed, and she had long been a better friend to him than he had the right to expect or deserved. "I...errr...thank you," he finally added, oddly humbled by her words and taking them to his tiny, budding heart. Freyd wasn't really used to all the touching. Elora was one thing, his instincts had kicked in there, but Freya's were less expected. He didn't mind, but had no notion of how best to react, especially with one known to be so volatile as she. Maybe having a little sister grow

At long last, the tunnel opened up into a larger cavern, its walls lined with multicolor crystals which had given the caves their name. Nearly a hundred feet across and half again as high, the space looked like some sort of trippy, mob-infested disco or rave. The luminescent glow from the crystals shone brightly enough to light up the space, but also reflected off the hides of the dozens of differently-hued spiders crawling all over the space. It was almost overwhelming in its intensity, particular concentrated near a low rise on the far side of the chamber. There, barely visible through t

He'd have given a pretty penny to have any number of his friends and allies at his side at the moment, but there was no time. Katoka would rally the others, along with Rai, if it came to that. It was doubtful that he could even call Setsuna and Kasumi here, and the quarters were too cramped to have them fighting at his side. They'd been dispatched to investigate other rumoured breaches the moment he realized how dire this threat was. If other locations were similarly spilling out mobs at this unprecedented rate, they would call for aid. Foyle and Litz formed a bastion, diverting the fl

"Not great, but holding. They were getting tired and already faltering when I left. Sykes is with them, keeping them organized and not dead." The fact that another of their own had come to lend assistance seemed to bleed away some of the agents' tension. No one made it in O&I without being competent and Sykes as as reliable as they came. "Given that I have nothing else, we'll go with your plan. You know the situation best." A firm pat on an armored shoulder and ebullient fist bump to the other was all they required. All three men moved into position and made ready to pounce, their

"I won't lie to you: my immediate worry is that this isn't an isolated occurrence. If there are more of these hellmouths about, Urbus could indeed be in danger. The crystal caves have long been a source of trouble, ranging from goblins, to spiders, to worse. I suppose we can count ourselves fortunate that this is limited to the current threat." "You had to said it out loud," Foyle joked, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was the superstitious type. "Cardinal doesn't really need the inspiration, y'know?" Freyd smirked by way of response. "Options?" "Forced entry," Lit

"This was as far as we could manage," the armored knight replied by way of explanation. "The tunnels narrow up ahead and we couldn't beat them down fast enough to force our way through, at least at the pace that they are streaming out." The helmet parted with his head. "You might be able to. It's good that you've come." A nod of thanks and acknowledgement for their efforts. "Do you have any idea what caused any of this? It seems very sudden, and our response equally unusually fast." Foyle agreed, chomping down on some sort of biscuit-like snack with sprinkles - a treat enti

Litz, was a more predictable fellow with a flair for the dramatic. Unlike most of O&I's agents, he wandered the field in blackened full plate that surely had bullseyes painted in ink all over it that only mobs could see. Steel grey eyes and a shock of close-cropped white hair that few had ever seen, it was usually confined to his helmet. The man was a tactical genius on part with Raidou, with the sense of humour to match. Assigning him to missions with Foyle would seem like mixing oil and vinegar, but somehow they made it work. 'Austerlitz' had a storied past involving the loss of mos

"I wasn't even sure I'd find you both down here. Tracking's messed up due to interference. It could just be the sheer number of mobs or else whatever lies at the centre of this heaping mess. It's good to see you both intact." Both men nodded grimly, each showing signs of wear and tear in the form of scrapes and punctures in vibrant orange on their avatars. They were healing, slowly, but a price had been paid to get this far. Foyle, the goofball with musical accompaniment, had joined his ranks shortly after Freyd became captain. Short, compared to himself, the man's features were wor

The battle ended with Mina finishing the beast off with a finely tuned strike. Freyd, meanwhile, was still wondering why Senno was telling him to look at a stacked pile of rocks. 'What the hell am I supposed to do with those,' he wondered, thinking there must be something more to it he just wasn't getting. Montjoy, the Whisper's strongly independent shadow was busy shapeshifting into various snowman poses against the cliff face. Passing a gloves hand through the cloud of dissipating sparkles that moments before was the terrifying sand shark, he nodded his appreciation. "Nicely done, Mina

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it? Am I right?" Hand clasped hand and pulled him our of the morass of melded mob bits that was near to swallowing him whole. Foyle's face, grim yet strangely jovial, laughed as he pulled him out. Both men collapsed, a third finished the few spiders that had gleaned enough to notice their location. The rest of the tide sped downstream, unawares and single minded in purpose. He hadn't even recognized that the music was real, a small, black recording crystal streaming it out from the agent's belt. "You might want to shut that off now," Fre

Audibles screaming in his mind to stop. Spiders still coming, but backlit now by crying voices and light. Fury spent? No. Never. That was always limitless. "Captain! Over here! Quickly! We'll hold them off, just make a run for the tunnel behind us." Familiar sounds funneling their way to his ears and brain though fog and acoustic hellscape that reverberated the clatter of untold feet against stone. No other options. His feet slipped as three spiders struck him at once, their mass and momentum countering his own. A tuck, dodge and roll to get by them. He didn't need them a

Screaming. So much screaming, blended with anger and confusion. Warnings flashing in script that he should recognize. The pattern was unfolding as predicted and reaching the end of its first cycle. Fuel reserves were nearing exhaustion. The spiders... so many spiders. A screen manifested in his mind: two paddles squaring off with a pixel bouncing 'tween them. Everything moved in slow motion and ever time the pixel struck another spider died. Die little spiders, one and one and one again... forever. Was he delirious? Exertion on this level carried consequence in the virtual realm.

But wasn't this precisely what made Freyd a Freyd? Isn't this who I am? Isn't this what I was made to be? Images came flooding of code constructed for a purpose. People in white lab coats... no... hoodies...fed intravenous caffeine and energy bars for the sole purpose of meeting arbitrary deadlines established by the corporate overlord. The game had to be released on time. Communications and marketing were screaming down the house, earning fat salaries for making promises that others actually had to deliver on. Cots in offices. The smell... Snapping back to the moment, Freyd strug

Poking and prodding at various symbols on the cavern wall, Freyd was in the zone and barely aware of Katoka's efforts at his side. Something about these ruins seemed eerily familiar, and not in a good way. But, how was that even possible if this was also new content he had never explored? It was precisely the sort of thing that would nag at him until his lizard brain puzzled it out. Tracing lines of text with gloved fingertips, he also had a dozen open UI windows full of madman's scrawl that might have earned him a prize position at any sanitorium on the outside. Here, it was just busines

It has been too long since he'd indulged in the mired mayhem of the grind. That sublime sense of being in the zone, mashing buttons and executing combos to achieve the desired result. Repetition perfected, harmonious in its impetus towards a stated goal. Destiny must feel the same way, when its hand falls upon you, though perhaps more grandiose in scale and significance. It made him happy. Not the carnage or unfettered violence, but the blissfully serene pattern of intertwined motion and intent. Some couldn't understand it. He, concurrently, often couldn't understand them. This was gam

Freyd leapt off the ledge crashing down and flattening one of the crystal arachnids with the impact of his strike. The surrounding bugs screeched and converged pincers and needle-like legs at the ready. All fell prey to his feint and dropped in droves. He only needed them to cluster in tight quarters and their current tunnel confines did half the job for him. It was a gauntlet run, now, seeing whether he could beat the EN attrition meter or else run into exhaustion and be swept away. The bugs didn't care. Their purpose was simple and clear: get out and devastate. Killing machines always

Watching and waiting, Freyd kept searching for an alternative approach. Could there be a lull in their seemingly endless ranks? Might Litz and Foyle be able to disrupt their flow or buy him a moment to break the tide? He'd tried messaging them, but garnered no response. Wading through the mobs was hardly a concern from a damage output point of view. It was an energy management matter. He already knew that he could wipe them out easily enough, but math governed. After a few dozen, his reserves would be gone and he'd get carried back downstream by the current. Odds were that he'd survive

Spotting a high ledge that traced the same route as the stream of crystals ambling past him, Freyd risked engaging a small group to carve a path. Screetches of surprise were quickly cut short by a roundhouse blow slamming all the reachable mobs into the cave walls and stunning them silly. Focusing on weak points like joints and seams in their chitinous exoskeletons, he soon had them shattered into pieces on the floor. More were already coming, but found nothing save slightly glowing dust suppressed by their own glittering shells as they barreled obliviously through the passage. Freyd picke

Wave upon wave of crystalline menace rolled past him as he hung from sheer cliffs, ducked in tight crannies and even clung to the ceiling in a spot or two. The sheer number of mobs passing by was concerning, and noisy. Solid rock walls reverberated with the thunder of a thousand thousand chandeliers crashing by a highway speeds as they rolled towards destruction. Freyd played through the pros and cons of mobs not leaving bodies behind as he waited for sequential openings to push a little bit deeper. On the one side, corpses could be used plug the cave mouth. On the other, that might lead

"Did anyone else come to assist, and should I look for them?" While not long, searching through or sending messages to the entire team roster would only waste more time. Judging by the torrent of baddies streaming out of the cave, it was also currently their most precious resource. "Litz and Foyle are around here somewhere," came the reply over the barrage of bursting mobs and rain of multicolor crystals all about them. "They went in earlier to scout a location, but I've not heard from them since. If there's a dungeon in there, it could be blocking communications." A nodded

A pair of cries and flashes to their right signaled danger. Two inexperienced defenders had been overrun and forced to use teleport crystals to escape. "Damn. Running explanation it is. Help me close the gap, then I can make my way inside. You'll be needed out here doing the 'keep on keeping' on thing." Sykes grunted his acknowledgement, both men already moving to intercept the charging death machines - Sykes with little more than a dagger, and Freyd with his fists. Cries of alarm from the rest of the player ranks soon turned to murmurs about a frontliner having joined the battle.

Traveling as quickly as possible from the central plaza in Urbus to a set of pre-arranged coordinates, Freyd found a contingent of players already battling waves of crystalline critters emerging from the aptly named caves. Sykes was busy harassing the few spiders that managed to breach their lines, preventing them from causing mayhem further afield. Dressed in garb that might easily be confused with that of any scout or local hunter, the man had a salt and pepper beard and short cropped hair. He was among the older players Freyd had ever encountered in the game, alongside Griswold and selec

"'What if', doesn't matter." Freyd's voice carried the calm of a stilled sea, the softness of fresh fallen snow and the measured cadence of serenity. "I've spent my entire life running from 'what ifs' as if they were trying to force me down a path not of my choosing. Then, in rage, I defied destiny in favour of imposing my will upon the world, all other considerations be damned." A breath released like a puff of fog dancing in the rain. These types of admissions were hard, raw and brutally honest. They were the kind that spoke to a heart of a person, that core buried so deep down ins