Freyd

Freyd looked like he's just been slapped by one of his own wet fish. The very notion that people would do stuff for a sense of normalcy, comfort, or even as a hobby was still very alien to him. Even sitting here in his vacation clothes forcing himself to enjoy doing nothing was jarring. It felt like putting yourself in time out, from which his perpetual motion existence absolutely recoiled. "Huh..." he finally said, admitting that the notion had sunk in enough to be considered plausible. "Guess I just never thought of doing that before. I... it's not the sort of thing that would no

"It's a valid distraction tactic." "Fair point," Freyd conceded, one eye lazily keeping watch on the water's surface where a worn red bobber floated in anticipation of future action. A quick dip instantly resulted in the flick of his wrist and the sudden manifestation of a seaweed-covered box with rusted trim by his side. Some sort of strange red fish lay draped on the box like a garnish. Freyd sighed, tossing the fish into a bucket to join a half-dozen others, while the chest's lid flew open to reveal a handful of miscellaneous junk with unknown potential. The box itself vanished aft

"Ugh... thank goodness for a little peace and quiet, Montjoy. @Freya had it right suggesting that I should get some rest before the raid. Not that I could admit it, of course. She becomes insufferable if I agree with her." It was difficult to be sure, his shadow being nothing but a silhouette, but Freyd imagines that even his stodgy, conscientious counterpart had smiled at that one. The Whisper, meanwhile, was anything but the spitting image of pure edge donned and cultivated purely for the purpose of meeting expectations. Gone was all the emo-wear, replaced by a pair of plain khaki shor

"Bah! Suck it up. Can't possibly be worse than Slime King," Freyd came Freyd's retort, his shoulders shuddering at the recollection. "So much bad Jell-O..." Catching a glance at the last of the mobs as his blonde blur companion dispatched it with one of her ever swift strikes, something caught his attention. "Oh, that's not good." The cowl flicked from side to side, as if expecting something extra-perilous to suddenly spawn. "Uh, Kat... please tell me you have a teleport crystal on you at all times." It was a rare thing to hear an edge of concern coming from the Whisper. "If this

Dusting off the caked on layer of dust and drifting mob gut sparkles, Freyd slowly emerged from the cavern, calling out for Foyle and Litz to respond. "Are boys still with me? Please say yes. The paperwork for the contrary is too much of a headache." Foyle's giggle-like chuckles confirmed it, Austerlitz also groaning as he pulled himself out from under a thick layer of shattered crystals. Their health bars were in the deeper yellow range, but both would recover. "Come on. We need to make sure that the rest of the players at the outer defenses are still okay." Yanking both

Was it because the player was already dead? Or was the whole thing some sort of messed up quest or event? It was like those rare circumstances where the system enabled bodies to remain, even though death normally caused a player or mob to disintegrate instantaneously. What was going on here? That was as far as his thoughts managed to get, the rest of the chamber erupting into a massive cascading discharge of energy that streamed through the swirling mobs out and down to reach their swarming kin in the tunnels leading out past Foyle, Litz and eventually all the way back to Sykes' positi

"OWWWwww. Fuck!" It was called pain 'suppression', not 'elimination.' Cardinal had taken its due early. His arms had also failed to find purchase, leaving the Whisper clinging to the spar by his legs, the rest of his bruised body dangling upside down and facing the still swellings swarm now increasing aware and agree about his intrusion. "I am so glad that no one else is here to see this," he muttered to himself, knowing that recording crystals of him thigh-hugging a giant phallic prong would fetch a high price in some circles. The brokers, in particular, would have a field day.

His instincts screamed at him to test the stability of the span before he ran. Why? If it's going to fail, I might as well find out while I'm running. Finding out in advance doesn't help me. Taking one step, then another, Freyd was reminded of a conversation with Oscar when the two had first met. In Aincrad, the limits of the real world only exist if you allow them to. He'd watched the man make a crazy superman-style leap up a massive cliff face. It was akin to being in the Matrix and realizing that physics were optional. Cardinal frowned upon such errata and tended to respond if too m

Climbing atop the crystalline outrigger, Freyd balanced upon the thick formation like it was a balance beam, arms out side to spread his weight. The white cluster was just ahead, about twenty feet across the sea of frenzied mobs swirling below, its increased undulations suggesting a growing awareness of his presence. Individual spiders tried reaching up to snare him from his perch, only to be carried away by their brethren. There was another problem: with the exit passage blocked by Litz and Foyle, the tide was rising. "Ughhh... never a break," Freyd muttered, already well aware that

Leaping high into the air and nearly running his hand through one of the wall formations, Freyd leveraged his momentum to spin and leap acrobatically from one set of crystals to the next, keenly aware of the sound of breakage in his wake. No turning back. As long as they don't break when I grab- *CRACK* "Shit!" The slender branch he'd snared could take the force of his movement and snapped like a twig the moment he grabbed it, offering just enough resistance to flip him head over heels into an uncontrolled spin. Instinct alone guided his hand to reach and grab for anything -

A running jump got him atop of the morass of arachnids, where Freyd ran for his life to the nearest crystal cluster, a bluish one that resembled some sort of massive spruce with needle-like protrusions from each main spire. It was like giving a giant cactus a full body hug and would remain one of Freyd's least fond memories for some time to come. Any spiders that had actually noticed his presence were swept along by their kin, unable to challenge him directly. That would change quickly if too many took notice and the swarm itself took an interest. Peeling himself painfully off his pin cush

"Time to break the circuit, I guess?" Direct contact seemed like a bad idea, possibly leading to the same fate as whoever the last fellow was, still clutching on to his own death. Scouring the room for option, the Whisper laid eyes upon a tall, white crystalline formations, some of its massive shards leaning precariously in the right direction. "Okay... so that's an option. Now, how the heck am I going to get there?" The centre of the room resembled a swirling maelstrom of chittering multicolored death, as if an entire vat of Skittles had taken the Jekyll/Hide formula, or whatever Seymore

*Poink* THUD!!! It hit, hard, but not really really hard? Freyd hadn't really been sure what to expect. In fact, in retrospect, the thing had actually missed more than hit, and spectacularly at that. Sure, there was this whole mass effect gravity thing happening, and the boss was looking all ominous in its dark edgelordy magnificence, but something still seemed really... off. Like, Jell-O actually sticking to a wall kind of off. Somewhat let down, the Whisper squinched his face up as he fathomed unsuccessfully for some reasoned explanation and found none. "Umm... huh? Wasn't t

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