ChaseR

Chase really wasn't the sort of person to turn to when it came to game balancing, let alone anything to do with numbers itself- his worst subject back in school was Algebra, not out of boredom but more so lack of talent. But that was besides the point. What Itzal was talking about, just sounded like situational stuff and partially, even nonsense. He didn't know much about calculating the damage dealt and couldn't even read it quite too well to be able to tell the differences such a minor change would make.

"Tanks usually get too much unnecessary hate, but I don't think there's even many mobs with thorns-", he tried to provide his own explanation but his sword interrupted him, allowing his attack to deal double the damage if not more, due to the holy effect activating once more. With a slash at the king, his health was quite literally in the reds and almost completely wiped out. "Seems like he's almost down for the count."

The confusion from the boss continued, with the attacks never letting up and cutting it no slack. Slice after slice, Chase lunged back at it and cut at its arm, landing a few more strikes before he kicked off of it and landed back near Itzal once more, giving him the go for another barrage. "Fighting Spirit. Taunt is a waste of an enhancement.", he briefly answered and shared his thoughts for both options, watching his ally run past him and zip right towards the boss that once more, had failed to retaliate in time. In time, accurately enough to even land the attack had Chase stayed there... it was a good outcome all in all. His energy was rapidly dropping, but his opponent's health would zero out first. Even if he kept missing, the little energy he'd lose would allow him to make up for it sooner or later. And this long drawn battle would soon enough, come to an end.

Chase didn't really have to do much to give an answer. A nod, and it sufficed pretty much just fine. Back to beating the hell out of the time king, and just as Itzal managed to dig his sword deep into the ruler's neck, the bluehead's hit went and thrust right into his stomach, managing to get out a gash large enough to deal considerable damage. His numbers were pretty much the same every time, but with the unsteady decrease of the health bar, he was sure there was some difference varying with the effort of his attacks.

"It's not like I have to try to gain its hate.", he told Itzal and laughed awkwardly as the two distanced themselves, watching the boss try to stick an attack right at him but miss. He wasn't letting the fiend's vile claws or whatever reach him and put him down as if hit by a tranquilizer again. "There really isn't a more annoying way to stop you from doing your stuff than to stun or freeze you in place in this place."

Just as the boss had gained all this tremendous confidence and begun to swing wildly at the party, it had lost it when its attack missed Itzal completely. Even more so when it saw Chase getting back off the ground, dusting himself while a red aura enveloped him. And like so, his health was almost back to full, completely healing whatever the previous blow managed to do to him and a little bit more than that. "If this whole paralysis shtick keeps up I'm going to get very annoyed.", he nagged the same way that Itzal was internally, cracking his fingers- or at least trying to, there weren't any bones in Aincrad- and starting to approach the behemoth of a monster once more to carve another attack right onto him.

It seemed as though Itzal was somewhat more used to being paralyzed then. Chase quickly made his way back to the boss, deflecting hit after hit from the boss before managing to get a hit on it- and surprisingly enough, it wasn't another holy proc. That was a pleasant, if anything change. That meant his luck could only go so far and screw him over only that many times, heh. Right?

As soon as his attack had connected, the monster grabbed Chase and threw him into the air before slamming him back down onto the ground, causing him to cough out and groan, stretching his head left and right before losing control and going limp again. "A-A fucking second time...", he grunted. The king really was starting to get more confident and reckless with attacks, not minding delivering more blows even at the cost of his health. They weren't in any danger just yet, none whatsoever, but it was going to get problematic soon enough if the same luck Chase had with holy procs, the king was having with his hits landing one after the other.

And finally, poof went the snake, breaking into tiny crystals and floating away with the rest of his worries about the fight. It was a small monster he could take on, but he'd been running things entirely on his own for so long, he forgot some monsters have much more destructive capabilities than just 'kill the tank'. "Yeah... Sorry for letting my guard down and letting it hit you. The poison is still on us, but... you're alright. Right?", he checked with her worriedly, furrowing both his brows and sheathing his blade with the snake now dead. He wasn't expecting its second head to pull the sneaky move on them and literally stretch over to Nep and bite her in the rear- the last part wasn't that literal. Hopefully. "I didn't even know the snake had that move, and... its poison is still going on. That's... long...", he groaned and shook his head, raising a palm to his forehead and huffing. This was going to take a while, but they were out of the woods for now.

And with Chase down at the ground, things began to move much slower. Or it felt that way at least. His adrenaline rush was starting to wear off, and just when the fight was hard he was on time out due to this stupid paralysis debuff. What a way to go. He couldn't tell what was happening quite clearly, but he could hear Itzal's nagging loud and clear. If anything, he seconded it too. He didn't have a clear visual on the fight however, having been thrown way too far to the side. The boss that Itzal was fending off didn't stay put for much longer, managing to land a hit and paralyze his partner as well, sending him skidding back a bit just as the blueberry's paralysis wore off. "Are, you okay?", he asked and pushed himself up off the ground, glaring at the monster as he gripped his sword tightly again. 

And then came the white haired healer. Just in time. Chase coughed and began to look through his inventory, sending a trade request over to the support player. "It's been sitting here and I'm not sure how a tie looks on you, but you can always play around with it. It'll be useful for you in due time.", he nodded to himself and proceeded to look over the GUI at Valentine, curious to see his reaction. It was an item he was giving away, but unfitting for the time, the spirit of christmas really was coursing through him- gifting things left and right for those that could use them better. Oh, what a jolly (and not winter) time to be alive.

[ChaseR offers @Valentine a <<Sanguine Necktie>> (T3/Light Armor/Light Momentum I, Life Mending I, V. Defensive I).]

It was good, better than ever to hear that Nep could still hang on. And now Chase was angry- he'd said he wouldn't let her get hurt and held back, but it only ended up being a detriment as he failed to keep her safe. She got bitten and poisoned, when he should have been the one to take all the damage. So moving backwards and charging right at the snake, with all of his momentum he tried to slice it down in half, but he failed.

The boss moved around too much, and the damn ground kept sinking right below his feet, moving about and making it more than simply troublesome to get a good shot at the snake. "God, damnit!", he growled and jumped back when the boss tried to bite him again, hoping there was at least a good enough opening that Nep could take advantage of. It should be easier for her, granted she had her better reach and whatnot, considering her spear was three or four times longer than his broken weapon.

It was only moments ago that Itzal was completely worried about the boss. But now, he'd relaxed enough to the point where casual chitchat was nothing beyond the ordinary while the two fought the forgotten king, a simple monster with a boringly simple kit. The same luck that Chase had, was the sort of luck the king needed to make him pull through this.

"Don't wanna ruin your train of thought but that sounds dangerous and our life is on the line.", Chase tried to get him back on the task, while his sword lit up again. Holy shit, what form of karmic retribution was this? He was getting to beat the boss to a pulp, all the strong hits coming out one after the other. Way to talk about luck, right? And as the king's health dropped and dropped, a swing of his arm was all it took for Chase to be thrown to the side and skid along the ground, groaning and letting out a low growl until eventually, he hit a rock and stopped. He just stayed there, limp, while the monster's gaze turned to Itzal and almost pinned itself on him. "... P-Paralyze..."

The fight was already well on the way. The offer that Nep made was nice, having his 'personalized' alchemist was going to do him a lot of work, as if Bistro didn't already extend her help to blue boy often enough. But it was much appreciated regardless of how well he'd make use of it. "No worries. You'll get better with time and materials."

The snake stood there even after Nep's attack, seemingly waiting to strike whenever it found an opening. But it didn't. Chase approached it, and agitated as the monster was, it hissed and threw itself right at the man. He grabbed it with one hand and struck it with the other, holding his sword as he cocked up an eyebrow. "Amphis... As in amphi-dexterous, right? Two heads? Two hands; amphid... No, it's ambidexterous...", he began to wonder upon inspecting its name, but snapping back to reality the monster took a bite both at him with its other hit and then stretched to Nep, leaving them both lightly poisoned. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, watch your shit!", he hissed back at it and practically rammed his shoulder right into its throat, throwing it back and growling. "Nep, you good?"

And now was the final phase, if it could even be called that. The boss was almost dead, its minions being the only tether keeping it still in Aincrad. And they were going to chip away at it right off the bat. People were already killing the rest of the Shadow Horrors left in tact and making sure to free their teammates.

No reason why Chase couldn't do the same. "Let's finally finish this.", he muttered and split off from the party once Jomei finished off the Shadow Horror that was terrorizing, or trying its hardest to terrorize, the party, making a run for Raidou, Bahr and the two horrors left next to the fellow two-handed sword user. Raidou was free as soon as the horror beside him fell, and then Bahr's shackles took a hefty amount of damage, as did the Horrors. "Kill the horrors and we're done!"

Chase let out a sigh, doing his morning stretches as he headed into the shop and opening up his inventory. For a fair while now, he'd been letting these weapons rest in there and do nothing. Maybe it was time to put them up in his shop as for-sale. Nothing expensive, he wasn't looking to make money off of this as much as he was to just help others out. Cause if the weapons were wasted on him, they might be doing much better in the hands of a lower tier player. Not a full on newbie, but mostly the people climbing up the ranks. "Let's see... Five T2 materials each. That should do the trick, it's almost free by this point.", he nodded to himself and after quietly looking at them, he groaned and added some further exchange rates. "Uh... Mm, ten T1 materials each, or three T3 materials. Th-There. Enough's done."

[Cheap Chips is now selling x1 Zero Icicle (T2/Rare/Handwraps) [FRZ I, ACC I] and x1 Zero Icicle (T2/Rare/Rapier) [FRZ I, ACC I] for 10 T1 mats, 5 T2 mats or 3 T3 mats each.]

And having made his way to the teleporter, he spoke the twenty first's name and teleported right away. No thoughts to be had, no second guessing his own plans, just walking straight to the hot springs to catch a break and relax his digitally sore muscles. "I wonder what Blizz would think about joining me. He's frozen and all all the time, but he doesn't seem to mind heat that much when it's not overbearing, like in the desert."

Maybe it was about time to find out, too. He'd have fun playing with the steam, maybe he could use his breath to freeze it into tiny crystals and watch them swim back into the hot springs before melting. A pet was a pet and thankfully, the ones in Aincrad didn't die unless their master did. Checking Chase's to do list, death wasn't on there, so that meant he and Blizz had a long, long road ahead of them. For now, a short one to the springs. Afterwards? A long one until they got out of this flying tower.

And so, he was silent on the rest of the way back to the settlement. He walked and walked, with his hands stuffed in his pockets even while the settlement came into view. He entered the walls and looked around, seeing the buildings, the NPCs hustling and bustling as per usual. Nothing out of the ordinary. No matter what the world was like outside, the world here was the same. Breathing, living and nonchalant, as it should be.

The residents of the tenth, players or not, it was hard to tell at times, conversed among themselves, seeming lively as ever and rejuvenating Chase just at the sight. "No more promising to myself I'll 'take a page out of their book' and shit. Let's just go to the hot springs and relax.", he joked in the back of his mind, running back on how many times he'd finished a quest, returned to a town and watched everything go back to normal (as normal as Aincrad could be), thinking about the people he'd met and how they were so much more chill and lax in comparison.

Kayaba wasn't going to be doing anything from the outside. He would have, all this time if he were to do so. But there was still a part of him that hoped, as stupid as it may seem, that he would in fact get his rematch. The dragon knights would come back stronger, different, with a sense of greater purpose, and he would be able to challenge them again. After fighting the trees and goblins in the twenty second floor on his own, why would some dragon knights be less dangerous?

"Feels wrong to be acknowledging I'm stuck in a game and at the same time, to want the game to be updated. That would mean we're being watched all this time for someone's entertainment.", he quickly shook off the whole train of thought and turned around, ending his question with a shrug. Why? Just because. People didn't need a reason to do things as long as they felt good doing so. That's why so many asshats existed even in Aincrad, with their lives at stake much more than in the real world.

A tiring day as this was, the echo and quest rewards only made him turn back and look over at the castle, curious as ever what could have led up to this. What form of inspiration led Kayaba to create a quest where after killing the nine hatchlings, players would fight their human knight equivalents and then a single 'leader', the 'captain' of these knights who stood stronger than the rest? And by quite a margin too.

There was little thought process as much as the premise could have been elaborated on, and it mostly was a game of hide and seek with the hatchlings, before turning into a game of tag for the knights. Kill this, hunt that, kill that, hunt this. Rinse and repeat until you finally got to Varalys. The reward for this test of patience more than anything else? A sword that you'll have outleveled by the time you put in the effort to get it, and a good fight. Chase had his doubts about Aincrad. Or at least these dragon knights 'returning to challenge him again' in Aincrad. Kayaba wasn't going to be 'updating' a death game.

Before he could really get any farther away though, he heard Varalys' voice once more. Dead as he was, he could hear his echo fading away into the distance. "You've defeated us... however, this isn't the end. We will come back to challenge you once more. For now though, you've proven yourself worthy of my bounty.". His 'dying words', if you will, as nothing else sounded afterwards. And then, the quest window popped up before the blueberry.

A lot of SP, some pocket money, although it was a fair amount higher than usual, and then a sword. The sword was the interesting part. "The Blade of the Fallen Dragon...", he said and read through its enhancements, noticing how it had the fallen one, even if it wasn't an item of his exact tier. "Seems like I found the treasure I was promised after all. If Varalys is to be back next time, I'll know to 'not expect an honest fight'. I'll make sure to stomp him as soon as I can so nobody else with me gets hurt."

He was quick to make the dash for the door, exiting and watching the rest of the tower crumble into nothing but dust and broken bricks. "... The only part that really 'spoke' to me was the end. Literally and not. Shame.", he huffed and sheathed his blade once more, having got hit slightly by some rubble right as he exited. His health depleted, but his battle healing, holy blessing and even vampiric defense weren't letting his health drop to anywhere, for any reason.

"So there wasn't a grand reward after all. Just a dungeon, with SP to give out and little else.", he murmured to himself and turned around, beginning to take his leave from the area. Maybe this was enough destruction and devastation for the day, right? After all, this was a huge part of the floor, but he had no doubts others would have to complete the quest too- something they couldn't do with a destroyed tower like that. It would come back to normal, eventually.

One more floor with the bluehead left untouched, and he was right at the tower's base. Heading straight for the exit, things began to get tricky when rubble from all the above floors piled up and almost the entirety of the second one collapsed on top of the man. He dodged and dodged, but he got caught by some debris here and there. Nothing he couldn't handle. The biggest issue was a massive boulder blocking his only way out.

He quickly took his sword out, holding it to the side and waiting, keeping himself in range for any falling boulders or what have you to hit him. It didn't take more than a few seconds of thankfully, no accidents, before his sword lit up. And so, he used a sword art on the boulder, letting it take all the damage it needed- breaking it in the process and finally unsealing his path back into safety. 

Rocks kept on falling, but now he was no longer at the towers up above, somewhere around the middle of the structure. He thought he would have been safe, considering how the tower was an 'immortal object' like all other structures, but this wasn't just any form of damage. It was a scheduled event, and as such, the tower would keep going down floor by floor. With the ones above giving in, the rocks continued falling like a rockslide next to the player.

Despite Varalys' best attempt to put him in any danger, he was able to dodge any rocks and prevent them from falling right on top of him or even touching him before hitting the ground, avoiding any damage. "I'm glad Grim managed to get out of the way before we reached this part. It could have been way too bad if he didn't get out of the way in time. And if I'm having trouble, I can imagine him too.", he reassured himself during his escape, knowing he was almost at the very bottom of the castle.

Getting down from the first floor, the dragon's shout already began to show its devastating effects. One of the rocks falling from the ceiling down to the ground managed to shake the floor so violently, that not only did Chase lose his footing, he fell to the side too. Even if he managed to regain his balance and soften his landing mid-fall, another rock began to fall right on top of him.

He managed to avoid it, although at the last second, being grazed and taking a hefty amount of damage. He had to get out of here much faster than he thought he would need to, especially if a mere graze was enough to cause this much damage to him. Agile as he was, all these fights, the surprise attack in the form of the roar at the end, the rocks falling all over the place, were too much to handle. And so, he continued his descent as quickly as he could, rushing through the floors one by one where he fought the knights on his way to the very top.

Entertaining or not, there was no doubt the next attack would down the dragon knight. And that's exactly what happened. A slice right to his chest as soon as Chase could and down he went, falling to his knees with his health depleting to zero. But he didn't break. Varalys stayed there, kneeling, as if waiting for something. And wait he did, before he let out a roar in some foreign language, causing the tower to start shaking violently and collapsing.

"No honest fight, huh? That's why even after dying, you want revenge. You know I can't die but you want me to.", he groaned with a sigh and looked towards the exit, feeling bad that he had to leave the dragon knight behind like this. It wasn't his choice for things to go down this way though. That was on the defender of the throne, the tower, more than anyone else. "Fights aren't for the honest, but for the strong. To take down one's enemies is a dragon knight's duties. To protect what's home to us.", were his final words before Chase exited the room and sheathed his blade, knowing he'd have to make a sprint for it.

The conversation kept rolling with everyone, but it was growing to be a cluttered mess quickly. That wasn't the real problem- the actual thing he was worried about was that they were way too in the middle of everything. "... Let's move. We're still in the streets. Take it somewhere more open.", he proposed to the group and gestured them towards what seemed like a plaza further in Tolbana, so they could stay near the stalls to buy whatever they wanted, but not where people would have trouble walking by them whatsoever.

"... There is so many people here, I swear... Just relax... And keep your trap shut with the new guy.", he tried to calm himself in the back of his mind before making his way to the plaza, expecting the rest of the school of fish to get here anytime now. They were all bunched up like salmons after all, right? With a quick glance about the town, it was easy to tell apart which of them were players and which weren't. Putting aside the indicators that Chase wasn't fully used to still, their hair colors were all over the place- at least Lissandra's and his own. So this was the 'protagonist' effect, huh? Gris could probably blend in as some form of local blacksmith, but Plini teetered towards the opposite end of what most NPCs in Tolbana looked like. And so, they all stood, sticking out like a sore thumb after all. "So... Food, right? Any proposals? Bear man has bread. I've nothing but I wanted to buy... stuff. S-So."

Chase could see as much, or little, as Nep could. But he knew that he had also felt the shaking, so it couldn't have been just her mind playing tricks on her. "No, we're close. Eyes out, it'll jump out any minute.", he warned her and took his own sword out of his sheathe, keeping it in front of him silently, ready to counterattack any strike. He was surprised that he had to keep such a battle-ready stance even now, but best leave his partner feeling safe than in danger.

Although his eyes scanned ahead to try and determine where the monster was about to come out from, nothing. Not that it would make a big difference for the duo but it was good to always know. It'd give them the edge on this fight at the very least. Then again, he didn't want her to feel like he'd been ignoring her relatively short response to his monologue. "Alchemists are pretty nifty. You guys make most of what I need. Trinkets are a bad deal, cause I can't make them unique.", and that much was true. Alchemists were, on the long term, way too useful in comparison to trinkets, weapons or armors that one could craft. There were only so many pieces of gear to use, after all.