ChaseR

'Take up the road'? 'Picnic day'??? That caught Chase off guard, and if anything, the way that she spoke felt similar to his own. As in one spoke too little to the point where he was too abrupt, the other kept running her mouth and sounding like she was trying to imitate human speech. They both sucked at talking, that was already off to a good start. "Er... S-Sure, Picnic day.", he responded awkwardly before shaking his head and stretching a hand out.

"Chase... r... But just Chase is fine. I also suck at holding conversations.", he introduced himself, running his eyes up and down her figure now that they were up close. "So that's how Ariel knew I was a newbie, the armor is a dead giveaway...", he thought in the back of his mind before looking over to the other side of the woman, seeing the blacksmith that had taken care of most of his items earlier up to now. "Oh, bear guy.", he murmured and even though he wore Firm Anima's badge, he felt the least likely to fit in there. He was fine with Griswold if anything. "What are you doing here?", he asked him and blinked curiously, looking at his bags and then back at his gruff face. An odd run-in, but at least it wasn't two strangers he'd run into and probably interrupted.

Today, Chase was on a quest. A quest to go around every floor and look for vanity potions... and maybe some food cooked by the NPCs while he was at it. As of now, he'd finished with the Town of Beginnings at a grand total of literally nothing, moving onwards to Tolbana to make sure that he'd gotten a look through every settlement. With every quest finished and little work to be done, nothing better than fill his inventory with more junk.

Despite all the shops that filled Tolbana with buildings and the like, nothing really stuck out to him as a 'must have' like the rest of his potions. Vanity effects could go a long way if you really just wanted to have fun, after all. So the result was, the bluehead just moved towards a stall with food where there was nothing but bread. Dry, cheap bread. Honestly the least moving food he could go for, but then again that's how he started, spending all his money for lunch in the form of dry and stale, tasteless food. And then there was the greenhead wandering around. She also seemed to be looking for foods, and quite frantically too, so that meant she probably knew better. She skipped from stall to stall, making it hard for Chase to catch her standing damn still for one second, but as soon as he did he let out a less than subtle cough. "... You're looking for food too, right? Anything you recommend?"

"You're right. I should have come here sooner though. Now I'm too strong to have an honest fight with you.", he grumbled in response and prepared a counterattack to his previous strike, dashing in and slamming his shoulder into the knight's chest, before following up with a slash from his broken sword. Finally, a hit when his holy effect didn't trigger. It shouldn't have triggered to begin with, maybe let him enjoy this more, but it was fun although short lived.

And watching the knight's health drop to zero, Chase preemptively sealed his sword back in its sheathe, seeing his figure almost limp. It was then that he noticed, the knight moved towards him and tried to sneak in an attack, slashing upwards towards his head with his heavy sword, barely missing the strike. For how heavy his claymore was, he was much too agile. "No fight is honest. The only thing that matters is dying or not. And this is the first one I've had to worry about such a thing. Your strength... it's entertaining. Show me more."

 And now's when the tension really started to get to him, even regardless of the stakes, or lack thereof. The two dashed at one another, and once more, Chase's sword came right to his 'rescue'. The blade began to glow and swiftly as ever, he delivered a blow right to Varalys' chest. Although it managed to dig quite deep, the knight repelled the strike with a swing of his own sword to prevent it from dealing further damage and stroke back.

Dealing quite a bit of damage, he managed to even chip out a whole eighth of Chase's health in a single blow. He really wasn't something that Grimm would have been able to safely handle on his own, especially if he were the one taking the hits. The tank was certain he'd prepared to dodge anything and everything, but this wasn't it. And before he could say much, Varalys let out a roar and a faint red aura surrounded him momentarily, fading towards his sword before it dissipated in full. "I underestimated how hard you can hit. I see the dragons you killed, hatchlings or not, were no fluke. I see it clearer than ever now."

"I believe you know what's to happen. A fight, duel, as you call it, to the death. You've been slaying dragons to get here, but those were mere hatchlings. I'll show you what a true dragon can do.", he warned Chase in a threatening manner, but the boy didn't waver. As much as his hairs were raised and he was excited to get to brawling with the boss, he knew that he was way overleveled. Perhaps this was going to be much harder than the rest on the way to here though.

"We use the same weapon.", the bluehead pointed out as he took his own sword back out of its sheathe, holding it in front of him, ready to give the dragon knight what he wanted. A fight, one where neither backed down or held back. It wouldn't end very nicely for Varalys, but maybe he could revive himself. There was no way this 'big bad' would just go down like that, right? "Whenever you're ready. Varalys.", he called him by his name and waited quietly, watching the knight closely to see whether he would attack or not.

Reaching atop the tallest floor of the tower, all that waited was a door. Waiting to be pushed, to be opened and reveal the final room. Somewhat skeptical, Chase let out a groan and began to push it, opening it surprisingly quickly as a dark room awaited. And quickly, the torches all lit up in sequence until the very end of it was lit, and at the back stood a throne. A golden throne, adorned in all colors of jewels- the same ones the dragons so far had dropped.

"So you're here at last.", a heavy voice sounded from the Dragon Knight sitting on it, with his sword plunged into the ground and his legs crossed. "Seems so.", the blueberry nodded relatively unfazed and rested a hand on his sword, ready to counterattack whatever the knight had in plan. He didn't seem to try and get the first strike sneakily, instead choosing to slowly stand up and take his sword out of the ground. A two handed one, just like the archetype Chase was using. "Interesting...", he mused, but Varalys wasn't just going to watch. He seemed to have different plans, as was expected.

He went through the small rest with Ozwald just a few minutes ago, wherever he had gone off to now, so that he could be sure his sword wasn't acting up out of being overused way too much. Not that it had in the past, but it wasn't too far-fetched a theory. At least considering how immersed Chase had gotten into this whole mess of a game. Calling it for what it is, always.

The dragon knight charged at the bluehead, ready to slash down at its head with its sword, shield raised high to block any incoming strike. But before Chase could even go for a swinging motion, the blade stretched out on its own, reforming its bright figure and piercing the knight once more, letting him shatter to nothingness almost immediately. "This really has to be my unluckily luckiest day, huh? If only this could happen every time I was fighting something that could hit me.", he said with a tiny smirk, starting to walk towards the stairs that revealed themselves, leading to the very top of the tower. 

Chase gave a nod and with a stupid grin on his face, he stuffed both of his hands in his pockets and began to follow right behind Ariel, throwing his head left and right happily as they kept marching forwards. "... A break, huh. It's going to be nice. I wish I had more breaks up to now. But I don't regret it. I've become really strong."

And now entering the main settlement, the two went right to the pub where Ariel wanted them to. "So many people have not made as much progress as I because they decided to stay cool. Not overwork themselves and keep at it but relax at the same time. Maybe I should learn to do the same once we get out of here. Boss fight and all being over, I should relax and kick back a bit. But still stay at the top. Yeah.". As soon as they entered the pub though, all those thoughts were washed away. Now was time to relax, not think, not plan ahead of time. Just enjoy the moment and live on until he had to go back to meticulously plan ahead in advance.

Trudging up the stairs of the tower, he was on the second to last floor, letting out a sigh and unsheathing his blade from his hip, holding it before him and preparing to strike the knight that came out of the egg. An uncomfortable sight as ever, but as the egg cracked, Chase prepared himself to charge right at the knight and take him down with a single strike. Granted it landed, but he was so buffed it'd be damn near impossible to miss like this.

"... Here it comes.", he mumbled as he watched the cracks form around the egg, letting out a deep sigh and seeing the knight rise from down under. Sporting the same colors and stripes as the final dragon they killed to get here, Smaug, his dragon knight with the same name appeared. This was the final 'hurdle', or would be if Chase were any weaker, before he could put an end to this quest line. It'd fetch him a hefty reward, a good weapon and an even better feeling when he'd finally finished every single quest on his quest log. "This close to completing as much of the game as possible, huh? It's not bad.", he nodded to himself and grinned slightly, his sword glowing as he began to channel his attack.

While waiting for an answer, Chase laid back against the wall and sighed, closing his eyes. He heard a few steps but attributed it to Grimm just pacing around, probably trying to think. He knew he would do the same every now and then, so all was good. Upon opening his eyes though, he didn't see Grimm nor anyone else. He was, for the third time or so since departing on a quest with a friend, all alone.

"... Something must have come up. I'm not sure about Koga, but I know the same was for Alkor. He got way too upset and left. It can't be different for Grimm- maybe not upset, but something important needed his attention. We can always come back here and finish the quest later together either way. But I'm close to the top. Just a final push and I'm going to get it.". And so, he got back up, dusted his knees and began to make his way up the tower. He wasn't sure where Ozwald had gone off to, but now was as prime a time as any to start going all out and cutting through everything. No hype to keep him going, no partner to guide through this. Just back to the old curbstomp of everything that got in his way.

This was one of those times where Chase's filter for 'stop talking' completely went off, and he just started without stopping. And so he did. "Ah, my starter gear I got from somewhere around the first. I was mostly window shopping but with the help of the girl that helped me start out, we went and bought anything we could with my starting money. As for the ones I'm wearing right now..."

"I made my chains and used the help of a friend to make them demonic. I'm an Artisan, so I craft trinkets like these. Then I got my coat early on when doing a quest for a witch from some mushroom monsters I had killed, and my sword from killing uh... 'Ents'? Tree people. I had to use an item from a dungeon to get it a second holy enhancement. I've got plenty of other cool gear but I don't know how to use it yet if I'm being honest.". Given how much he talked, it would be worrysome if at any point he wasn't being honest. And then it struck him that he was borderline monologuing, dropping his smile and wearing a somewhat pained expression. "S-Sorry. I don't tend to speak much. Like this I mean.". Who knew? Some time all alone and suddenly he was more than just a sucker for conversation. As for the boss... they were probably reaching it. Any minute now, it would erupt- just a few steps ahead and there it was, waiting to strike. Underground, of course, but there nonetheless.

The color scheme that Chase stuck with was for two reasons- first, his jacket. Second, the hair color he picked going in, and the one he brought back as soon as a vanity item that could do that emerged. No way he was staying with that stupid chestnut color that Kayaba forced him to have after looking into the pocket mirror he gave to everybody.

"Black huh? Nothing unusual. Haven't seen anyone purple honestly.", he began to nod to himself and looked to the side, knowing fully well some basics- Gaius was borderline green, Yuki pink, himself blue, NIGHT pitch black, Alkor usually brown or gold... There really was noone purple in colors after all, huh? "... Purple is kinda lame.", he huffed and continued to walk forwards with Nep, feeling something almost running right under them but continuing quietly. They weren't quite there, that was just the snake moving about the area. Anytime now, they'd be wherever it had set up its nest this time around. And now, it wouldn't be Chase's turn to zonk it out of here, but Nep's. He had his shot and any time he felt like it, he could always come back and give it a beating- as if that would do anything but kill a bit of time though. He was so high level, he probably would lose EXP for it more than win any. "Actually, hey. Where did you get your stuff?", he asked her and coursed his eyes up and down her figure once more, looking at her gear with an eyebrow raised. 

While remembering things would be handy, there wasn't anything of real importance to add to this even if he did remember it all. Then came a nice explanation he didn't expect. The only form of history that Chase knew were tidbits about ancient civilizations, like the Ancient Greek one over on the 17th floor. But this was relatively new (if not completely) to him.

"So you also had a theme going for yourself? That seems like what everyone else did.", the boy murmured before remembering about the fact he just added an R to the end of his name and called it a day. That's how 'videogames worked', to him. Before stepping in, it was all about 'hiding your identity' and 'playing a role', but as soon as things got real he gave up on any form of secrecy. This might as well be his new life for a fair long while. On the topic of his weapon though, this broken mess of a blade was only the final sword he agreed upon using. The previous one... "... My previous was an actual two handed sword. All the time. Freeze one.", he tried to explain before deciding to look through the menus and before much looking, his stone sword disappeared and a handle appeared before him, grabbing it and holding it firmly to reveal a sword almost his own size. Its blade was made out of ice and its edges jagged, sharp enough to cut one badly even on top of slashes or stabs with it. "Had freeze and bleed. Worked very well with Blizz and my colors honestly.", he finished, only to hear the pangolin chime in from atop his head with a croak.

It had been a week or so since Chase last even crafted, managing to make a headband while experimenting with his materials. And then came this person he'd never seen, moving on to look around and pinning her eyes on the hairband he'd just crafted. "Ah, it's alright. Seen better days.", he responded to her first question, before seeing her place it on the counter. "Er. Same price as everything else. Two materials, tier 1. It's for lower levels, and I'm guessing... you're low? Level, I mean.". If anything had improved over the time he hadn't been in this shop, it was how much he spoke. Not necessarily how he did though. He could still work on it more than enough, but one thing at a time. For now, the trade. He sent her a request, putting up the hairband on the menu. "Two tier one materials.", he repeated and gave her a small smile. The way she spoke was a more than welcome surprise for Chase, honestly.

[ChaseR offers Adventurer's Band (T1/Trinket/LD III) for 2 T1 Materials to @Lissandra.]

"Signifier?", he asked out loud somewhat surprised at the choice of words, but he understood what she meant. If memory served him right... "It's at some flat mountain top, the ground will shake and then it'll appear. I don't think we can notice from a distance.", he replied somewhat uncertainly, scratching the back of his head and letting out a deep sigh. "Yeah, sorry. I don't remember almost any."

And things were back to awkward, quiet. In a (somewhat) desperate attempt to start up a conversation once more, Chase looked over at her and saw the spear once more. "How come a spear?", he asked and offered a small grin, trying to show some form of curiosity for Nep. Company wasn't good on its own. They'd need to have some form of dialogue, obviously enough. "I chose two handed swords because they'd be heavy. Heavy means it hits harder. Or it should. And it does. I think.", he tried to give his own response for his choice of weapon, then giving her some space so she could breathe it in and get the ball rolling.

tbh idk why i put a ph everything is in spoiler and there is no shop post, just crafting

Chase knew jack when it came to game design- he didn't know any other game, to be perfectly honest. But he had to agree with Itzal. In a game with all these different environments, skills and ways of combat to limit a boss to nothing but pure damage was beyond bad- it was bland, it was boring. "You don't say. It's not even dangerous enough either.", he chimed in before feeling his hands weigh him down again and laughing nervously.

"I love this sword sometimes.", he chuckled and gestured for Itzal to cover his eyes once more, before running in. His sword's glorious form flickered back to life before slashing at the monster with a blindingly bright flash, causing even Chase to be slightly knocked out of form. He was back to perfectly fine before the King got a chance to attack, not only shaking the flash off but if anything, seeming somewhat unfazed. Unfazed, unharmed, un-paralyzed, un-whatever wasn't damage by this point. Honestly, could the fight be any less bland? Even the adrenaline rush that Chase was going through stopped due to how much of a complete stomp this quest was starting to become. "If I can keep this up, we'll be out in no time."

The repeated thanks felt weird- then Chase realised he would probably do the same if it were him in her place. He had done that with NIGHT and Shay a lot, right? So he had no say in the matter. As for his previous encounter with the boss... That's when he'd come to do it with Freyd, huh? Blech. "Uh... It's not tough. I was with someone else slightly higher level than me, but... you can probably even do it alone. Let's not get you hurt though."

Although he clearly remembered coming here with the O&I Captain, he remembered the boss next to none at all. "The boss should be easy. I barely remember it.", he muttered and nodded to himself, letting out a low sigh and looking towards the safezone's exit. "Let's.", he gestured towards the gate and began to head right on over. There was nothing the two would have to be worried about, neither in the quest nor on the floor to blue's knowledge. It was just a calm trip back, to think about all the memories from being a ton levels lower and going through this for the first time. He'd be able to reflect much better now that he was a veteran by this point, even if it was only so long after. The most important part was helping Nephthys though. He didn't need self-reflections, he needed company. That's what would really do him some good.

It was almost as soon as the weapon's light-made form broke that it appeared once more, finishing the blade a second time. This time though, the light was definitely much, much brighter. Chase's grin just widened as he realised it was about time his sword began to do what it knew best- help hack things down. "Eyes.", he warned Itzal, as the flash filled the entire room almost. White lightning kept on running through his blade, now certain that it should put the King down too.

By the time the light filling the entire room began to fade away, Chase's attack had already landed, dealing another chunk of health right at the boss. He knew his attack had connected perfectly, and so had the lightning, but the boss really was immune to absolutely everything after all. And it seemed more bothered than anything else, its health now lowered to almost half its bar, and its attack heading right at blue. He rolled to the side just in time, landing a tiny slash on its hand, but it dealt a miniscule amount of damage. Now was time to cover some distance between them too, heading right back towards his partner. "A bit more luck and I can keep up this damage."

For once, Chase heard something in this boss fight that he could agree with. And funny enough, it was from the Shadow, too. With the boss almost dead, there was much less tension than at the start of the fight. He looked over his shoulder and let out a deep sigh, scratching the back of his head. "I'll agree with the black mist. Don't do that again please?"

And so, he dashed right back in and slashed at the Shadow, using whatever momentum he had left to hit the Shadow Horror in the back and grabbing its attention slightly- Mac still had the most of it though. Speaking of these monstrosities, one of them was bound to appear again any minute now. "Keep your eyes up. One might appear again.", Chase warned his party, keeping his sword up and on the ready to slash at whatever horror emerged- little did he know that the boss' health had dropped so low, he couldn't afford to keep up this stupid shtick with summoning minions to do his own work for him.

If it wasn't apparent that Chase wasn't talking to Itzal, the sudden change in mood as his sword answered his cries should have made it clear enough. He grinned and watched the white light begin to gather around his broken edge, forming the rest of it and weighing him down enough to force him to hold it with both hands. "Took you long enough.", he murmured and began to run right at the boss, noticing it didn't have any time to recover and prepare another attack quite yet.

And with a wack right at his legs, followed by an upwards slash across its back, the boss' health lost almost darn near doubled. If only this could happen more, that would accelerate things so, so much for Chase, it'd be just great- for Itzal too, seeing as the two were in this together. The light dispersed the moment his assault was over, and although a white lightning streak coursed from the sword right into the boss, it seemed unfazed, not paralyzed or stopped in its tracks whatsoever. It tried to swat him away in annoyance, barely missing as Chase made his way back near Itzal. "You're up, if you see my sword acting up again be ready to cover your eyes."

The queen was moving- enough fooling around was enough. With a deep inhale, Chase blew the fairy away and being perfectly able to see alright again, he kept his eyes pinned on the queen, more than simply wary with his stance unchanging. And then the same story started all over with Starla too. "She's being way too intimate with you, don't just give her your only weapon.", he cried out to the both of them, blinking in confusion and noticing that Alkor's hair was a little more... blonde. Alright then...

"What're you even th-", he looked to the side at Alkor, ready to get scolding before she came back. The fairy got back up in his face with a slightly bothered look, making him flinch and staring right back into his eyes. Back to freezing he went. "F-Fuck off, stop looking...". No words, just thoughts. "You should warm up to others, you know.", she chimed in and once more, complete silence. Hell, Chase seemed to find his coping mechanism. Looking away from the uncanny faefolk right in front of his face, as much as he could at least. "What was Kayaba thinking putting these things in here... Why are they even so tiny in the first place, why..."

Chase never gave battles that much thought. He tried his best whenever it came to fighting and that's all he did- if there was another strategy, he would try to find it out. If there was another way to go about the same issue, he'd do it as long as it got him through easier. The only choice right now was to focus on the fight and keep using his sword arts until his Holy effect triggered and took a good chunk out of this big bad.

"C'mon, get moving.", he kept on grunting as his sword stayed the exact same, slashing and hacking away at the King with another dash right to him and all of his attacks focused on his head. Another failed attempt came from the damn near invincible creature, as Chase landed next to Itzal and gave him the pass to go back on inside and chip away at his health again. The battle was probably just going to keep flowing this way. One attacks, then the other, then the monster tries to swing back, and it'd repeat just like so until the King was felled and he- hopefully- dropped a good goodie for them to take back home. But whether it'd be Itzal's or Chase's, that... they'd figure out once the drop was in their possession. Just like worst case scenarios, which seemed to preoccupy his partner to blue's ignorance, there was no point in thinking about them before their time.

Tiny pixies or whatever flying all over the place, as well as the ghost of a queen approaching Alkor... He didn't like this any more than he already did. Seeing him give his sword to the queen already took him by surprise. Was everybody really this charmed with the room? And then there was the blonde lady. He looked over his shoulder quickly at Lessa and offered a nod, before looking back at the queen tense as ever- and then the fairy. That tiny little-

It stayed right in front of him, almost resting on his nose, its wings fluttering to keep it in the air. The tiniest movement that'd hint at an attack and he'd swat it right out of the air. "A-Alkor, what are y-", he tried to mutter but found himself barely able to think about what he wanted to say. Staring dead in the fae's eyes, and the fae staring right back just caused him to be more nervous than anything. Complete silence. He kept that tense as ever stance with his sword ready to deflect the first attack to come their way, like a statue dropped among everyone else. "Why is she looking at me like that...", his thoughts raced as did his heart and with a gulp, he shifted his hind foot slightly, curling up his toes and gritting his teeth. "C-Cut it off, I can't see Alkor and the rest..! A-And quit staring!". If only he knew what freaked him out about this so much. How uncanny they looked? How literally in his face they were? "T-Tch."

The only thing to hear in response was a low 'huh' and the fairy just tilted her head, crossing her arms. "What's wrong?". What's wrong?! Did she know how close and personal she was, did she even see Chase's stance? "... Wh-What do you think is wrong..."