Katoka

<<Trouble at the Skyport>> The sight that was the Ladonian Skyport was something that Katoka had only heard in passing. When she had arrived on the 26th floor her sights had been set on finding the structure from the start, that was where the quest she had been on the hunt for was supposedly located. She had managed to get a rumor or two from an info broker but not much else, her usual trover of information at he guild hall had yielded little since this particular quest was fairly new. Once the samurai had found the skyport she had taken a few minutes to stand beneath it

Looking out over the pockmarked beach, Katoka felt her breathing begin to stabilize. She was feeling as though the battle was coming to close and her focus as at its peak. It could be over in an instant if she could land the perfect hit. With that the samurai once again rocketed across the sand, making sure to avoid the various holes in the beach so that she wouldn't loose her footing. Even though her hits were not striking as hard as they usually were, she felt that this next attack was going to hit it's mark regardless of it being a crit or not. The familiar hum of her charged attack fo

"Right, busy." she mumbled to herself just before seeing Freyd fall face first into the sand. "Now is not the time for a nap!" Katoka turned her panicked eye back to the blob before them. If she could just find a crit point on the thing she could paralyze it -- no, the risk was not worth it. She would have to resort to a stunning sword art rather than gamble on landing a crit. With a shift in her stance, the samurai's blade began to glow green as she raced towards her target. "Hey!" she called, not really sure if the thing could even hear her, "Over here you poor excuse for an oil slick!"

Katoka watched as the mass of liquid rose from the ocean and assumed some sort of form. She adjusted the grip on her weapon and looked around in a panic, attempting to formulate some sort of strategy. "Freyd how in the hell are we supposed to fight a puddle?!" In a blur of movement a large tendril of inky oily 'water' lashed towards the players, causing them both to jump in different directions to dodge. The samurai dug her feet into the sand as she slid to a stop, attempting to adjust her trajectory for an attack of her own. Instead she managed to kick off and stumble as a charged sword

The battle raging around the samurai was enough to almost distract her. She knew that she needed to stay focused on her own opponent, but hearing the sound of two of the other enemies being killed was enough to put a smile on her face. "Oh good, the cavalry will be here shortly, but for now let's continue our little dance." More arrows cut through the air at impossible speeds, the blonde managing to keep ahead of the projectiles as she traversed the battlefield. Despite the helmet setting atop the mounted archer's head, Katoka could tell he was getting frustrated. His shots becoming more

The sounds of battle erupted around them all, bits of rock and dirt flying in every which way, the clangs and smashes of weapons ringing in Katoka's ears. She watched as her opponent adjusted he adjusted the grip on his bow. A bead of sweat ran down the side of her face in anticipation, when it reached her chin and dripped off there was an explosion of sound and earth where she was standing. Pestilence had, in a fraction of a second, drawn and loosed an arrow at her. However when the dust settled the only thing that remained was a crater and a few crackles of electricity. The samurai was

"Right, crab bake at the beach time." the samurai said quietly, attempting to psych herself up. With that she let out a battle cry, running through the sand and circling the first crab once more. Her blade gave off a light green light as her sword art charged, the whining noise of the system drawing the attention of her crustacean target. As the armored creature turned towards her she slid underneath it's belly, striking at it's legs and cutting them out from under it. The momentum of her attack carried her towards the next crab, her body seemingly moving on it's own as she jumped into th

Nari's quip about her weight made her snort before turning to Freyd, "How insensitive could you be?" She shook her head, attempting to act disappointed, her grin betraying her tone. Katoka turned to the four enemies that stood before them, her eyes rested on Pestilence astride his horse. She grimaced at the sight of him, the living incarnate of disease and sickness. Every fiber of her being wanted her to leave and vomit at the same time, not something she would have bee too keen on doing simultaneously. She noted that her opponent carried a bow, meaning she would be better off fighting as

"Nope! Both somehow alive." Katoka shook her head and grinned. It was a wonder that all they had walked away with was some singed hair and a bit of sand in their clothes. Then again, the sand might prove to be a bit more annoying than anything else. Just when things seemed to be calm, the beach began to rumble. The sand under their feet rippling and shifting as two large mounds began to rise from beneath them both. Kat dove off to the side as the mounds shifted into the forms of large crabs, their back covered in greenish coral not unlike the piece that Freyd had just picked up previously

"I swear if you attract fish on the rotten floor I will leave you behind." the samurai chided, remembering all the aquatic instances of ridiculousness. Kat nodded as Morning relayed his lack of experience with this quest. She too had not tried to take on the horsemen after finding out how girthy their health pools were, not to mention the multiple fights that would take place afterwards. She was not looking forward to the slog fest in their future. The blonde tried not to show any sort of reaction to Freyd mentioning the storm of shadows, however one of her eyes did twitch ever so sl

Crawling from her newly minted hole in the ground, Katoka coughed up some sand and looked out over the beach. Her eyes fell on the floating jellyfish that were making their approach and she rolled her eyes. "How. How do you mange this? I swear your luck is astronomical." With a few grunts of effort the blonde pulled her self out of the ground and brushed what sand she could from her body. The two sea creatures glided ever so slowly across the land, sparks of electricity snapping from their tendrils as they did so. A grin pulled at the corners of her mouth as Kat drew her katana, "Hey, I c

The rituals of everyday life were unnecessary here in this virtual world. You didn't need to shower, to brush your teeth, or wash your clothes. These simple tasks were mundane when you could just automate everything in game windows with the touch of a few buttons. However, the act of going through these motions helped Katoka feel more grounded. To make this world feel like it was more of a home than the prison that held them all in. So in the mornings she would shower. She would brush her teeth and hair, put on fresh clothing, cook a simple breakfast, clean her house, and even perform simple m

In an utter state of confusion Katoka whipped her head around to look her friend dead in the eyes, "What do you mean don't hold on? Freyd?" She looked completely dumbfounded as she watched Freyd wind up and punch the sinking vessel, sending the small blonde rocketing into the air as if she was a stuffed animal that had been sitting at the other end of a seesaw. Once she had reached the apex of her climb, Kat attempted to control the speed of her decent by throwing her arms and legs out as far as she could, catching the air as she fell. The winding whipped past her causing all sound to be

"How did a hole get in the boat?" Katoka groaned as she started scooping water with her hands and tossing it overboard, "How the hell are we supposed to deal with this?!" She felt panic grip her as the water began to rise. She couldn't run across this water without having some sort of solid ground to build up speed on first. She was not too keen on them having to swim back, as that might attract the attention of some other sort of water monsters. As her brain ran through as many scenarios as she could think of she continued to toss water out of the boat with her hands, not that it helped

Whirling around frantically while looking for the next enemy to attack, Katoka felt her shoulders relax as she came to realize that the school of demented fish had been taken care of. The sound of a splash and the now missing body of Freyd sent a jolt of panic through the samurai, causing her to leap towards the rippling water. Her arms penetrated the dark ocean in a frenzy, she called out to Elora as she felt her fingers brush against what she thought was an arm, "Elora! Man overboard! Give me a hand!" With their combined strength they managed to haul the unconscious form of their compan

"Big bois are my specialty!" Katoka called to Freyd as she watched the large angler fish emerge from the void like water before them. Adjusting her stance she leapt off the raft, landing on top of the monster in order to hit it more directly. However she hadn't calculated her sandals, or the slippery skin of the fish. She slid forwards, down the spine of The Lurker as she hit it with a few haphazard swings of her katana. It wasn't the blow she had hoped for, but she saw it's health bar dip considerably from her strike. Using the ginormous fish as a spring board, she launched herself off i

The blonde had managed to gain her sea legs faster than she had initially imagined. With the large fish breaking the surface and causing waves, on top of her and Freyd jumping about (or in Freyd's case flopping about) their little boat was rocking back and forth enough to make most people loose their balance. Katoka however bent her knees and rode the vessel as if it was a large surfboard. She let out an almost maniacal laugh as the boss before them couldn't move at all. Once again she vanished in a flash, this time reappearing on top of the creatures head with her feet planted firmly. Sh

The sight of the boat in front of Katoka cause d her to grimace. It looked as though it was far past it's prime and that one good wave would turn it into splinters. She turned and gave Freyd a pained grin as she climbed in and took a seat. "Should I write my Will now or are you more confident in this things structural integrity than I am?" The two cast off as Freyd filled Kat in on the dealings in his relationship, she of course ate up every bit. A gasp escaped her mouth at the last bit of information and a high pitched squeal that could have shattered a glass erupted from her, "YOU'RE BU

Katoka looked around as darkness enveloped them, "Uhh, wasn't the sun setting like a few seconds ago? It shouldn't be this dark already." Her voice had a hint of concern in it as she placed a hand on the hilt of her weapon. She was glad that she kept it equipped for situations just like this. Cardinal was a fickle thing that could take a nice environment and turn it deadly in a blink of an eye. This was beginning to feel like one of those situations. "Freyd?" she asked as she exposed about and inch of her katana, electricity sparking from the weapon and giving off a soft blue glow that il

A grin spread across the blonde's face as she looked over Freyd's fishing gear. "I don't know why I still manage to get surprised by the goofy outfits and disguises you manage to put on these days. Also, you and any sort of monster having beef is not surprising at all. I would be more shocked if we didn't fight something that ended with us in some wonky dungeon or dealing with a error coded nightmare." Katoka began to walk towards the edge of the settlement, she had looked at a few maps beforehand to get an idea of where to go. The two needed to find a local dock with a boat, then they ju

Standing confidently with her hands on her hips, Katoka looked across the ocean as the three of them began to sail across the waves. She was impressed that they had managed to fashion something as sea worthy as their raft had been, she had a sneaking suspicion that the system would have found a way to intervein in some way. Though now that the thought had crossed her mind she frowned a bit, there was always time for something to happen to them. She quickly began to look over the logs and the knots they had made just to be sure. Turning to her friends as she picked up one of the improvised

Katoka smiled at Elora's joke, "I'm thinking of a nice house boat. Something with a main room with a sectioned off bit to sleep in. Preferably a nice wrap around covered porch." She took Freyd's instruction and severed the felled trees in order to double the surface area of their soon to be raft. She lined them up the best she could before taking a few of the vines that were gathered and began to braid them into a rope like fashion. "I'd rather be safe than sorry, this should help strengthen them a bit more." She lashed the logs together with Freyd and Elora's help and stood back to obser

A sharp whistle pulled the samurai's attention towards the shore once again. She dove under the water and swam in the direction of her companions, feeling happy that her parents had forced her out of the house at various points of her life to make her go swimming. If she hadn't been too focused on games she probably would have joined the swim club in school. "Think we could chop a few of those down?" Freyd asked, gesturing towards some trees on the shore. "We building a raft or something?" Kat asked looking quizzically at the trees and then back to her friends. "I'm sure we can rig s

"Right. Ready, set--" Katoka was standing on one side of the shore in a running starter position, a grin plastered on her face as she eyed the opposite shore. "Go!" The ball of her foot dug into the sand as she pressed all of her weight into her right leg, a sizable crater appearing beneath her before she disappeared in a blur of motion. The only visible trace of her was the spray of water that railed behind her body as she rocketed across the ocean. She felt confident hat this time she could make it to the other side, but that confidence quickly left her as she crashed into the waves, se

Katoka giggled, not directly at Freyd of course, but at the situation itself. The thought of him accidently turning into a chicken or a donkey when trying to slip away had flashed in her mind. She composed herself and turned to her friend, "Hopefully things won't get too crazy for you." "You look all grown up." The samurai looked down at herself, inspecting her clothes and equipment before smiling warmly. It felt like she had travelled down a long road to reach this point in time. She had been to afraid to leave the inn she stayed at for so long before she finally took the first step