Katoka

"Right, let's do it the right way this time." Katoka shifted her stance, bringing her katana into a form she hadn't really practiced much. Holding her weapon with one hand and placing the other on the pommel to reinforce the strike she was about to attempt. Her blade began to give of an orange light, her body remaining still as she focused on her opponent. As she watched Freyd strike the boss once again she saw it stumble, just for a moment, and that was when she made her move. She burst forward, driving her katana deep into Guudgog's ribs. Her attack had finally hit it's mark, a gus

It never ceased to amaze Kat when Freyd would absolutely obliterate an enemy. She knew that this was the first floor and that the mobs here were usually pretty weak, at least in comparison to them all now, but it was still a surprise regardless. Just one hit and he had killed a dragon, "I wonder if the rest of these guys will be that easy." she thought to herself. Snapping back to the moment Katoka rushed to Elora's side, opening her inventory to grab a potion. "Hang on, one of these should be plenty for this little guy." she popped the cork with a satisfying thunk and offered it to the y

Her pride had taken a hit just as hard as she had physically, but she wasn't ready to back down just yet. Adjusting her grip in her weapon Kat nodded to Freyd as he patted her shoulder, she needed to find an opening and carve a piece of this thing herself. She set off in a full sprint, dropping down into a slide as it swung it's tail at her briefly. Her sword let off it's usual blue light, but she realized too late that she had charged the wrong sword art. She was so used to her single target attacks that it was reflex at this point. Had she even used shatter before? Her hesitance transla

"Wait, what?" Kat was confused as Mina was the brunt of Wushen's attack, "Damn, I was ready and--" A shockwave of fire splashed into the lot of them. Katoka attempted block the attack with her sword but she was still hit with the brunt of it, her clothes smoking and a DoT appearing next to her health bar. "Shit, wasn't ready for that." She glanced around at the other groups as they were also hit with different elemental based attacks. "What was the monologue from? Freyd said something about Ronbaru?" she clicked her tongue in frustration. She hadn't taken part in those quests so she knew

Good, he was cracking jokes, at least that would lighten the mood just a tad. "IT'S HARD TO HIT AN 8 FOOT TALL EYEBALL CHESTED CENTAUR LIZARD OK?" Katoka watched as their opponent turned and thrashed about the room, smashing into walls and gouging out chunks of stone with it's hands and tossing them about in a random attempt to hit something or anything. "What the hell is this thing doing?" she asked, as she slid on a patch of moss that she haphazardly stepped on. If she hadn't already been charging her next sword art she might have been able to recover in time, but unfortunately the syst

Katoka made a mental note to never get trapped in the no no zone of SAO. It made hell sound like a vacation spot worth visiting. She watched as Freyd punched a hole into the monster, but that didn't seem to slow it down. Her sight turned to it's tail, which might serve as more than just decoration to the monster. Most animals with tails used them for balance, and if they could knock it off balance then maybe it would be easier to deal with. "I'm going to try and dock it's tail!" she called to her companion, rushing in to sever the long appendage. As she was bringing her blade down the ama

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Her attempts to feign confidence seemed to have no effect. Freyd was on edge more than she had ever seen before. The tension in the air was thick enough to smother them. "The thought of being trapped somewhere like that, somewhere that you're not supposed to be or even be able to get to. It's terrifying." Kat felt her eyes darting around frantically, trying to keep as much of the room in her field of view as possible. She felt small again, like she was level one and had gotten trapped in a dungeon with no way out. She opened her mouth to say something again but felt her skin prickle, it w

The boss's health bars flickered away as Katoka's effect on them wore off. She clicked her tongue in frustration, "Not so fast danger noodle." Her sword began to glow once more, this time she held it low as she ran at the monstrous form of her opponent as it undulated and moved through the air. Once again electricity crackled and gathered around her as she advanced, her body turning into a blur as she leapt once again into the air. She swung Raijin's Corruption, a clap of thunder sounding as the blade connected with the digital flesh of the dragon. The cold metal dug into the mesh, leavin

"I--I don't think it got me." she managed after a moment to catch her breath. Whatever those things were had not been what scared her, it was Freyd's reaction to them. If something had frightened him? That was something to be worried about. "How do you know about these things? What happened with them to have scared you so much?" she looked at him with genuine concern. As he looed around the room Katoka did much of the same, she didn't want to be taken off guard by those things next time. "I assume the boss isn't going to be anything pretty either then?" she attempted to insert a bit of hu

That last attack had actually helped it seemed. The looming dread Kat had been feeling while being unsure of their enemy's health pool was quickly replaced with shock at the sight of six health bars. Thankfully they had depleted the first and were entering the second by this point, at this rate they could potentially hit his half health mark soon. The dragon turned hit attention to Freyd and attacked, this time hitting his mark. She took a step forward in concern but she saw his HP bar barely move. Katoka let loose a sigh of relief, she knew that he wouldn't be tanking without being able

Fuzziel's story was scripted to be sad, Katoka knew this to be true, but it didn't stop at just a sad story. You could hear the anguish in the dragon's voice, see the hurt in her eyes, and feel the hatred in the air. Kat's grip tightened on her weapon's hilt, the fabric creaking under the strain. She knew Freyd didn't see her as he turned to step into the shadows but she nodded to him in acknowledgment regardless. Just before she turned to follow she saw Elora step forward, giving the anguished mother her healing potions. Her grip loosened a bit at the sight. Taking a deep breath and releasing

Kat followed Elora as she made her decent down the ravine and into the mouth of the cave Freyd has pointed out. As the group entered the samurai noticed gouges and scratches in the walls and floor of the stone, this definitely looked like the right the right way. As the elven woman descended deeper into the cave Katoka made note of the greenery and various bits of plant life that still managed to thrive underground here. "Life finds a way" to quote a famous movie involving other large scaley creatures. Kat notice Elora stop suddenly and before she could ask why she heard a roar and then s

Katoka found Freyd's uneasiness off-putting, "Yeah? I always carry some with me, why?" She heard the amalgamations before she saw them. The slapping of flesh against stone, the scraping of god knows what, the groans and hisses. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as they came into view. They were wrong, all wrong. As if a child had taken several action figures of different species and glued them all together. It took all of Kat's willpower not to run away and throw up at the same time. Freyd dispatched one of them with ease, the sound of it shattering knocked some sense back in

Kat was already moving before she fully traded looks with Star. She flanked the demon as it's attention was turned elsewhere, advancing from behind as a blue light radiated from her katana. She struck Azriel at the heel, severing his tendon and causing him to drop to one knee. His health dropped even more, just a few pixels remaining, teasing the samurai as if to say she was a fool to even try. She clicked her tongue in frustration, he was a lot tougher than she anticipated. Her gaze shot to Mina, even if she missed her attack the menagerie of DoTs on the boss would surly finish him off f

By the looks of things their attacks weren't really doing much of anything. The lack of a health bar really didn't help them at all either. "What the hell are we supposed to do?" she asked aloud to no one in particular. Kat had done raids in MMOs before and generally there was some sort of mechanic that needed to be completed, a task or objective met to enter a damage phase or stun the boss. "What are we missing?" Katoka watched as Freyd ran up to graffiti the dragon while he sent Persi to do what she did best, mess with enemies. She face palmed for a moment but didn't really see much els

As she at her food Kat couldn't stop stealing glances at her hand. The ring would catch her eye and it would surprise her as she wasn't used to the sight yet. Each time though a smile would touch her lips and she would stare at it for just a bit too long before going back to her meal. It was finally happening. This had been a long time coming after all. This time there wouldn't be anything that would stop them, nothing to distract them from their plans or make them push the event back. Aside from no one coming. Kat quickly finished the food in her mouth, "Sam, what if it's too late f

"You know, I'm honestly not surprised. Cardinal loves to give you the weird stuff doesn't it?" Kat rolled her eyes. When the husks of what looked like zombie bugs crawled out of their various hiding spaces a shiver went down the samurai's spine. "Case and point! What the hell are these?! Ew ew ew ew!" she watched as Freyd smashed all but one of them with an AoE. As he moves out of the way to let her attack Kat grimaced, she was not happy about having to fight a giant bug. Let alone a zombie one. The fact that it's health bar was in the red meant that she wouldn't have to do much to kill i

It was almost comical how long they seemed to hang in the air before they fell. Once gravity seemed to catch up the two players plummeted down into the depths of the cave, various rocks and debris that had been in the room above pinged and bounced off of the walls and the both of them. Once they hit the ground it was either by design or pure luck that the floor had been overgrown in a soft and rather bouncy bed of moss. Katoka managed to land face down having the wind knocked out of her. She rolled over with a groan and sat up after she caught her breath. "What the hell happened? Did you

No. Seeing Mina take such a heavy hit made Katoka's blood run cold. She froze for just a moment, feeling her hand begin to shake. That moment was broken when Mina drug her out of harms way. It gave her a moment to take in her surroundings and watch the boss' movements. Watching Nari heal Mina she turned to Morningstar, locking eyes with him and nodding. Now was was not the time for more mistakes like that. She returned to her blade to it's sheath and set herself in a low crouch, just a fraction of the steel of her blade visible. Light spilled from that exposed metal and electricity b

"You don't have to spend every second of every minute trying to make it up to me you goof." Kat placed a hand on her cheek, "It's going to take time, patience my love." She sat down at the table as she listened to Sam speak. It had been the most she had said to her in so long that she wanted to listen. She ate a small amount of rice with her chopsticks and watched as Sam pushed her food around her plate. Things really had gone fast for them. From the time they fist met to now it had only been a few months and they were already engaged. It wasn't uncommon during times of war for couples to get

"You know, I'm honestly not surprised that Persi did that. At this rate she could probably take on a raid boss." Kat laughed at the thought of the little shadow creature taking on a floor boss on her own. "Hey you think she could be our tank for the fight? Then you can punch stuff." She did her best boxing impression, throwing fake punches while make sound effects and hopping from one foot to the other. As the two approached the large stone doors Freyd seemed to take and interest in some writing on the wall. Katoka looked at it as well but couldn't make heads or tails of it. It was almost

Kat listened as Sam talked, letting her say what she needed to because she knew that Sam had to get it off her chest, and because she wanted to hear what she had to say. When she had finally finished and wrapped herself around her waist, Katoka pet her head as she cried. Her emotions were in an uproar, jumping around from one thing to the next, but she remained quiet as she took a deep breath and exhaled. "You should know by now that I know just as well as anyone how it feels for someone you love to take a great risk with their life on the regular." Kat placed a hand under her chin to lif

"And I'll take the right!" Katoka advanced on her target, her katana held low as she ran. These enemies were certainly beefy, but she had taken down worse for sure. The only thing that concerned her was the armor they were wearing, it might be too tough for her blade. Bringing her ward up at a diagonal slash she cut the guard from hip to shoulder. She was sure that would have taken him out, however the guard shifted his weight towards her. Kat leapt back to get out of his range and saw that his health bar had only a few pixels left of red. That damn armor. Her blade was thin after all, no

As they all stepped into the boss room Katoka kept her left hand on the hilt of her sword. She walked with her head held high and her chest puffed out, a walk of determination and pride in her group and herself. Then the beast revealed itself and her grip tightened on her weapon. It was massive. Much larger then she was expecting. It took Kat a moment to collect herself. It was Freyd's voice that pulled her back into reality, his calm but stern voice relaying commands and outlining a plan. She trusted him and knew that he wouldn't let them down. Seeing him and Persi explode in a galaxy of