[PP-F9]Iron Guardian - Repeat

[Mack 0]

Having taken the Iron Guardian quest once before with Ssendom, Teayre, and Takao long ago Mack knew the gist of the quest. The first step was to obtain the quest from the Information Broker, whom the red-headed man knew quite well would betray him at the end of the quest, just as he had betrayed their group the first time around. Standing in the town square, with his arms crossed resolutely over his chest, the hulking axe man waited silently and stoicly for the information broker to appear. Even though the broker was, technically, an NPC the game engine treated the broker as a player character. Which meant at the end of this quest Mack would be earning himself an orange cursor. That was fine too. So be it. That was why, once again, Mack found himself on the ninth floor, hardly his favorite place in the world of Aincrad.

 

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

A blonde haired figure clad in blue summer-like light attire found herself wandering in the hot hell that the 9th place was. By her side, a evenly agonizing white lion huffeed and puffed as she was displeased with the location: "I told you, we're here for Diana sensei, she asked us a favor." said the blonde with an exasperated tone. She'd been repeating this to her companion even since the lioness heard where they would go and had tried since then to ...improve her mood. She let out another sigh as she turned her face towards the road. She showed smile as a semi familiar figure crossed her path:"Well if it isn't the leader of the Crimson blades" she said with a smile. "Long time since I last saw you...well if you scratch the recent boss fights that is" she continued while looking around for the furball that had a bad habit of wanting to dance with Kimba. "Whatcha doing here?" asked the blonde.

[Mack 0]

OOC: Spawning Info broker to get the quest in my next post.

"Repeating the Iron Guardian Quest," Mack rumbled in response to Ariel's question as she walked up. He had something of a familiarity with the blonde woman between boss raids and a few other times that they had run into one another. "Kimba is safe, I left Chewie at the shop with a badly burned deer haunch. Rock hard, he'll be tearing it apart all day long. As for the Blades, we've merged with the Knights of the Blood Oath now and most of us are their strike and scouting team. What have you been up to?" Mack eyed the lion cub as he spoke. Obviously, the feline was not happy about its surroundings. Chewie would have hated this place every bit as much as Mack did, which was why the axe man had left his bear down on the fourth floor.

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

"Oh!" the blonde let out a small surprised expression as she turn around to better observe her surroundings. They indeed looked familiar but she wouldn't know as much as she avoided coming to this floor as much as possible. Making mental check of what quests were here she finally resonated with his reply. "That one!" said the blonde as she vaguely remembered details about the quest. Looking towards her companion who was sick of gathering fire plants, the blonde redirected her attention towards the crimson mountain of a man and simply asked with a smile: "Mind if we come along? This one gets really cranky if she doesn't see some action soon and I myself am dying for a distraction from this heat." She remembered when she invited the guild on a 'training session' but got little response that time, maybe now she'd get to see if this guy is all show or has some skills to back it up.

Upon thinking of guilds his statement replayed on her head. "Oh Knights of the Blood Oath? that means you guys are under Opal's...care aren't you?" she tried to avoid using the word command as some might not act real kindly to being told that they are working under someone. With a wave of a hand while with the other she hugged herself around her belly, the blonde replied to his inquiry: "Me..well... I'm currently guildless, though I have something planned. Mostly focusing on my shop lately."

[Mack 0]

"Yes, Opal and Heathcliff are my commanding officers. I'm the third in command of the Knights now and the Blades are completely mine within the hierarchy," Mack rumbled in reply to Ariel. Just at that moment the Information Broker made their appearance. "You're more than welcome to come along. Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment, I need to go get the quest. Only the party leader gets the Banner of Support and I want that banner." Wandering away from Ariel for a moment, Mack made his way over to the Information Broker.

"I've been told that you know the location of a boss that drops an item I very much want. I will pay for the information," Mack said, greeting the broker. They haggled back and forth over the price for a few minutes, but finally Mack forked over the agreed upon col and was given the information. He then returned to Ariel's side.

"Alright, I've got the information and map location for the Guardian. I did this quest with Ssendom, Teayre, and Takao before that whole... mess happened," Mack said, trying to be delicate about Ssendom's recent death at the hands of Teayre. The red-headed man had only heard rumors and some of them were contradictory. "There will be two Iron Knights, the Guardian itself, and then the Broker will betray us. The game treats the Broker as a PC, so I will kill the Broker and accept the orange cursor as a trade for the Banner of Support," Mack continued, swiping his finger in front of his face as he spoke. A moment later a party request screen appeared in front of Ariel.

"You said you had a guild plan, but if you want a home in the Knights of the Blood Oath I will vouch for you," Mack said, drawing up the deep hood of his crimson cloak that covered Pertinax before he drew Invictus from over his shoulder. "I'm ready whenever you and Kimba are."

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The blonde listened to him and nodded, making sure to take note in the prideful position he was within the guild. She could understand that, positions was something she added to her own guild a while back and got people motivated to ascend within ranks. "Sure take your time!" she said while watching his figure aproach the information. "Banner of support.." muttered the blonde as she then started checking her inventory. "Ah there it is!" she said to no one in particular as she found what she was looking for. But the blonde didn't materialize it, there was no need for it yet. What she did do was to make sure she had the healing crystals at hand. Most of the memories regarding this quest were accessible to her due to the sigh of the object in question. She gave a small thanks to her pretty neet visual memory and then closed the inventory window as the bear man returned. 

She accepted the party request and continued: "Such a coincidence, Takao was in my party too when we took this quest for the first time. I keep telling him that his good nature will be the end of him someday" she said with a giggle. She was well aware of the 'rumors' regarding the two PKers but couldn't care less about them, until she'd talk with her crimson little sister and hear it from her, the blonde would place little faith in those. Still a slight twitch of her eye was visible at the mention of Teayre's name. "Thank you for the offer but I intend to join a different kind of knights" she said in a lower tone and with a smile. She looked at her familiar and got just a bored growl from her. The blonde sighted and after opening her inventory again, she took out a <<Sand armor potion>> (+9 Mit) and smashed it against her right vambrace. the white crowned lion head turned yellow, showing that its effect had been absorbed by the armor. "Okay now I'm ready. Show us the way...leader." she said with a mischievous smile.

Damage Mit Update: 12+9= 21

[Mack 0]

OOC: Boosting the Knights, so they drop loot. Spawn Knights, kill knights, three round, spawn guardian, kill guardian, three rounds, spawn broker, kill broker, turn in quest.

ID: 51386
BD: 1
MD: 3 (Roll for Both Knights)
CD: 2 (No Regen)
LD: 14 (Target: Mack) - Went Alphabetical with it, Ariel: 1-10, Mack: 11-20

Mack: 125/125 (28/30)

Iron Knight 1: 100/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed)
Iron Knight 2: 100/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed)

"No problem, but the offer to join us in the Knights is an open one," Mack replied, tossing Invictus over his shoulder and setting off in the direction marked on the map as the location of the Iron Guardian. "Kimba looks like she enjoys this floor every bit as much as I don't," Mack called over his shoulder, referencing Ariel's familiar. "Based on the information I got from the broker, this time the Guardian's spawned much closer to town than it did the time that I took this quest with Takao, Ssendom, and Teayre. Just a little bit farther."

Almost as if on cue, Mack crested the top of a hill and looked out over a small valley. Sure enough, there were the two Iron Knights that they would have to face. "I'd say ladies first, but I suspect I need to try and tank so..." Without further preamble, Mack went tearing down the hill towards the two mini bosses, drawing his axe back as he went. As he came in he launched a pair of wild roundhouse blows, one at each knight that sailed well wide of their targets. In the process both of the knights raised their weapons and swung slow, languorous blows in Mack's direction which the axe wielder easily dodged.

Edited March 14, 2016 by Mack

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

ID: 51387  BD: 1 (grrr)

Mack: 125/125 (28/30)
Ariel: 181181 (42/44)

Iron Knight 1: 100/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed)
Iron Knight 2: 100/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed)

To Mack's remark, the feline let out a approving growl that somehow turned into a very specific cat miau. The ashen air of this floor started dirtying her beautiful white fur with a shade of gray that got darker with each passing moment. From previous experiences, the blonde knew how difficult and unpleasant will be to clean her fur, for the both of them. Soon she would see the two knights, fewer in number than the last time she did this quest. Looking at the man go, the blonde traced his figure as he tried to land a hit with his axe. A small smirk appeared on her face as she saw her fail. "Time to show what we got girl." said the blonde as she looked at her companion then closed her eyes. The next moment she opened them there was a slim green ring around her silver iris, mark that the two had began 'sharing vision' as the blonde liked to think. But probably it was more like Kimba lending the blonde her 'eyes' so that she may strike more accurately, or at least that's how it felt when she entered this state. With a smile the blonde dashed towards the two, aiming her black bladed rapier towards the left one, trying to catch an opening but fails to land a hit as the mob back steps making her pierce only the thin air of its aftershadow. "Tsk, when did this guys gt so quick." muttered the blonde as she came next to Mack.

Edited March 14, 2016 by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Mack 0]

OOC: Roll us a good LD number :)

ID: 51389
BD: 8 - Hit
MD: 4 (7-3 EVA, 1 Roll for Both)
LD: 7 (Target: Ariel)

[H:1] Mack: 121/125 (11/30) - [Explode Catapult: 3x3x13=117] (-4 Thorns)
[H:0] Ariel: 181/181 (42/44)

Iron Knight 1: 8/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed) - (117-25=92 DMG)
Iron Knight 2: 8/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed) - (117-25=92 DMG)

Spinning neatly, Mack watched as Ariel and Kimba came dashing down the hill and launched their own failing attack on the knights. At least Ariel hadn't one hit the knights with a massive Area of Effect attack. That would have been embarrassing for Mack. The massive red-headed man didn't even have a chance to respond to her quip about the knights before each of them had lurched into motion. Interestingly, both of the knights went straight in to attack Ariel, even though Mack had been the one to launch the initial assault. Both of the massive iron automatons chopped crudely at Ariel who had no problems avoiding the attacks.

While the Knights were attacking the blonde woman, Mack sprang back into action. Flanking to one side, the ginger axe-man dashed behind the Knights and launched an attack of his own. Invictus lashed out from side to side, catching each of the knights twice laterally across the back before Mack tomahawked the blade of the bearded axe into the skulls of each of the Knights in turn, taking a small amount of thorns damage in the process.

 

Edited March 14, 2016 by Mack

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Out of nowhere, the knight bypassed the mountain man and went straight for her. The blonde raise her vambraces out of pure instinct and began making evasive maneuvers. She side stepped to the left, leaving their view with feline-like grace and activated the pre-move for a lesser sword art. She was confident she didn't need more than that to finish one of them. Her blade started emanating a pink aura as she nimbly but with deadly precision, stabbed the knight to the left three times in the chest even before he could turn towards her. It dissipated instantly into pixels alerting the other of her presence to his flank. She showed a smile while saying: "Sorry to disappoint, but I don't have strong AoE attack like you, I specialize more on 1 vs 1."

ID: 51389
BD: 8 [9=4+3 acc +1 Light Momentum +1 savvy(both missed)]   LD: 8 ( 1 mat loot only)
Sword Art: (3) Accel Stub - 3x1*13 / No Charge

[H:1] Mack: 121/125 (11/30) 
[H:1] Ariel: 179/181 (39/44) [-2 Thorns]

Iron Knight 1: -6/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed) - (39-25=14 DMG)
Iron Knight 2: 8/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed) 

 

Spoiler

 

Stats:

• Health: 181 / Energy: 44 / Basic Damage: 13 / Damage Mitigation: 21*
• Accuracy: 3 / Evasion: 3 / Savvy: 1 / Light Momentum: 1

Skills & Mods:

• One Handed Rapier: Grandmaster -> Precision & Rank 5 Ferocity
• Light Armor: Expert ->Athletics
• Charge: Grandmaster ->Bullrush
• Concentration
• Survival

Items:

1. Banner of Command 1/3 charges left
2. 4X25 HP Recovery Crystal
3. 3X20 HP Recovery Crystal
4. Basic Teleport Crystal
5. ^5X15 HP Recovery Crystal
6. Sand armor potion [Dimensional backpack slot]

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2016 by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Mack 0]

ID: 51399
BD: 1
MD: 10
LD: 13 (Target: Mack)
CD: 4 (No Regen)

[H:1] Mack: 120/125 (10/30) [32-66=1 DMG] Bleed: 2/2
[H:1] Ariel: 179/181 (39/44) [-2 Thorns]

Iron Knight 2: 8/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed) 

"I think the lady should take the final attack. After all, these things will never be able to kill us," Mack said, sheathing Invictus at his back and crossing his arms over his chest. "Since you're helping, the least I can do is give you the mats." The Iron Knights were dumb, but they weren't that stupid. Seeing a completely unarmed target they zeroed in while Mack just stood there with his arms crossed. The remaining Iron Knight plunged his sword into the behemoth's chest before ripping the weapon free. "Ow... that tickles."

Edited March 15, 2016 by Mack

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

"As you wish." said the blonde as she rushed towards Mack and blindsided the mob that was attacking him. The redhead simply stood there taking its attack. 'Show off' though Ariel with a smile as this time she stepped directly in front of the mob and dealt the same move with three shots consecutively in a delta pattern with such speed that an untrained eye would see her strike three times at once. As the other mob exploded the blonde picked up the loot as she was offered. "You know once there was a guy that called me a lady, just like you...." she said, leaving the rest to his imagination. "Okay now we go after the big one right?" asked the blonde as she made a slash to her right side, as if to wipe out any remains of the non existent blood off her rapier, a habit she'd picked up from a dear friend of hers.

ID: 51402
BD: 6 [3+3 acc]   LD: 17 ( 1 mat & 500 col loot)
Sword Art: (3) Accel Stub - 3x1*13 / No Charge

[H:1] Mack: 120/125 (10/30) 
[H:1] Ariel: 179/181 (37/44)

Iron Knight 1: -6/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed)
Iron Knight 2: -6/100 (25 Mit, 30 DMG, 2 Thorns, 1 Bleed)  - (39-25=14 DMG)

Edited March 14, 2016 by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Mack 0]

+1 Energy, out of combat
+6 Health, out of combat, healthy full

"I'm not sure what you mean by another guy that called you lady," Mack said, settling himself on the volcanic ground and waiting for his energy bar to replenish itself. "Unless, of course, you mean that you killed him and, I can assure you, I'd have the greatest sympathy for you if that were the case," the behemoth continued in a low rumbling tone, settling Invictus onto the ground next to him. "As soon as I've got my energy bar back up to full we'll move on to the Iron Guardian. I know that thing will spawn if we move a bit farther to the west," Mack continued, making a vague sort of gesture in a westerly direction. "As it stands now, you'd have to do most of the heavy lifting if we spawned the monster right this second."

Edited March 15, 2016 by Mack

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The blonde let out a small laugh as she heard his supposition. Of course it was a false statement but she saw no need to clear that out. She just pointed towards her green marker and said: "That thing hasn't changed its color and I don't plan to do it for a silly reason like that." She showed a smile at the mention of the word 'heavy lifting' and said in response: "I had my share of that." but she decided to take a sit as well in the japanese style in front of him. Her familiar who stayed out of the fighting came along and nuzzled against Ariel who began by petting her head then as she swept her hand down the back of her familiar she continued: "I've been wondering to ask, don't take me the wrong way but for a while I have a feeling that something's different about you. I'm not talking about the 'weird' kind but something else.. more I don't know how to see it. " It was a gut feeling, his overall tone of voice.. the way he acted. Some would dismiss it as simply being..mature? but she had a feeling it was something more...professional than that.

Mack: 120/125 +6 (11/30) (+1)
Ariel: 181/181+6 (38/44) (+1)

[Mack 0]

+1 Energy

"I have no problems going orange, provided there's a good reason for it," Mack rumbled in a low tone as Ariel settled herself on the ground in front of him and began petting her lion familiar. "There is a quest to remove it, offered to help a few people with the quest. I'll be orange at the end of this quest anyway. Side effect of the quest, which is why I wanted a witness to tag along and corroborate my story to explain the orange cursor. I've been ninja punched, as the Jarheads would say, enough times because I didn't have a witness. I'll also PK someone else, if I must, but there would need to be a very good reason. Personal defense, defending another, killing Kayaba, that kind of thing."

"Different in what way," Mack asked, once he had listened to Ariel's question, of sorts, about being different. "Are you referring to the fact that I'm one of the few professional soldiers, I mean in the real world and not SAO, that's trapped in here?"

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Her eyes revealed a half-surprised expression as he started talking about the orange cursor. "Wait wait wait, in your team somebody actually went and killed the guy on his own?" she asked with a puzzled expression mixed with a bit of a laugh. "I hate to break it to you after that nice little talk about self sacrifice and killing the one responsible." the blonde took note of his very military specific analogy. "I'll tell you this, in my party... no one recieved the orange marker." said the blonde with a couple of subdued laughs at the end. She knew that it was wrong to laugh but couldn't help it. She breathed in several times and exhaled the air from her lungs to calm down, as her father thought her. At the end her 'gut feelings' were confirmed as he came forth and revealed a bit of his irl....life.

Mack: 120/125 +6 (12/30) (+1) 2/3 Out Of Battle posts
Ariel: 181/181+6 (39/44) (+1)  2/3 Out Of Battle posts

[Mack 0]

OOC: Spawning Guardian and beginning combat in next post.

"Yes, Ssendom killed the Broker when I took the quest the first time," Mack replied, rising to his feet and snatching Invictus from the ground in a single fluid motion. "I see no point in not launching the first attack on the Broker since we both already know that he is going to betray us. Hit him hard, hit him fast, and don't give him a chance to hit back if at all possible. Overwhelm the known enemy with sheer brute force, right from the get go. Safest way. Orange cursor is a small price to pay for safety," the hulking man rumbled as he offered a hand to Ariel to help her to her feet, if she wanted the assist. "My energy bar is full again, let's go find the Guardian, if you're ready."

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The blonde couldn't help but let out a sigh as she listened to him. Well she did tell him that he didn't need to turn orange for just that. Either way, the blonde resigned herself and grabbed his hand using it to pivot herself up in a vertical position. "Hai, haaaaai!*" replied the blonde, revealing her genuine japanese accent. "If you want to play it safe and get the marker, who am I to say no?". Checking that they were in full health and energy, the blonde nodded and replied: "Okay I'm all goo.." she took a moment as she heard a growl by her side... with a faint smirk she corrected herself: "...we're good. Show us the way!" his tactic was pretty straightforward as she liked it. She almost pitied the two opponents to come for the fact that they will fight in a 2 vs 1 match, twice instead of a fair 2 vs 2. "I guess that's how the quest goes." muttered the blonde as she started following Mack.

[Mack 0]

OOC: Well, Ariel... Kill it if you can. I tacked a 60 pt. Mit. onto it so we could try for a Col drop. :)

ID: 51559
BD: 9
MD: 2
LD: 18

[H:2] Mack: 121/125 (15/30) - [Screw Dimension: 6x2x15=180 DMG (1 Base + 1 BD Bonus + 1 Athletics + 1 Charge + 5 Skill + 6 Weapon)] [-4 DMG, Thorns]
[H:0] Ariel: 181/181 (44/44)
Iron Guardian: 105/225 (DMG: 54, Thorns: 4, Mit. 60) [180-60=120 DMG, STUNNED]

Mack hauled Ariel and Kimba to their feet easily enough and then threw Invictus up against his shoulder. "We shouldn't have to go too far befo..." Mack trailed off as, around fifty yards to the west the Iron Guardian spawned. "Nevermind. I'll go in for the stunning blow, and you can follow up. This shouldn't be any more difficult than the Knights were." With that Mack raised his axe and went sprinting of in the direction of the towering Iron Guardian which made even a player as large as Mack look small. As he charged in towards the Guardian, Mack readied himself to attack. Reaching the creature he whipped Invictus around his body and slammed the head of the axe into the rib cage of the Iron Guardian. Tearing the weapon free he then whipped the butt cap of the axe into each of the creature's knee caps before finally tomahawking it over his head to bury the blade deep in the Iron Guardian's skull, leaving the creature stunned.

"Oh, milady," Mack called, cupping one hand around his mouth and stepping to the side with a grand gesture that clearly indicated Ariel could take her leisure. "Your villain awaits!"

Edited March 15, 2016 by Mack

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

As they were speaking, she saw Mack looked somewhere and followed his line of sight. The thing they were thinking of searching for did them a favor and spawned relatively next to them. "Hah!" came from the blonde with a smile as she couldn't contain her laughter. It was like a lamb willingly coming to be sacrificed. Her eyes traced the mountain of a man as he dashed towards the said sacrifice. He wasn't expected much style as he was basically wielding a weapon at least 100 times much heavier than her own. She unsheathed her black rapier and instantly activated her charge skill reaching Mack's location in a flash of a lightning. Next her blade started emanating a dark shade of blue as she started performing a sword art from her Grandmaster skill portfolio. She drew a reversed triangle on the undead's torso, dissipating his HP bar as fast as she slashed. it didn't even had time to react to her presence as it turned to the all familiar exploding pixels animation. Looking at Mack with a smile she brought her hands to her chest and replied to his earlier cal. "Oh, my hero..."

ID: 51903
BD: 6 [2+3 acc+1 concentration]   LD: 15 ( 1 mat & 1275 col loot)
Sword Art:  (9)Delta Attack - 3x3*(13+5<<Charge>>+1<<Rank 5 Ferocity>>)

[H:2] Mack: 121/125 (15/30) 
[H:1] Ariel: 177/181(-4) (35/44)

Iron Guardian: -6/225 (DMG: 54, Thorns: 4, Mit. 60)  [171-60=111 DMG, DEAD]

Edited March 17, 2016 by Ariel - The Crowned Lion