[SP-06] <<Deforestation>>

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia hummed to herself as she watched smoke rise from the really tall trees. Like, really, really tall, but she guessed that that was expected. Since she was . . .  y’know, on a floor that was literally a rainforest. Shame that it was being burned down by what, a tiger on fire? 

Real. Shame. 

She yawned as she watched the almost black smoke rise into the clouds above her. Well, it smelled bad. Really bad. 

Would you want to just smell burning trees all day? No? Yeah, she didn’t think so.

“Alright, Pacco. Let’s go get this cat or whatever,” she sighed, hopping off the freakishly big tree root. Like, these things were huge. What kind of normal tree has these big of roots? Virtual trees, that’s what! 

Oh, gosh, the smell was getting even more unbearable now. Why did they have to be a literal flaming tiger on this floor? Where literally everything was just wood? 

Bad. Game. Design.

-Damage Potion: +2 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

“Pacco, I can’t see this smoke,” she wheezed as she entered a-- okay, hear me out-- Literal. Burning. Clearing. Who knows? Maybe it is a clearing because that stupid mob burned the stupid trees down to the ground! 

Her familiar squawked at her before she felt a particular sense sharpen. Sweet! Her bird eye vision was back! 

Literally. 

Though the smoke was still practically in her face, it was much, much, much easier to see through it now-- thank the stars.

“Alright, spread out, you’ve done enough for now, Pacco,” she whispered as she crouched to the ground, her hands reaching to her katana sheath. Wow, that was an odd feeling. Usually, she didn’t need two hands just to unsheathe a weapon. Well, she’s going to have to get used to it at one point.

Her familiar looked at her with its now black eyes blankly before hopping off her shoulder and flying to who knows where. 

“Now it’s time for the real fun to begin,” Cordelia hummed, grinning to herself as a bright red object entered her gridded vision. 

There! 

Cordelia charged into the battlefield of fire, both hands firmly placed on the handle of <<Bloody Howl>> as he raced alongside her.

ID: 125193

BD: 7, Hit | 10x8=80-40=40 DMG [+2 ACC]

MD: 9, Critical Attack [-30 BURN DMG]

Cordelia: HP: 430/460 | EN: 39/46 | 8 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD 

Byakko: HP: 110/150 | 40 MIT | 60 DMG

 

[Cordelia 0]

The girl wheezed as she was sent back into a burning tree. She slowly slid down to the forest floor as she felt her chest start to burn. Cordelia looked down and growled as large three burning claw marks raked across her stomach. 

It left an . . .  unpleasant burning. Yeah, that wasn’t very nice of it. 

Well, at least this wasn’t a complete bust. It just added to the thrill! Something too easy wasn’t fun, after all! 

Cordelia smirked to herself as she saw her health bar compared to Byakko’s. At least she managed to hit the thing before it hit her. Well, is this exciting! It looks like she actually might have to try, after all. 

The player charged up another of her sword arts and charged in back to the battle. Bloody Howl soared through the air as a violent whirlwind came about, diminishing all of the burning wood and grass around them. Byakko roared as the whirlwind send him back, although sadly, not enough to fully knock him to the ground.

Oh well.

ID: 125194

BD: 8, Hit | 10x8=80-40=40 DMG [+2 ACC]

MD: 6-3=3, Fail [+1 ACC]

Cordelia: HP: 430/460 | EN: 32/46 | 8 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD 

Byakko: HP: 70/150 | 40 MIT | 60 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

Man, she really needed to tie her hair up. She really keeps forgetting to do that before a battle. Perhaps having long hair isn’t such a great idea when the only sword art she uses involves making a literal whirlwind.

Cordelia groaned as she spat out strands of her long blonde hair out of her mouth. “Gross,” she muttered, swiping her hair over her shoulders as her hands gripped her katana's handle even more tightly. 

“Alright, come at me, you giant fire furball!” She shouted, her heels digging into the dirt before she dashed forward at the creature with unimaginable speeds.

She unleashed another round of <<Haku Senpu>> which sent Byakko back, again-- and also riling her hair up quite a bit at the same time. 

Cordelia breathed out heavily. Yeah, she was not used to this at all. Such a heavy weapon didn’t feel all that right to her. Can you blame her? She’s been using a weapon that was meant to be light and quick for two years.

ID: 125195

BD: 4+5 ACC [lmfao], Hit | 10x8=80-40=40 DMG [+2 ACC]

MD: 2, Fail [+1 ACC]

Cordelia: HP: 430/460 | EN: 25/46 | 8 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD 

Byakko: HP: 30/150 | 40 MIT | 60 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

Flames sprang to life around her once again as Byakko let out another valiant roar. “Tch,” she bit out, watching her vision slowly start to cloud. “Bring it up, Pacco!” She hollered, knowing that Pacco was watching from a safe distance somewhere around her. 

Another wave of keenness washed over her. Her eyes adjusted to the bright and glowing object charging in front of her. “Stars!” She squeaked, lunging to her right just in time. 

Byakko smashed into the tree behind her, sending splintering wood into the air. 

A grin crept on to Cordelia’s face as she rushed in after the recovering tiger.

“Goodbye!” She giggled, bring her katana down on to its spine rather harshly. It couldn’t feel anything anyways. 

She had no mercy for just of ones and zeroes.

A wave of content flowed through her body as she watched Byakko screech in ‘pain’ before disappearing, leaving shards of red in its place.

ID: 125196

BD: 3+5 ACC [lmfao], Hit | 10x8=80-40=40 DMG [+2 ACC]

MD: 2, Fail [+1 ACC]

Cordelia: HP: 430/460 | EN: 17/46 | 8 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD 

Byakko: HP: 0/150 | 40 MIT | 60 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia’s chest heaved up and down as she leaned her arm against the handle of her katana. “Well, that was something,” she mumbled, a short and dry laugh following after. 

She hadn’t realized that her vision had already started to revert back to normal, but when she did, she gave a small sigh before calling out for her familiar. “Pacco! The battle is over, buddy. Come down now!” 

As if literally-- on cue, her raven swooped down from the diminishing canopy and landed on her shoulder almost silently. 

“That was . . .  an interesting battle. I don’t think I’ve ever gone against anything that has a specialty in fire,” she muttered, her hand instinctively moving to hover over her already healed stomach. 

“Miracles of video games,” she mumbled with a light chuckle. 

She dropped her head and averted her eyes to the sky. 

Odd. 

Usually, she wouldn’t be able to see the sky, but now that that thing had burned up the majority of the space around it, she could see the blue sky clearly. 

“Alright. We’ll rest up a little bit back at town and then we’ll go hunting for a bit. The day is still relatively young, anyway.”

HP: 445/460 [+15 HP]

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia sighed as she rested her head against the hard jungle trunk of some random tree. She wanted to completely heal for a bit before she started to grind for some loot.

Maybe she should go to a different floor, too.

Floor six was great and all, but she needed better loot, especially since she was going to rank up in a tier very, very, very soon. Any day now and she would have a huge power spike. That was good. More damage is dealt, though she was fairly certain that she wouldn’t need to change anything in her gear but her weapon. Oscar’s weapon was great and all . . . but she felt awkward using the weapon of someone . . . y’know, she rejected. Plus, it was really her style. He might be going for more a critical hit DPS or something like that but she needed straight damage on her weapon since she had Pacco already.

HP: 460/460 [+15 HP]

[Cordelia 0]

[FLOOR ELEVEN]

Cordelia mumbled under her breath as she got low to the ground.

Floor eleven. Wonderful.

She never really liked this floor, and she would question you if you did. 

Ah, floor eleven. The floor of giant ants and ant people. What kind of sick monster developed this floor and where could she find them?

“Alright, Pacco,” she muttered, just barely audible. “Sight and then get out of here. I don’t know the patterns on these kinds of mobs so I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Pacco gave-- a nod?-- and fluttered off without a sound. 

Well, today was going to be interesting. Her AoE isn’t the sharpest tool in her shed at the moment, so she was going to try to refrain from attracting a large crowd of . . . ants.

A shudder went down her spine as she thought about it. She was going to have to fight literal ants. Ants! Of all things this floor could be based on, it’s ants! Why!?

[All Energy is Regained]

HP: 460/460

ENEMY: 

Giant Bullet Ant #1: HP: 230/230 | 69 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia almost shrieked when the ground erupted in front of her. 

“Holy smokes-” She yelped, falling back just slightly, her free hand outstretching behind her to prop her up before she hit the ground. 

“Oh my,” she muttered, using her hand to launch herself into the air, doing a small somersault before landing on her two feet, both hands gripped tightly un her unsheathed katana.

An ant.

She should’ve expected this.

Well, she did expect it, but it was unexpected. Did that make sense? It made sense. It made sense to her at least.

Right in front of her-- was . . . 

A giant ant.

Holding a sword.

On two legs.

What was this world coming to?

The art let out . . . an ant sound, and charged after her-- with its sword. That was an odd thought to think about. 

The girl squeaked and held up her katana in defense. The sound of metal against metal screeched through the air the sword dragged down her katana.

ID: 125210

BD: 3+2=5, Fail

MD: 6-3=3, Fail [+1 ACC]

Cordelia: HP: 460/460 | EN: 45/46 | 10 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD

Giant Bullet Ant #1: HP: 230/230 | 69 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia hissed through her clenched teeth as the sword got closer and closer to her hands. 

I’m going to get hit if this continues for any longer, she thought, narrowing her eyes at the ant before using a quick spurt of energy to deflect the sword away from her. 

The ant squeaked and took a few steps back. 

“W-wait,” she muttered, her brows furrowing as she took a good long look at the ant. “Don’t ants have . . . six legs-” As if on cue, the ant revealed its other four legs-- er, arms? 

With. Four. Swords. Also, when did it get that second sword!?

Why was she fighting something with six swords!? 

This wasn’t fair. Not fair at all.

She called blasphemy! 

Cordelia growled as she lunged at the ant, her katana high above her head as she swung it down on the ant’s abdomen. She smirked in victory but it quickly fell when it raised all six of its swords art. 

“Well, fu-”

ID: 125210

BD: 3+2+1=6, Success [+2 ACC]

10x8=80 DMG

MD: 9, Critical Attack

Cordelia: HP: 390/460 | EN: 38/46 | 10 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD

Giant Bullet Ant #1: HP: 150/230 | 69 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia felt the wind leave her as the force of impact hit her. Her back fell to the ground with a really, really, really loud thud, and she was pretty sure if she had bones, they would definitely be broken.

Her grip on her katana loosened just enough for it to fall out of her grasp, landing at least a meter or more away from her. 

Her head twitched as she looked at the ant with a fire in her steel-gray eyes. The ant, again, raised all six of it swords above it, preparing to pummel to her ground once again. Her brows scrunched up as she rolled to her side just before the ant slammed all of its weapons to the ground, creating a noticeable crack. 

Yeah, that would’ve hurt.

Cordelia hopped to her feet and made a dash for her katana. She smirked as she rounded back to the ant, who was still trying to pull all of its swords out of the ground. 

“Payback is a [female dog].”

ID: 125218

BD: 4+2=6, Success [+2 ACC]

10x8=80 DMG

MD: 4-3=1, Miss [+1 ACC]

Cordelia: HP: 390/460 | EN: 31/46 | 10 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD

Giant Bullet Ant #1: HP: 70/230 | 69 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

First slash, check!

From the corner of her gridded vision, she spotted the ant-- trying to, at least-- sneakily readying up one of its swords.

“Nice try!” She said with a laugh, ducking before the sword slashed at her. 

Shwing!

The sword passed by her head in almost a slow-mo fashion.

She smirked to herself as she spun around, slicing the ant right in half. 

The three-legged creature shrieked for a split second before falling victim to the odd death sequence. 

Cordelia’s chest heaved forward and back for a few seconds as she caught her breath before she stood up to her full height. 

“Well, that was interesting,” she pointed out to nobody in particular, a small smile spreading across her face as she sheathed her katana. 

“Well, that’s that, I should probably get back to the town. An ant with six swords kind of pooped me out, not to mention-”

ID: 125218

BD: 10, [+2 ACC]

Cordelia: HP: 390/460 | EN: 26/46 | 10 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD

Giant Bullet Ant #1: HP: 0/230 | 69 DMG

LOOT:

Spoiler

ID: 125231

LD: 20

CD: 8

1 Perfect Armor/Shield
1 Perfect Trinket
1,610 Col

 

[Cordelia 0]

Just as Cordelia was about to leave, a deep rumble echoed through the area around her.

“Oh, come on-” 

Another ant.

With six arms.

And six swords. 

Now that wasn’t very fair of Kayaba . . .

Cordelia growled under her breath as she unsheathed her katana-- hopefully for the last damn time. Because it’s actually very tiring to be constantly sheathing and unsheathing a sword, especially if it is such a heavy one like this one. She loves it to death, but heavy swords really weren’t her type. Perhaps she should get a katana of a lighter metal. That could probably solve this whole problem of hers . . .

That’s how blacksmithing works, right? Different metals produce different weapons? Awe, she hoped so. 

She really, really, really, did not want to stick to a heavy sword forever. Katanas were great! It’s definitely her kind of style, but the sword itself is such a drag . . . literally.

ID: 125218

BD: 1+2=3, Fail

MD: 1, Fail [+1 ACC]

Cordelia: HP: 390/460 | EN: 25/46 | 10 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD

Giant Bullet Ant #2: HP: 230/230 | 69 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia grit her teeth together as she fought to keep all six blades off of her. She felt like her katana was going to snap from all of this damn tension!

She placed her right hand on the blade, feeling the raw power really get to her. 

“Crap,” she muttered, feeling her boots sink deeper and deeper into the ground. 

“That’s . . . not . . . very . . . nice of you!” She screamed, lifting up her bent leg and kicking the ant away with as much force as she could. 

The blonde’s shoulders heaved up and down as the tip of her katana fell to the ground. The ant only skidded back about two or three meters back-- really hit her morale like a [female dog]. 

“You,” she paused, taking the time to actually breathe. “You really suck, you know that?” She asked, her fingers twitching as she glared daggers at the giant bug.

ID: 125239

BD: 5+1=5, Success [+2 ACC]

10x8=80 DMG

MD: 10, Critical Hit

Cordelia: HP: 319/460 | EN: 18/46 | 10 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD

Giant Bullet Ant #2: HP: 150/230 | 69 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

It was very . . . bug like. Well, no duh. Even for something that stood up on two freaking legs! 

Like she said before.

Bad. Game. Design!

Who was in charge of this floor?! What was even the floor boss for this floor? Another giant ant? Weren’t there too many of those, already. Or maybe a giant, giant, giant ant.

Shudder.

She couldn’t even fathom that thought. Why would someone do this to literal teenagers? Some of the people here couldn’t even be older than fifteen when they started!

And of all things, why ants? There are a lot of species of bugs out there but they had to choose ants? Why not bees? Bees would make sense! Bees wouldn’t be holding— I don’t know— six swords!

She would much prefer a teeny tiny stinger than to something that can lift up more than half its body weight and has six legs. 

Ants are like, nature’s perfect construction worker!

ID: 125240

BD: 3+2+2=7, Hit [+2 ACC]

MD: 3, Miss [+1 ACC]

Cordelia: HP: 319/460 | EN: 11/46 | 10 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD

Giant Bullet Ant #2: HP: 70/230 | 69 DMG

[Cordelia 0]

The ant let out a shrill squeal as Cordelia’s katana plunged through its abdomen.

”Good riddance,” she mumbled once the mob had disappeared, leaving her— possibly alone for even another attack.

”Alright!” She clapped her hands together and started bolting out of the area. “Just meet me back at town at the teleport gate, Pacco! This floor is just . . . too much for me. Those poor towns people . . .”

Cordelia wheezed as she hopped on top of the teleport gate. Her lack of stamina was the least of her problems. This floor was unpredictable and the floor is literally a giant ant colony. She didn’t want to stay here any longer than she had to!

Just in time, her familiar swooped down from the sky— thank for they don’t have flying ants . . . at least she hoped they didn’t. Oh gosh, if they did, she was never coming back to this blasted floor.

ID: 125240

BD: 4+2+2=8, Hit [+2 ACC]

MD: 5, Miss [+1 ACC]

Cordelia: HP: 319/460 | EN: 4/46 | 10 DMG | 3 EVA | 1 SAVVY | 2 KEEN | 2 ACC | 2 BLD

Giant Bullet Ant #2: HP: 0/230 | 69 DMG

LOOT:

Spoiler

ID: 125242

LD: 1

CD: 8

2 T2 Mats
1,150 Col

 

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia sighed in relief and fell back on to the almost comfortable bed with a small thud. Sure, it feels like she was laying on the ground itself but she really couldn’t bring herself to actually get up— or care.

She groaned and rolled around to plant her face into the . . . pillow. Or whatever this thing was supposed to be. Perhaps a giant door stop? 

“Today,” she paused, her voice being muffled from the ‘pillow’, “was okay? I think it was, anyway. We got a quest done. We did . . . hunting, if you could really call it that or whatever. We got some decent loot, I guess. I didn’t really need armor or trinkets, but I guess we got a decent amount of Col. I needed that, too.”

She sweat dropped and scratches part of her exposed cheek. “I’m flat out broke. That’s not very good.”

[Cordelia 0]

“I’m hitting tier two soon, too,” she muttered to really— nobody.

”I also heard that there was something going on somewhere in Aincrad for Halloween and everything. I’m not looking forward to an event filled with just . . . skeletons and zombies and vampires or whatever. I’m not easily scared by those things but it must kind of suck to kill things that are already kind of dead.”

She sat up with wide eyes.

”Just imagine cutting off a zombie’s head and then having it immediately put it back on its body.”

She really just shuddered at the mere thought.

”I need to talk— think about something else. Zombies and vampires should probably be the least thing in my mind right now. Ugh.”

She scratches her chin. “Maybe the new floor?”

”I heard it’s very— uhm, an interesting floor. Also that it’s pret-ty scary. Interesting! I want to go to that floor boss really bad! I’ll have to train super hard from now on!”

[Cordelia 0]

“I can’t believe I used to be on the same level as Oscar,” she muttered, pressing her palm against her forehead with a small frown. “He’s so ahead of me now it’s not even funny to think about anymore,” Cordelia sighed, shaking her head. She was going to challenge him to a fair duel one day.

And she was going to win.

Last time they dueled— well, let’s just say it was eventful. The fact that he didn’t go easy on her kind of stung in the gut just a little bit. She was pretty sure that’s not how friends were supposed to treat each other.

Pret-ty sure.

It was supposed to be harmless duel, too! Just to teach her the basic ropes of using a katana, not a fight to the near-death! He even got her down to half health! 

Best friend her ass.

Or maybe it was because she rejected him not even a week before-

[Cordelia 0]

Well! 

She was an idiot.

of course he’d be quite on quote, harsh with her. She basically took his feelings and stomped on it right in front of him! 

She groaned and face planted into the pillow again. 

It wasn’t like she was craving a relationship, and it wasn’t like she was totally avoiding being in one, either. But she didn’t know how she was supposed to actually feel.

Yeah, Oscar was a great guy friend, but she really feels like she hardly knows him! 

She whined and clapped her head in her hands.

Of all things wrong in her life, why did this one suck so much? She was literally stuck. In. A. Video game! And she was here worrying about how some random guy— whom, may she add— knows nothing about!

Relations are officially complicated. Well, they’ve always been complicated, but it just got even more complicated.

Well, that’s bad.

SUMMARY:

3,160 Col
2 T2 Mats
1 Perfect Armor/Shield [125231A]
1 Perfect Trinket [125231B]
Tiger's Rage
4 SP