[F08 - PP|PT] Whispers of Giants ≪SotW: FFoe≫

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The teleportation’s electric tingle faded into the hush of living wood. Floor Eight enveloped them—a cathedral of ancient timber where redwoods would seem saplings. Ariel inhaled damp air thick with petrichor and decay, her senses expanding into the green-gold gloom. Above, a canopy woven so tightly it choked the sky to fractured azure shards; below, a tapestry of moss swallowing footsteps whole. Darius stepped beside her, eyes wide as he craned his neck at trunks wider than Shirajishi-ryū’s dojo halls. Millicent materialized from the teleport haze, adjusting obsidian-dusted gloves with a rogue’s practiced twitch.

Movement. Ariel’s hand hovered near Nihilim’s Wrath. A Treant shifted in the middle distance, thirty feet of bark and resentment fused into the forest’s bones. Its hollow eyes tracked them before stilling—a sentinel judging trespassers. Evidence of the floor’s festering war scarred the grove: elf-forged arrowheads embedded in oak, patches of charcoal where cursed flames had seared centuries ago.

"Southeast." Ariel murmured, the word barely louder than a fern uncurling. Deeper. Where sunlight starves. Millicent nodded, daggers already palmed as she ghosted ahead, vanishing behind a curtain of hanging moss. Darius fell into step at Ariel’s flank, the butler’s poise replaced by a martial artist’s coiled readiness. "Kaiso, the Treants… they feel like mountains with grievances."

She acknowledged him with a glance. His gaze lingered—a beat too long—before snapping forward. Loyalty. Stamina. And something unspoken. She let it lie. This was not the fight she sought.

Progress was measured in silence and snapped twigs. The forest resisted. Vines snagged boots, roots twisted unseen beneath moss carpets, and the air grew heavier, saturated with the musk of wet earth and something older—musky, feral. Twice, Millicent reappeared silently, redirecting them around Treant patrols or patches of unnaturally blackened soil that pulsed with residual heat. Kro’s legacy if they were to believe the floor intel.

An hour in, a sound cut through the drip and rustle: a distant, resonant crack, like a mast splitting. Ariel halted, lifting a fist. Millicent melted from behind a curtain of lichen, her voice low. "East. Clearing. Not natural."

Ahead, sunlight speared a rare glade—and there, devastation. Trees lay shattered like kindling, trunks splintered mid-breast height. Claw marks, deep as sword cuts, raked the moss. One print pressed into mud near a trampled thicket: five toes, wider than Darius’s torso. The earth around it was freshly churned.

"He snapped them" Millicent whispered, awe warring with fear. "Like twigs. Hours ago."

Ariel crouched, fingers brushing the print’s edge. Cold mud. Not fresh, but recent. Nihilim’s Wrath hummed faintly in its saya, a serpent tasting distant prey. She traced the direction of the destruction – a brutal path leading deeper into the gloom.

"He’s moving" Ariel stated, rising. Her silver eyes scanned the oppressive green shadows ahead. "Looks like its hunting ground. We follow the trail."

The forest held its breath. Somewhere in the vast, columned dark, Kumatetsu was turning over stones. And the hunt had only just begun.

---

Ariel | HP: 806/806 | EN: 105/105 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:5 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:3 | BH:9 | HB: 35 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:4 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting] 

Spoiler

Name: Ariel True Tier: 10 Level: 21 Paragon Level: 78 HP: 806/806 EN: 105/105 Stats: Damage: 26 Mitigation: -45 Accuracy: 5 Evasion: 3 Battle Healing: 9 Loot Die: 4 Stealth Rating: 5 AA PHASEHB: 35 REC: 6 RISK: 6 FLN: 12 TXC-V: 24 Equipped Gear: Weapon/Armor/Trinket: - ≪Nihilim’s Wrath#187490≫ T4: AA / Phase / Fallen / Fallen Armor/Trinket: - ≪Leonidas' Strength#151568≫ T4: HB / HB / RSKY / RSKY Shield/Armor/Trinket: - ≪Kurokō no Tamashii (黒鋼の魂)#190961≫ T4: Acc. / Acc. / Rec. / Rec. Combat Mastery: - Combat Mastery: Damage R3 Combat Shift: - ST Shift Familiar Skill: - Custom Skill: - Kaiso no Waza: Meikyo Shisui Skills: - Battle Healing R1 - Charge - Cloth Armor R5 - Energist - Katana R5 Extra Skills: - Hiding R5 - Concentration - Survival - Forgotten King's Authority Inactive Extra Skills: Addons: - Ferocity - Precision - Stamina Mods: - Athletics - Surprise Attack: Assassin - Untraceable - Vanish Inactive Mods: Battle Ready Inventory: - "≪Chocolate Truffles# [Dessert]≫ VITALITY II (+12 EN) IDs# 144486 / 144486-1 / 144486-2 / 144486-3 / 144770 " x5 - "≪Crystal of the Blood Dragon Horde[Crystal]: Mass HP recovery 10% IDs# 223185-1 / 223185-2 / 223183 / 223183-1 / 223181" x5 - "≪Flash of Rejuvenation# [Crystal]≫ Mass HP recovery 10% IDs# 144486 / 144486-1 / 144486-2 / 144486-3 / 144770 " x5 - "≪popcorn. [Snack]≫ VITALITY II (+16 EN) IDs# 144486 / 144486-1 / 144486-2 / 144486-3 / 144770 " x5 - ≪Glowstone≫ x - ≪Teleport [Crystal]≫ x Housing Buffs: - Basic Kitchen: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot. This can exceed normal Cook enhancement caps. Ex: A perfect T2 MIT food gives 35 MIT instead of 30. - Storage Closet: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot - Living Room: Increases out of combatHP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts. - Attic (Storage): +5% bonus col from monster kills and treasure chests - Attic (Bedroom): +1 Expertise to declared utility skill. Cannot boost a skill without ranks, or increase a skill past its maximum rank. Cannot boost a skill the user has not learned yet. Ranks obtained using this buff will make the mods of that rank available for purchase. Mods obtained this way are unusable if this buff is removed until the skill is returned to the appropriate rank by way of SP purchase. - Basement: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll - Guest Room: Players can have one «Amenity» in a «Guest Room» and the «Amenity» cannot be recovered. Players are allowed to change which «Amenity» is in the «Guest Room». Multiple instances of the same «Amenity» do not stack. This buff affects the player and their choice of up to two party members. - Master Bedroom: -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat - Master Bathroom: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down) - Extended Workshop: +2 Crafting EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day - Ornate Fishing Pond: +2 Fishing EXP per Attempt and additional +1 LD & CD to fishing attempts. - Dining Hall: Turn 3 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Feast. A Feast contains 6 portions of the food items sacrificed. Feasts created this way cannot be used outside of the thread they are created. Limit 1 item created per thread. - Mega Slime Farm: +10% EXP to a thread. Limit one use per month. Must be used on a player's first post in a thread. Cooldown begins counting down when used in a post. Guild Hall Buffs: - Guild Rank 5: +5% Final Experience Gain, +5% Final Col Gain - +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests. Scents of the Wild Totem: Wedding Ring: Crafting Profession: - Tailoring[3696exp] R9 Gathering Profession: - Fishing[181exp] R3

Food Buffs:

1. Filled* ≪Omega Protein Shake#86820 [Drink]≫  +3 DMG / -45 Mit 
2. ≪Ramen Bowl with Egg#151906-2 [Snack]≫  +2 EVA
3. ≪Spicy Rice Cakes#152043-1 [Snack]≫  +2 ACC
4. ≪Liquor of Light#153464 [Drink]≫  +3 DMG
5. ≪Viperion#?????? [Salve]≫  +24/3 TXV

• ≪gelato. [Dessert]≫ +3 LD
• «Field Ration» +12%HP

PT Skills: (235 SP Available / 175 Used / 60 PT Skills)

• 3x ► Biting (+2 Base DMG)

 

Edited 15 hours ago by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

Primordial. That was Floor Eight’s first insult. Dank air clung to my coat like beggar’s hands, and the scale—gods, the sheer vulgarity of trees taller than my family’s estate. Darius breathed it in like some peasant tasting champagne for the first time. Pathetic. Even Millicent scurried ahead with that rodent-like eagerness, her new gloves flashing like cheap stage props. Obsidian and blue inlay. How gauche.

Ariel cut through the undergrowth like a blade through silk. Naturally. Her silence was a sermon. Darius trailed her like a devoted hound, that ridiculous butler’s coat snagging on thorns. "Master, the Treant near the elder oak—its eyes followed us." I flicked moss from my sleeve. "Let it glare. If it moves, reduce it to firewood. Their squabbles with the elves are beneath our notice."

The deeper we pushed, the more the forest revealed its tedious wounds. Charred earth radiating unnatural warmth. Elven arrow shafts protruding from bark like spiteful thorns. Faction wars. Power wasn’t won by shooting trees or blaming fire demons; it was seized. Like we’d seize Kumatetsu’s strength.

Progress was interminable. Mud sucked at polished boots. Vines conspired to trip. Millicent’s constant vanishing and reappearing with whispered detours grated. Southeast. Then east. Now northeast. Were we hunting a bear or navigating a labyrinth?

We found the first shattered grove. Darius knelt, examining a claw mark raking down a trunk like a sculptor’s angry chisel. "The force required… it’s monstrous." I nudged a splintered log with my boot. "Brute force without finesse. Remember your kata, Darius. Precision shatters what bludgeoning cannot." Though the scale… The claw print in the mud was sobering. Wider than a shield. Cold, but the earth around it felt… disturbed. Recently.

Ariel rose from her crouch, her gaze fixed on the trail of destruction leading deeper into the murk. "He’s moving. Hunting ground."

Hunting ground. The phrase hung in the damp air. This wasn’t just a beast’s lair; it was its territory. Its killing field. Millicent shifted uneasily. Darius’s knuckles whitened on his staff. Even Ariel’s cursed blade seemed to whisper a fraction louder.

"Then let’s find where it dines." I declared, stepping over the wreckage. "Before it decides we’re the main course."

The path Kumatetsu had bludgeoned through the ancient woods was a scar. Fallen giants lay like broken columns. We followed it, senses straining against the forest’s oppressive watchfulness. The deeper we went, the thicker the silence became, broken only by the distant crack of timber far ahead. Each sound was a marker. Each shattered tree a signpost.

He was out there. Not charging, not roaring. Working. And we were walking into his workshop.

---

Dracul | HP: 465/465 | EN: 60/60 | DMG: 7 | MIT:172 | TAUNT | BH:23 | REC: 2 | LD:3 [Assisted]

Spoiler

Name: Dracul True Tier: 3 Level: 21 Paragon Level: 0 HP: 465/465 EN: 60/60 Stats: Damage: 7 Mitigation: 109 Battle Healing: 23 Loot Die: 3 Stealth Rating: -5 TAUNT REC: 2 Equipped Gear: Weapon/Armor/Trinket: - ≪Blue Rose#58993≫ T2: Damage | Damage | Damage Armor/Trinket: - ≪Feline Helper#13453≫ T1: Loot Die | Loot Die | Loot Die Shield/Armor/Trinket: - ≪Memory Fragment#134713-1≫ T1: Recovery | Recovery | Taunt Combat Mastery: - Combat Mastery: Mitigation R3 Combat Shift: - Familiar Skill: - Custom Skill: - Skills: - Battle Healing R5 - Heavy Armor R5 - Howl Extra Skills: - Parry Inactive Extra Skills: Addons: - Focused Howl - Iron Skin Mods: - Justified Riposte - Vengeful Riposte Inactive Mods: Battle Ready Inventory: - "≪Chocolate Truffles# [Dessert]≫ VITALITY II (+12 EN) IDs# 144486 / 144486-1 / 144486-2 / 144486-3 / 144770 " x5 - "≪Crystal of the Blood Dragon Horde[Crystal]: Mass HP recovery 10% IDs# 223185-1 / 223185-2 / 223183 / 223183-1 / 223181" x5 - "≪Flash of Rejuvenation# [Crystal]≫ Mass HP recovery 10% IDs# 144486 / 144486-1 / 144486-2 / 144486-3 / 144770 " x5 - "≪popcorn. [Snack]≫ VITALITY II (+16 EN) IDs# 144486 / 144486-1 / 144486-2 / 144486-3 / 144770 " x5 - ≪Glowstone≫ x - ≪Teleport [Crystal]≫ x Housing Buffs: Guild Hall Buffs: Scents of the Wild Totem: Wedding Ring: Crafting Profession: - Alchemist[857exp] R7 Gathering Profession: - Forager[exp] R1

PT Skills: (185 SP Available / 115 Used / 70 PT Skills)

• 7x ► Resolute (+3*(3)Tier Mitigation)

 

Edited Thursday at 10:51 PM by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The forest’s wounds deepened as they tracked «Kumatetsu»'s trail. Ariel halted where moss surrendered to cracked earth, radiating unnatural warmth. Millicent crouched beside a splintered elven arrow shaft, obsidian gloves hovering over oily residue staining the soil. "Kro’s touch," she murmured. "The scouts fought here. Recently."

Darius knelt by a withered sapling, its leaves crumbling like burnt paper at his touch. "It’s spreading, Miss Ariel. Even away from the battlefields." His gaze flickered to her, concern warring with resolve. Ariel traced the blight’s path – not random, but purposeful. Converging. Following the bear.

A low groan echoed ahead. A Treant, half-submerged in ferns, stirred as they approached. Its bark wept viscous black sap where elf-arrows pierced its chest. Not hostility, but agony. Ariel raised an open palm, halting Dracul’s drawn blade. "Stand down. It’s dying."

"Let it die," Dracul countered, voice tight. "Rot is inevitable."

Ariel ignored him. She stepped closer. The Treant’s hollow eyes fixed on her, not with rage, but recognition. A guttural whisper vibrated through the roots beneath their feet: "Kro... lives... in the beast."
The beast. Not our enemy or the bear. The beast. Possessive. Terrified. Millicent’s breath hitched. "The corruption’s changing «Kumatetsu»?"

"Madness isn’t strength," Ariel stated, watching the Treant still. Its sap darkened, pooling like tar. Power consuming itself. She turned, following the blight’s thickening trail. "Move. The corruption accelerates near him." They found the next marker where a river bent sharply – claw marks scoring stone, water foaming acidic green downstream. Dracul kicked a blighted fish floating belly-up. "Nature’s graces? This is pestilence."

Ariel watched the poisoned current. The wise and wily water-borne predator. The next Keeper. Would it swim in such waters? The tablet felt heavier against her hip. Mother Nature’s test reeked of desperation. Or betrayal.
Above, the canopy shook. Not wind. Something massive moving parallel to them, hidden. Hunting the hunters. Ariel’s hand closed on her weapon’s hilt. Its shadowflame pulsed once – a warning, or a welcome.

---

ID# 247527  LD: 9+4 («Kumatetsu» Not Found!)

Edited Thursday at 11:05 PM by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

Insufferable. This forest wasn’t a realm of nature – it was a festering corpse. Dank air choked with the sweet-rot stench of Kro’s blight. Ariel’s morbid fascination with every wilted flower and weeping tree grated. Even Darius seemed infected by the atmosphere, his usual stoicism replaced by… pity. For digital foliage.

"Master, look." Darius pointed downstream where the water churned unnatural green. "The corruption follows the river. Like veins."

"Poetic," I sneered, nudging a blighted fish with my boot. Its scales sloughed off like rotten parchment. "And irrelevant. We hunt a bear, not play pathologist to a dying world."

Millicent scanned the treeline, obsidian daggers restless in her hands. "The Treant said Kro lives in «Kumatetsu». If it’s maddened—"

"—it dies easier," I cut her off. "Madness makes beasts predictable." Or so the treatises claim. Still… the claw marks on the riverside boulder gave pause. Stone gouged five inches deep. Strength magnified by corruption? Unsettling.

Ariel moved upstream, silent as always. Her cursed blade hissed softly at her hip, a sound like embers doused in oil. Even that thing senses the blight. Annoying. I preferred its silence.

"This quest reeks," I declared, loud enough for Ariel to hear. "‘Nature’s graces’? Look around. Nature here is gangrenous. Why empower guardians in a graveyard?"

Ariel didn’t turn. "Power persists. Even in rot." Her voice was calm, infuriatingly certain. Like she understood decay.

Darius crouched by the water’s edge, fingers skimming the toxic foam. "Maybe… maybe the Keepers are meant to cleanse it? If we defeat them—"

"Speculation," I snapped. "We fulfill the quest. We take the power. The forest’s fate is its own." Let it burn.

A branch cracked high above. Heavy. Deliberate. Millicent vanished instantly. Ariel’s posture shifted – a fractional coiling of muscle. Nihilim’s Wrath’s whisper became a low growl.

Hunting us. The realization sparked not dread, but sharp, bright irritation. "Enough skulking," I called into the green gloom, blade gleaming in the sickly light. "Show yourself, rug. Or must we smoke you out?"

Silence answered. But the river’s poison seemed to flow faster.

---

ID# 247528  LD: 9+3 («Kumatetsu» Not Found!)

Edited Thursday at 11:09 PM by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The forest's final breath died in their throats as they breached the shattered glade. Ariel froze. Before them stretched Kro’s masterpiece: a valley of broken titans, ancient trees snapped like kindling, weeping black sap that smoked where it touched moss. The air hung thick with musk and the metallic tang of corrupted blood. At the epicentre, «Kumatetsu» stood over the twitching remains of a Treant, his maw buried deep in its blighted heartwood.

He defied scale. Twenty feet of corded muscle sheathed in fur matted with gore and crystalline growths that pulsed like diseased hearts. Ember-eyes glowed beneath a brow ridge crusted with jagged corruption, casting sickly light on tusks like shattered gravestones. Steam rose in toxic green plumes from his nostrils with each ragged breath. One forepaw – wider than Dracul’s torso – pinned the Treant’s thrashing limb, talons sinking deep as he ripped away bark and sapwood. The ground trembled with every movement, dislodging pebbles that rattled down slopes of splintered wood.

Not hunting. Feasting on decay. The realization crystallized cold in Ariel’s gut. This wasn’t nature’s guardian; it was entropy’s executioner.

Millicent materialized beside her, a tremor in her whisper. “It’s… consuming the corruption. Absorbing Kro’s legacy.” Her obsidian gloves tightened around her daggers, the blue inlay flickering nervously. Darius shifted fluidly into Keysi’s 'Watching Bird' stance – knees bent, open palms held low and forward, his gaze a laser targeting the bear’s spinal column. His usual calm was replaced by grim focus, muscles coiled beneath his butler’s attire. Dracul’s knuckles whitened on his ornate sword hilt, aristocratic disdain warring with primal alertness.

Ariel’s tactical assessment unfolded like a lethal origami:

• Weak Points: Crystalline clusters bulging at joints (brittle pressure points?), ember-eyes (critical sensors), exposed throat during roars.
• Threat Radius: Aprox. 5 meter cleave from forepaws, potential tail-lash for rear attacks, corrupted breath?
• Corruption Factor: Visible energy pulses where fur met Kro’s scabs – likely enrage triggers or area-denial mechanics.

Nihilim’s Wrath reacted at her hip – not a warning, but a predatory resonance. Shadowflame hungers for shadow. She locked eyes with Dracul, nodded sharply toward the bear’s left flank. Distract. Contain. Her fingers flickered in subtle sign: Stealth. Flank. Millicent’s slight dip of her chin confirmed understanding, obsidian gloves darkening to vantablack.

«Kumatetsu» froze. Slowly, massively, his head lifted from the carcass. Nostrils flared, drawing in their scent through the stench of rot. He’d seem to have tasted them. The feast was interrupted.

---

ID# 247529  LD: 10 +4 +1 («Kumatetsu» Found!)
^{MULTIPURPOSE USED: 0/1}

Edited yesterday at 12:11 AM by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

Finally. The beast was a monument to vulgar power – grotesque, oversized, and reeking of decay. Exactly what this blighted floor deserved. Ariel’s tactical nod was superfluous; the engagement wrote itself in blood and broken timber. I scanned our pieces on this rotting chessboard.
“Darius!” My voice cut through the glade’s death-rattle, low and sharp. “Rear legs. Target the corruption clusters when it commits to a charge. Shatter them.” His fists clenched, knuckles cracking – no blade needed, just the honed violence of Keysi’s technique. Good. Let the beast feel disciplined fury.

“Millicent!” I continued, tracking her fading outline near a splintered oak.
“Eyes and joints. Blind it. Cripple its mobility. No theatrics – precision.” Her daggers winked in the gloom like malevolent stars before vanishing completely. Competent. For a rodent.

Ariel needed no instruction. That cursed blade of hers would find a home in the beast’s vitals soon enough.

“And you?” Darius murmured, his stance fluidly shifting to another stance, eyes never leaving Kumatetsu’s shoulder muscles bunching like rotten boulders.

“I’ll give it a symphony it can’t ignore.” My shield arm settled into a reinforced angle. Focused Howl coiled in my diaphragm – not mere noise, but a layered sonic scalpel designed to shred monster aggro protocols. “When it moves, you move. Hesitation earns graves here.”

Kumatetsu turned fully. Ember-eyes burned into us, recognizing threats. A guttural growl vibrated the fallen leaves, a sound felt in the teeth. Perfect. I stepped forward, crushing blighted ferns under polished boots.
“Ready to dance, rug?”

Ariel dissolved into the shadows – not invisibility, but absence. Millicent became a whisper against bark. Darius exhaled – the soft sigh of a fighter entering the void.

The bear rose onto hind legs, a corrupted colossus blotting out the fractured light, and roared. The sound wasn’t bestial; it was Kro’s dying curse given thunderous form.

“Now!” The command tore from my throat, raw and commanding.

---

[0]Dracul | HP: 465/465 | EN: 60/60 | DMG: 7 | MIT:172 | TAUNT | BH:23 | REC: 2 | LD:3 [Assisted]
[0]Ariel | HP: 806/806 | EN: 105/105 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:5 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:3 | BH:9 | HB: 35 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:4 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting] 

«Kumatetsu» | HP: 1200/1200 | DMG: 155 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 2

• Dodge and Parry | On a player's natural attack roll of 10, the attack will miss <<Kumatetsu>>. Instead <<Kumatetsu>> will gain a +2 Accuracy for his next attack. This buff will expire after the attack has been resolved.
• Beast Form | When <<Kumatetsu>> is reduced to 600 (or lower) health, he will transform and turn into a bulked-up creature, increasing his damage to 170, but also reducing his ACC by 1 and MIT to 25. 

[Dracul 0]

Delete plz

Edited yesterday at 12:26 AM by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Kumatetsu’s roar was a physical wave, shaking resin from broken pines. Ariel became the silence within the storm.

Stealth in SAO wasn’t mere invisibility – it was the art of becoming unnoticeable. She had practiced with this new ability thanks to the new update but this would be her baptism by fire, actually using it in free combat. She flowed like pooled shadow between the shattered trunks, her saya absorbing light into its dragon-etched darkness. Her breathing synced with the forest’s pained sighs, her footsteps silent as falling ash on moss. Millicent mirrored her movements – not replication, but harmony. Obsidian gloves swallowed reflections as the rogue scaled a tilted oak, her form blurring into the dappled gloom. They were twin ghosts bleeding into the landscape’s grief, connected by shared purpose and unspoken signals.

Ahead, Dracul raised his shield. Sunlight fractured across its polished face – a deliberate, gleaming provocation. Darius circled right, footsteps silent on the spongy earth, his body coiled in Keysi’s “Coiled Spring” stance – weight balanced on the balls of his feet, hands open and ready to explode into motion.

Timing. Precision. Ariel’s world distilled into lethal vectors:

20 meters: Kumatetsu’s charge initiation (paws gouging earth, muscles coiling like rotten cables)

10 meters: Darius’s strike window (rear left leg tendon, corruption clusters glowing like sickly beacons)

2 meters: Her Iai strike – Nihilim’s Wrath’s strike (corrupted throat, where steam pulsed with poisoned breath)

The bear dropped to all fours. Muscles, thick as ancient roots, bunched beneath blighted fur. Kro’s corruption flared down its spine like poisoned lightning in dark veins.

Dracul’s Focused Howl tore the air – a physical, discordant wave that vibrated the teeth and scraped the nerves. Kumatetsu flinched, ember-eyes snapping from the shadows to the gleaming shield, consumed by algorithmic rage. It charged, a landslide of fur and fury, earth shattering under its weight.

Ariel drew Nihilim’s Wrath a single, silent inch. Shadowflame whispered along the blade’s edge, cold and hungry. High above, Millicent’s first dagger flew – a streak of pure void aimed unerringly at the bear’s right eye.

Now. The moment hung suspended on the edge of the blade.

---

Post Action: ID# 247530  LD: 10 +5(Hiding R5) | Successful Stealth

[0]Dracul | HP: 465/465 | EN: 60/60 | DMG: 7 | MIT:172 | TAUNT | BH:23 | REC: 2 | LD:3 [Assisted]
[0]Ariel | HP: 806/806 | EN: 105/105 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:5 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:3 | BH:9 | HB: 35 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:4 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting] 

«Kumatetsu» | HP: 1200/1200 | DMG: 155 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 2

• Dodge and Parry | On a player's natural attack roll of 10, the attack will miss <<Kumatetsu>>. Instead <<Kumatetsu>> will gain a +2 Accuracy for his next attack. This buff will expire after the attack has been resolved.
• Beast Form | When <<Kumatetsu>> is reduced to 600 (or lower) health, he will transform and turn into a bulked-up creature, increasing his damage to 170, but also reducing his ACC by 1 and MIT to 25. 

Edited yesterday at 12:32 AM by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

Focused Howl wasn’t mere noise – it was a geas woven from sound, a command etched directly into the monster’s aggression protocols. The skill ripped from my lungs, layered with harmonics that bypassed reason and burrowed straight into primal fury. It struck Kumatetsu like a physical mallet between the eyes. His thunderous charge faltered mid-stride; ember-eyes dilated, consumed by pure, red-filmed hatred. Target locked. Aggro secured.

“Come on, you overgrown doormat!” I roared, brandishing my shield as I braced for the iminent impact. “Let’s see if you hit as hard as you stink!” Darius blurred into motion on my right, a silent typhoon in butler’s black. Millicent’s dagger became a comet of darkness – a beautiful distraction.

Kumatetsu covered the distance in three earth-sundering strides. Corruption crystals on his forelegs blazed toxic green, trailing virulent light. The air itself screamed in protest.

Impact.

The world dissolved into violence. His paw crashed against my shield with the force of a collapsing tower. The crunch of stressed metal and magic vibrated up my arms. Health bar flared, reacting to the impact – not HP loss yet, but raw, bone-deep pressure. My boots carved twin furrows through blighted soil and shattered roots, momentum driving me back five grinding feet. Every muscle screamed in protest.

“Darius! Now! Shatter it!” The command tore from my gritted teeth.

My assistant moved like liquid steel. He dropped low, sliding beneath the bear’s massive belly with impossible grace. Keysi’s “Earth Hammer” technique unfolded – hips pivoting, whole body torqueing as his fist drove upward like a piston into the swollen corruption cluster on the bear’s rear left leg. A sickening CRACK-SHATTER echoed through the glade. Kumatetsu bellowed, not pain but outrage, staggering as corrupted shards sprayed like poisoned glass.

I shoved forward against the crushing weight, shield flaring brighter. “Is that all?!” I taunted, blood singing with the challenge. “A child hits harder!”

Above, Ariel’s shadowflame ignited – a searing crescent of void-black fire lashing towards the beast’s exposed throat. The symphony of annihilation had found its crescendo.

---

Post Action: Focused Howl > «Kumatetsu»

-(4) EN

Cooldowns:
- Focused Howl 4/4

[5]Dracul | HP: 465/465 | EN: 56/60 | DMG: 7 | MIT:172 | TAUNT | BH:23 | REC: 2 | LD:3 [Assisted]
[0]Ariel | HP: 806/806 | EN: 105/105 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:5 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:3 | BH:9 | HB: 35 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:4 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting] 

«Kumatetsu» | HP: 1200/1200 | DMG: 155 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 2

• Dodge and Parry | On a player's natural attack roll of 10, the attack will miss <<Kumatetsu>>. Instead <<Kumatetsu>> will gain a +2 Accuracy for his next attack. This buff will expire after the attack has been resolved.
• Beast Form | When <<Kumatetsu>> is reduced to 600 (or lower) health, he will transform and turn into a bulked-up creature, increasing his damage to 170, but also reducing his ACC by 1 and MIT to 25. 

Edited yesterday at 01:33 AM by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The moment crystallized. Millicent’s dagger struck home, burying itself in Kumatetsu’s right eye socket. The bear roared – a sound less of pain than corrupted fury – as viscous darkness spread through the ember-glow. Distraction complete.

Ariel struck.

«Nihilim’s Wrath» left its saya in a single motion, not drawn but unleashed. Shadowflame accompanied along the blade, cold enough to freeze the steam rising from the bear’s throat. Her stance was perfection: hips pivoted, weight flowing forward like water down a slope, the strike aimed not at fur or flesh, but at the pulsing nexus of Kro’s corruption where throat met jaw.

Shink.

The sound was unnervingly clean, the strike clinical. Cursed steel met blighted flesh. For an instant, the corruption resisted – crystalline growths flaring toxic green – then shattered like rotten ice. The blade bit deep, severing corrupted tendons and parting tainted muscle. A geyser of black ichor and emerald steam erupted. Kumatetsu’s bellow choked into a wet, gurgling shriek as its HP bar plummeted.

Significant damage. Not fatal.

Ariel didn’t linger. Even as the beast staggered, she triggered her newly acquired Vanish addon. Not mere stealth – a tactical reset, in preparation for more. Shadowflame reversed its flow, swirling around her like liquid night. For half a heartbeat, she became incorporeal smoke, untouchable, as the blade slid silently back into its saya. When the darkness dissipated, she stood fifteen feet away, untouched by gore, posture relaxed as if she’d never moved. Only the fading whisper of shadowflame betrayed the violence but not her position.

Kumatetsu whipped its massive head, blinded eye weeping void, throat wound spewing corruption. Its remaining ember-eye fixed not on Ariel’s new position, but on Dracul – the source of the infuriating Howl, the shining shield that had dared defy its charge. Rage, pure and algorithmic, overrode pain. It lunged.

---

Post Action: [SA Sin]ST-I > «Kumatetsu»
Free Action: Vanish | ID# 247534 -> Successful Stealth

ID# 247531  | BD: 7 (4+5-2, AutoHit!) | CD: 9 | [x12+3] (32 +3) = 525 -(50) MIT =475 DMG > «Kumatetsu»

ID# 247532 | BD: 3 (Miss!) | «Kumatetsu» > Dracul

ST-II Unlocked!
ST-B Unlocked!
-(14-2-1) EN

Cooldowns:
- Vanish 3/3

[5]Dracul | HP: 465/465 | EN: 56/60 | DMG: 7 | MIT:172 | TAUNT | BH:23 | REC: 2 | LD:3 [Assisted]
[1]Ariel | HP: 806/806 | EN: 94/105 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:5 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:3 | BH:9 | HB: 35 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:4 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting] 

«Kumatetsu» | HP: 725/1200 | DMG: 155 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 2

• Dodge and Parry | On a player's natural attack roll of 10, the attack will miss <<Kumatetsu>>. Instead <<Kumatetsu>> will gain a +2 Accuracy for his next attack. This buff will expire after the attack has been resolved.
• Beast Form | When «Kumatetsu» is reduced to 600 (or lower) health, he will transform and turn into a bulked-up creature, increasing his damage to 170, but also reducing his ACC by 1 and MIT to 25. 

Edited yesterday at 01:42 AM by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

The beast came at me like a landslide fuelled by hate. Black ichor sprayed from Ariel’s handiwork, steaming where it hit moss. Good. Let it bleed. My reflexes sang – online cohesion granting near-prescient clarity. Kumatetsu’s good eye burned with murderous focus. Forepaws raised, claws gleaming with Kro’s poison, aiming to crush me into the blighted earth.

"Predictable!" I spat, already moving.

Darius’s Keysi training flowed through me – not learned, but observed through countless hours watching him drill. I dropped low, not away, but under the descending claws. 'Swaying Bamboo!' The evasive maneuver flowed perfectly: hips twisting, spine coiling, letting the killing swipes pass inches above my head. Rot-stinking wind ruffled my hair. I emerged unscathed behind its forelimbs, momentum carrying me into perfect counter-position.

Now.

Pride surged. See? Refined skill conquers brute force! My blade lanced out in a classic fencer’s riposte – silver-steel aimed for the soft hollow behind the bear’s front leg, where corruption crystals pulsed weakest.

But battle isn’t a dojo kata.

Kumatetsu shifted its weight with shocking speed, muscles rippling beneath matted fur. My elegant thrust became a clumsy, overextended lunge. The blade tip brushed coarse fur, scraping harmlessly over a plate of crystalline corruption. No impact. No damage notification. Just the scrape of metal on rock-hard hide.

Ineffectual. The realization burned worse than any wound. My flawless evasion meant nothing if the counterstrike failed.

The bear’s remaining eye locked onto me, dripping void and triumph. A low, gurgling growl vibrated the air. Behind me, Darius gasped. Millicent’s second dagger faltered mid-throw. Ariel’s stillness radiated cold judgment.

Hubris, meet consequence.

---

Post Action: [SA Sin]ST-I > «Kumatetsu»

ID# 247535  | BD: 7 (5-2, Miss!) | [x1] (x) = x -(50) MIT =0 DMG > «Kumatetsu»

+4 EN | EN regen.
-(2) EN

Cooldowns:
- Focused Howl 3/4

[4]Dracul | HP: 465/465 | EN: 58/60 | DMG: 7 | MIT:172 | TAUNT | BH:23 | REC: 2 | LD:3 [Assisted]
[1]Ariel | HP: 806/806 | EN: 105/105 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:5 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:3 | BH:9 | HB: 35 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:4 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting] 

«Kumatetsu» | HP: 725/1200 | DMG: 155 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 2

Dodge and Parry | On a player's natural attack roll of 10, the attack will miss <<Kumatetsu>>. Instead <<Kumatetsu>> will gain a +2 Accuracy for his next attack. This buff will expire after the attack has been resolved.
Beast Form | When <<Kumatetsu>> is reduced to 600 (or lower) health, he will transform and turn into a bulked-up creature, increasing his damage to 170, but also reducing his ACC by 1 and MIT to 25. 

Edited yesterday at 01:36 AM by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Kumatetsu’s enraged focus on Dracul was a flickering window. Ariel moved.

Nihilim’s Wrath sang free once more, not with the cold precision of the first strike, but with the searing fury of consequence. Shadowflame roared down the blade, condensing into a single, obsidian point as she drove it deep into the bear’s already wounded flank, targeting the nexus of corruption pulsing beneath shattered crystals. This wasn’t stealth; this was annihilation from the shadows, delivered in the heartbeat of Dracul’s failed riposte.

CRACK-THUD!

The impact reverberated up her arms. Shadowflame detonated within the beast, not just cutting but consuming corrupted matter. Kumatetsu’s guttural shriek ripped through the glade, raw agony replacing algorithmic rage. Its HP bar plummeted into the critical red, flickering dangerously. Ariel wrenched the blade free, ichor hissing as it met shadowflame.

She triggered Vanish.
Nothing happened.
The skill icon pulsed grey – cooldown still counting down. Trapped in the open.

The bear’s response was immediate and terrifying. Its remaining ember-eye blazed crimson. Kro’s crystalline corruption exploded outwards from its wounds, not healing, but transforming. Muscles bulged grotesquely beneath the fur, tearing skin and matting with jagged, glowing green shards. Its size seemed to increase, hunching forward, forelimbs thickening into battering rams. The defensive crust on its back sloughed off, revealing raw, pulsating flesh beneath. Trading resilience for pure, destructive fury.

Its massive head, dripping void and ichor, snapped towards Dracul. Not a lunge, but a world-ending charge, the ground buckling under its newfound, reckless power.

Ariel didn’t hesitate. She flowed into a low, grounded stance beside Dracul, Nihilim’s Wrath held horizontally before her, shadowflame licking the air – a silent, unwavering barrier. No stealth. Only solidarity in the face of the berserker’s end. “Hold!” The command was ice, cutting through Dracul’s shock.

---

Post Action: [SA Sin]ST-II> «Kumatetsu»
Free Action: N/A

ID# 247536  | BD: 7 (4+5-2, AutoHit!) | CD: 1 | [x15+3] (32 +3) = 630 -(50) MIT =580 DMG > «Kumatetsu»

ID# 247532 | BD: 5 (4+1, Miss!) | «Kumatetsu» > Dracul

ST-B Available! | «Kaiso no Waza: Meikyo Shisui»
-(17 -2-1) EN

Cooldowns:
- Vanish 2/3

[5]Dracul | HP: 465/465 | EN: 60/60 | DMG: 7 | MIT:172 | TAUNT | BH:23 | REC: 2 | LD:3 [Assisted]
[2]Ariel | HP: 806/806 | EN: 80/105 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:5 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:3 | BH:9 | HB: 35 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:4 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting] 

«Kumatetsu» (Beast Form) | HP: 145/1200 | DMG: 170 | MIT: 25 | ACC: 0 | EVA: 2

• Dodge and Parry | On a player's natural attack roll of 10, the attack will miss «Kumatetsu». Instead «Kumatetsu» will gain a +2 Accuracy for his next attack. This buff will expire after the attack has been resolved.
• Beast Form | When «Kumatetsu» is reduced to 600 (or lower) health, he will transform and turn into a bulked-up creature, increasing his damage to 170, but also reducing his ACC by 1 and MIT to 25. 

Edited yesterday at 02:10 AM by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

The beast changed. It wasn't evolution; it was a grotesque unravelling. Muscle swelled like infected tumours, bursting through fur crusted with glowing green shrapnel. Its defensive hide sloughed away, revealing raw, pulsing meat beneath – a horrifying vulnerability masked by terrifying, hulking power. It focused solely on me, the crimson eye promising oblivion.

It’s dying. Finish it! Hubris screamed. Ariel’s “Hold!” was a shackle.

Kumatetsu charged. Not the controlled fury of before, but a blind, earth-shattering rampage. Trees snapped like twigs in its wake. The sheer, mindless momentum was terrifying. My reflexes, honed in VR duels against predictable algorithms, screamed Parry! Riposte!

I activated Sword Art: Mirror’s Edge – a graceful, complex sequence designed to deflect a single powerful blow and create an opening for a devastating counter-thrust. My blade flickered up, aiming to catch the descending forepaw at the perfect angle, redirect its monstrous force...

Reality laughed.

Kumatetsu wasn’t a fencing master. It was a force of nature. My perfectly timed parry met not a calculated strike, but an avalanche. The impact didn't ring; it shattered. My blade screamed, bending violently against claws sheathed in Kro’s corrupting energy. My stance, beautiful in the dojo, crumpled like paper. The parry didn't redirect; it failed.

The blow didn't land cleanly – Ariel’s sudden, solid presence beside me, her shadowflame flaring defensively, disrupted the bear’s trajectory just enough. Claws meant to pulp my chest instead glanced off my raised forearm guard with bone-jarring force, sending me spinning into the dirt, my sword clattering away into the ferns.

I lay sprawled, gasping, the taste of moss and defeat thick in my mouth. Above me, the corrupted titan roared, ichor spraying from its wounds, its health bar a thin, pulsing sliver of red. Ariel stood between me and annihilation, a solitary figure wreathed in hungry shadowflame, facing the berserk culmination of nature’s ruined grace. The finishing touch was needed. And I was utterly, humiliatingly, not the one to deliver it.

---

Post Action: TECH-C> «Kumatetsu»
Free Action: N/A

ID# 247536  | BD: 1 (Miss!) | [x12] *(0) -(25) MIT = 0 DMG > «Kumatetsu»

-(2) EN

Cooldowns:
- Focused Howl 2/4

[5]Dracul | HP: 465/465 | EN: 58/60 | DMG: 7 | MIT:172 | TAUNT | BH:23 | REC: 2 | LD:3 [Assisted]
[2]Ariel | HP: 806/806 | EN: 80/105 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:5 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:3 | BH:9 | HB: 35 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:4 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting] 

«Kumatetsu» (Beast Form) | HP: 145/1200 | DMG: 170 | MIT: 25 | ACC: 0 | EVA: 2

• Dodge and Parry | On a player's natural attack roll of 10, the attack will miss «Kumatetsu». Instead «Kumatetsu» will gain a +2 Accuracy for his next attack. This buff will expire after the attack has been resolved.
• Beast Form | When «Kumatetsu» is reduced to 600 (or lower) health, he will transform and turn into a bulked-up creature, increasing his damage to 170, but also reducing his ACC by 1 and MIT to 25. 

Edited yesterday at 02:10 AM by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Kumatetsu’s roar choked on its own corruption as it loomed over Dracul’s fallen form. Rage made it slow. Arrogance made it blind.

Ariel breathed in.

The world narrowed to a single line – the path between Nihilim’s Wrath’s saya and the beast’s exposed heart. Shadowflame died. Sound faded. Even the forest’s pained whispers stilled. This wasn’t combat; it was conclusion. Her stance shifted, weight settling onto her rear foot, left hand gripping the saya, right hovering an inch above the tsuka. «Iaijutsu: Voidrend».

Time fractured.

She moved. Not a step, but an eruption of contained violence. The blade cleared the saya not with a ring, but with the sound of reality tearing. A single, perfect horizontal draw-cut, accelerated beyond perception by the cursed dragon-steel’s hunger. Shadowflame didn’t just ignite; it detonated, condensing into a line of pure, ravenous void thinner than a hair and longer than the glade.

It passed through Kumatetsu’s massive chest, through the corrupted core, through the splintered oak behind it, and into the earth beyond.

No impact. No scream.

For a suspended heartbeat, nothing happened. Then, a line of absolute darkness appeared across the bear’s torso, the ancient oak, and the mossy ground, humming with spent annihilation. Kumatetsu’s remaining ember-eye dimmed. Its grotesquely bulked form slid apart along the impossible cut, upper half toppling forward with a wet thud while the lower half collapsed. Its HP bar didn’t just vanish; it shattered like glass. The cut continued, etching a smoking, meter-deep furrow into the forest floor nearby, ending at the base of a shattered boulder. The air reeked of ozone and void.

Silence. Profound and deafening.

Ariel exhaled, a plume of vapor in the suddenly chill air. Nihilim’s Wrath slid home with a soft, final click. Shadowflame subsided, leaving only the faint scent of burnt metal. It feasted enough, now it would revel in the sensation until the next opportunity. She turned, her gaze sweeping past Dracul pushing himself up, past Darius frozen mid-lunge, past Millicent with a dagger half-drawn.

Near the bisected corpse, the air shimmered. A stone pedestal coalesced, holding a jagged fragment of green stone – the Kumatetsu Key, shaped like a brutal claw.

“Floor Ten,” Ariel stated, her voice cutting the stillness. She walked to the pedestal, picking up the key. It pulsed faintly, warm with stolen power. “The Stygian sentinel awaits.” Her storm-blue eyes met Dracul’s, then Darius’s, finally Millicent’s. “The river flows with more than water.”

The implication hung heavy. The next Keeper wasn’t just a beast. It was death’s guardian. And the tablet, now lighter by one fragment, grew heavier with destiny.

---

Post Action: [Ch.]ST-B> «Kumatetsu»
Free Action: N/A

ID# 247541  | BD: 9 (CritHit!) | CD: 7 | [x20+3] (32 +3 +1) = 828 -(50) MIT =778 DMG > «Kumatetsu»

-(22 +2*3 -2-1) EN

Cooldowns:
- Vanish 0/3

[5]Dracul | HP: 465/465 | EN: 58/60 | DMG: 7 | MIT:172 | TAUNT | BH:23 | REC: 2 | LD:3 [Assisted]
[2]Ariel | HP: 806/806 | EN: 55/105 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:5 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:3 | BH:9 | HB: 35 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:4 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting] 

«Kumatetsu» (Beast Form) | HP: 145/1200 | DMG: 170 | MIT: 25 | ACC: 0 | EVA: 2

• Dodge and Parry | On a player's natural attack roll of 10, the attack will miss «Kumatetsu». Instead «Kumatetsu» will gain a +2 Accuracy for his next attack. This buff will expire after the attack has been resolved.
• Beast Form | When «Kumatetsu» is reduced to 600 (or lower) health, he will transform and turn into a bulked-up creature, increasing his damage to 170, but also reducing his ACC by 1 and MIT to 25. 

Loot ID# 247543 | CD: 5 | LD: 20+4
TOTAL COL: 14400+5% MATERIALS: 2 Perfect T3 Weapon (3) | [247543a] | [247543b] | [247543c]                                                   

Edited yesterday at 02:52 AM by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

---

---

Final rewards:

1. Ariel:
   • EXP: 11330 [Total]| 4650/5 *10 +1000 (Quest) +5% (Firm Anima R5) +5% (Assist System)
   • Col: 19759 [Total]| 14400 (Loot) +720 (Guild Treasury) +2000 (Quest) +1699 (para lv. 5) +5% (Firm Anima R5)
   • 3x Perfect T3 Weapon | [247543a] | [247543b] | [247543c]
   • 2x Guild Token [Total] | 1 transferred from Dracul
   • 1 Mon
   • Kumatetsu Key
2. Dracul
   • EXP: 4169 [Total]| 4650/5 *3 +1000 (Quest) +5% (Firm Anima R5) +5% (Assist System)
   • Col: 0
   • 1 Mon
   • Kumatetsu Key

Edited yesterday at 02:56 AM by Ariel - The Crowned Lion