[F19 - PP|PT] Weight of Stone «SotW:CS»

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The teleport gate’s mercury sheen dissolved into choking gray. Ariel stepped forward, volcanic grit crunching beneath her boots like shattered bone. Floor 19 breathed—a desolate expanse of fractured basalt and swirling ash under a bruised twilight sky. Sulphurous vapours coiled like spectral serpents, stinging her eyes and coating her tongue with the taste of burnt copper and forgotten graves. Behind her, Millicent coughed into her oversized sleeve, while Darius instinctively positioned himself upwind, his butler’s attire already dusted gray.

Ariel stilled herself, drawing on the breath control her father had drilled into her in another life—a real-world dojo now as distant as Earth’s moon. Here, in the world that had become her prison and purpose, that discipline lived on in the valley she’d built: Shirajishi-ryū, sanctuary and school carved from Aincrad’s digital stone in "her image". The principles she was instilled with and wants to pass on to whomever needs them.

She breathed with the land’s pulse. The ground trembled—not violently, but with a deep, rhythmic thrum that vibrated up through her bruised ribs. Distant, yet undeniable. Like the heartbeat of the earth itself.

"Ash density... incompatible with volcanic models," Millicent murmured, adjusting her fogged glasses. Her scanners whirred softly. "Residual energy signatures match Kro’s corruption. It’s... woven into the air."

Darius scanned the jagged horizon, fingers brushing his lapel pin. "Oh dear. No birds. No insects. Just... waiting."

Ariel’s gaze tracked the tremors’ source. Through curtains of falling cinders, a shadow moved. Not a shape, but an absence of light—a mountain range detaching itself from the horizon. The Colossus. Each step spanned valleys, footfalls triggering distant rockfalls that echoed like dying thunder. Basalt columns shattered in its wake, swallowed by clouds of dust. It moved with glacial indifference, scraping the toxic sky with a crown of jagged obsidian.

Honed instinct, tempered throughout the years and sharpened against the countless battles for survival, whispered: Weakness lives where stone meets storm. Her eyes narrowed. Fissures glowed faintly along its knees and spine—pulsing veins of molten orange against charcoal rock. The heart of the mountain. The key.

"The air bites deeper near its path," Ariel observed, noting how Kro’s vapors thickened around the titan like a shroud. "We follow the devastation. Not too close."

Millicent paled. "Its footsteps create localized quakes. One misstep..."

"We tread lightly," Ariel interrupted, her voice calm as frozen iron. "Darius, watch the terrain fractures. Millicent, track its gait rhythm. Dracul—" She paused, noting his arrival through the gate, holy blade gleaming dully in the gloom. "—your light may draw its eye. Shield it until we strike."

The Colossus took another step. A mesa crumbled in the distance, swallowed by a newborn chasm. Ariel’s hand rested on Nihilim’s Wrath’s hilt. No shadowflame stirred. Only the honed edge—and the weight of the Valley’s trust.

---

Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 117/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]

Spoiler

Name: Ariel True Tier: 11 Level: 28 Paragon Level: 74 HP: 941/941 EN: 117/117 Stats: Damage: 26 Mitigation: -45 Accuracy: 5 Evasion: 2 Battle Healing: 10 Loot Die: 3 Stealth Rating: 5 AA PHASEHB: 41 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 - Cloth Armor R5 - Energist - Katana R5 Extra Skills: - 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: - Treasury: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests. - Guild Rank 5: +5% Final Experience Gain, +5% Final Col Gain Scents of the Wild Totem: Wedding Ring: Crafting Profession: - Tailoring[3696exp] R9 Gathering Profession: - Fishing[191exp] R3

Food Buffs:

1. Filled* ≪ skewer roll. [Meal]≫  +3 DMG / -45 Mit 
2. ≪Titan's Strength[Potion]≫  +3 DMG
3. ≪crème brûlée. [Dessert]≫  +2 ACC
4. ≪Stay-Awake Tea#151217 [Snack]≫  +2 EVA
5. ≪Viperion#151646 [Salve]≫  +24/3 TXV

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

  
PT Skills: (235 SP Available / 135 Used / 100 PT Skills)

• 3x ► Biting (+2 Base DMG)
• 8x ► Keen Sight (+2 LD to Searching, Gathering, Detection, and Loot Checks)

Edited 5 hours ago by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

Ash. Bloody, relentless ash. It coated my armor like grimy snow, seeped into my mouth, and made Oath’s holy light flicker like a guttering candle. I stepped through the gate into a wasteland that reeked of Kro’s cheap theatrics—sulphur and despair. Ariel stood ahead, a statue in the gray, already dissecting the hellscape with those unnerving silver eyes. Darius fussed with his cuffs. Millicent muttered about "atmospheric corruption vectors." Typical.

Then I saw it.

The Colossus wasn’t a monster. It was geography with a grudge. A mountain range ripped from Aincrad’s code and set marching. Its footsteps made the ground buck like a spooked horse. Each tremor was a physical insult, vibrating up my legs and settling in my still-tender ribs. Humiliation flared—fresh as the saltwater I’d choked on hours ago. Useless against the fish king. Will I be crushed gravel here?

Ariel’s voice cut through my brooding: "Your light may draw its eye. Shield it until we strike."

Condescension warred with relief. She needed my light. My blade. Even here, where holiness felt as frail as parchment.

"Shield it?" I scoffed, kicking a chunk of basalt. It skittered into a fissure. "Against that? Might as well wave a torch at a tidal wave."

Millicent flinched as the Colossus crushed a distant spire. "I-it ignores us! Like we’re... pebbles."

"Oblivious arrogance," Darius murmured, eyes tracking falling debris. "Oh dear. It reshapes the world without seeing the cracks."

The truth hit me then. This wasn’t like Mōretsuna’s fury or the Lich’s hunger. The Colossus didn’t hate. It simply was. Its indifference was more terrifying than any maw of teeth. My grip tightened on Oath’s hilt. The «Memory Fragment» warmed against wrist—a phantom pulse. Light scours shadows. Even here.

"Fine," I growled, stepping beside Ariel. Oath’s glow intensified, pushing back the gloom in a ten-foot radius. "Let the walking quarry see our spark. But when it notices..." I met Ariel’s gaze, the unspoken challenge hanging in the toxic air. "...your ‘edge’ had better cut deep, Sensei."

A tremor shook the ground. The Colossus turned slightly, its faceless head tilting. A fissure in its knee pulsed brighter, bathing our faces in hellish orange light.

It knows we’re here.

---

Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 74/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]

Spoiler

Name: Dracul True Tier: 3 Level: 28 Paragon Level: 0 HP: 605/605 EN: 74/74 Stats: Damage: 1 Mitigation: 109 Accuracy: 1 Battle Healing: 30 Stealth Rating: -5 TAUNT REC: 4 HLY: 6 PARA Equipped Gear: Weapon/Armor/Trinket: - ≪Guardian's Oath#134013≫ T3: Holy | Paralyze | ACC Armor/Trinket: - ≪Azure Chevalier Armor#58994≫ T1: Mitigation | Thorns | Thorns Shield/Armor/Trinket: - ≪Memory Fragment#134713-2≫ T2: 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: - ≪Glowstone≫ x - ≪Teleport [Crystal]≫ x Housing Buffs: Guild Hall Buffs: - Treasury: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests. - Guild Rank 5: +5% Final Experience Gain, +5% Final Col Gain 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)

• 2x ► Resolute (+3*(3)Tier Mitigation)
• 10x ► Keen Sight (+2 LD to Searching, Gathering, Detection, and Loot Checks)

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The Colossus’s indifference vanished like shattered obsidian. Its head, a faceless cliff of volcanic rock, pivoted towards Dracul’s defiant light. A low groan vibrated through the basalt beneath their boots – not a tremor, but a sound. Stone grinding on stone. Recognition.

“Follow its wake,” Ariel commanded, voice cutting through the groan. She moved like a shadow over shifting scree, exploiting the momentary stillness after each earth-shaking step. Millicent scrambled behind, scanners whirring frantically. “Too close!” she gasped, as a falling boulder the size of a house pulverized a nearby ridge, showering them in grit. Darius materialized, shoving Millicent aside just as the debris impacted where she’d stood, his coat sleeve tearing on sharp rock. Dracul’s Oath blazed brighter, a beacon in the dust storm. “Sensei, its pace–!”

“Ignores us still. Use its arrogance.” Ariel lunged forward as the titan’s colossal foot lifted, revealing a cavernous archway of stone tendons and glowing magma veins. She darted into the shadow of its ankle, Millicent and Darius tumbling in after. Dracul followed, Oath’s light snapping off just as the foot slammed down, plunging them into suffocating darkness lit only by the eerie orange pulse deep within the limb’s structure. The air reeked of superheated stone and Kro’s cloying corruption.

“Scanning… structural integrity…” Millicent’s voice trembled but held focus. Her scanner beam flickered over the colossal inner architecture – seamless rock fused with veins of molten light. Darius tested his footing on a sloping basalt strut. “Oh dear. Solid as… well, a mountain.”

Dracul snarled, swinging Oath in a blazing arc at a nearby tendon. The holy light flared, then sputtered against the unyielding stone like water on hot iron. Not a scratch. “Worthless!” he spat, the echo swallowed by the cavernous space.

Millicent’s scanner pinged sharply. “N-Not worthless! Look!” The beam focused, projecting shimmering outlines onto the dark rock: pulsing nodes of intense orange light at the wrist joints, a complex, swirling nexus deep within the chest cavity, and a crown of interconnected fissures atop the distant skull. “Kro’s corruption… it’s the binding agent! But it’s unstable there – anchor points! Like… like welds holding continents together!”

Ariel’s silver eyes locked onto the projections. Weakness lives where stone meets storm. The corruption binding this abomination was its own undoing. “Wrists. Chest. Head. Dracul, Darius – the heart nexus. Millicent, with me. To the crown.” Her hand brushed Nihilim’s Wrath. Still cold. Still silent. Precision first. Flame later. The mountain above them took another step, the world outside tilting violently.

---

Post Action: Searching > «Colossus»

ID# 247601  LD: 2 +19 | «Colossus» Found! 

Edited 2 hours ago by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

Ariel’s orders hung in the stifling air, thick with the smell of scorched earth and that damned Kro-vapor. The heart nexus. A fitting target. Let my light scour its core. Ariel and Millicent were already scaling the inner slope towards the distant skull-crown, nimble as spiders on this impossible geology. Millicent’s scanner beam bobbed ahead of them, a tiny firefly in the titan’s guts.

Darius adjusted his torn sleeve, his face serene despite the chaos. “Shall we, Master Dracul? The heart awaits.” His calm was infuriating. Didn’t he feel the leaden weight of this place? The sheer arrogance of the rock? I kicked a loose chunk of basalt. It clattered down into the gloom. Pointless. Like my earlier strike.

We started climbing. Not scaling a cliff, but ascending a landscape. Buttresses became ridges, magma veins illuminated treacherous handholds. The air grew hotter, thicker. Kro’s breath clung to my armor, a faint sizzle audible over the titan’s rhythmic, world-shaking strides. My stamina bar, a persistent blue arc beside my vision, began a slow, steady drain. Below, through gaps in the stone, I saw glimpses of the shattered world – cliffs collapsing, new chasms yawning open with each step. We were ants crawling inside a god.

Halfway up a sheer face towards a glowing cluster of veins – the chest cavity pulsing ahead like a forge – I jammed Oath into a crack. Light flared defensively. “Thorns!” I barked, willing the armor’s latent power. Jagged spikes of hardened radiance burst from the pauldron as a falling shard struck, shattering it harmlessly. A small victory. Darius, clinging effortlessly beside me, murmured, “Efficient, sir. Life persists.”

I glared at the distant, pulsing nexus. Still leagues away. “Efficiency won’t crack that.” I swung Oath again, not expecting damage, just… defiance. The holy light washed over the seamless rock, illuminating intricate patterns but leaving no mark. Useless. Utterly useless. Like a child scratching at bedrock. The humiliation of the ocean titan washed over me anew. Would I fail here too? Be crushed under the weight of my own insignificance? Oath’s glow felt pathetic against the mountain’s inner sun. We climbed higher, the heart’s infernal pulse thrumming through the stone, vibrating my teeth. The nexus glowed like a malevolent star, bathing us in hellish light. We had reached the ribcage – the threshold of the heart.

---

Post Action: 1/2 Climb > «Colossus» Chest

• Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 74/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 117/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• HP: 1400/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2

Spoiler

• Weak Points | Weak points can be found on both hands, chest, and head. These can only be attacked up to three times each before the weak point is gone, and you have to move onto the next one. If you miss attacking it, it will not count as using one of the three chances. [Note: To climb to a weak point, you must spend 2 Posts climbing to it, and this goes for every weak point.]
• Oblivious | Since the boss is so large and you have to hold on and climb, players have no way to get space to <<Charge>> for extra damage.  Hiding, the Surprise Attack mods and the Tracking mod similarly have no effect on the creature.
• Shake | This boss does not attack directly. Instead, every three rotations after the boss is found, <<Colossus>> will try to "shake" the player(s) off of its body. Players have to grip onto the creature, rolling an LD as a Post Action to see how strong their grip is on the creature. The next post, <<Colossus>> will roll his own LD. If his LD is greater than the player, the player is thrown off, dealing 100 unmitiged damage to the player. They will then have to restart their climb to the next Weak Point. [Note: LD equipment and consumables can come into effect when rolling, The only +LD skills that apply are Nimble and Unhindered]

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The path to the Colossus’s crown was a vertical hellscape of shuddering rock and Kro’s suffocating breath. Ariel climbed with primal grace, fingers finding cracks in the basalt as if guided by the mountain’s own tremors. Millicent followed, scanners humming, her breaths shallow rasps against the toxic haze. Below, Dracul and Darius shrank to specks near the chest’s infernal glow—a molten star in the titan’s core. Ash rained ceaselessly, stinging exposed skin and gathering in the folds of their clothing like gray snow. The air itself resisted them, thick with the reek of sulphur and something older—buried empires ground to dust.

Instinct over brute force. The mantra anchored Ariel as a ledge sheared away beneath her boot. She pivoted, driving Nihilim’s Wrath’s scabbard into the rock face. Stone screamed. Millicent froze mid-reach, knuckles white on a protruding spar. "G-gravity distortion!" she stammered, her scanner projecting frantic red vectors into the gloom. "Its movement warps physics locally! Inertial compensation is failing!"

Ariel hauled the scholar up, ignoring the protest in her bruised ribs. Millicent’s vitality gauge flickered yellow from exertion. "Focus on the rhythm. Not the fall." The tremor’s cadence was their metronome: crunch-stomp-CRACK as the Colossus advanced. Millicent nodded, adjusting fogged glasses, drawing strength from her idol’s unwavering focus. She moves like water, the scholar thought, fluid where the mountain is rigid. Together, they navigated vertebrae-like ridges, the crown fissures pulsing closer—a jagged diadem of corrupted light staining the twilight.

The air thickened. Kro’s energy coiled around the weak point like spectral serpents guarding a shrine. Millicent’s scanner flared crimson, projecting a holographic lattice over the obsidian brow. "Corruption density critical! The binding is… fraying. Like over-tensioned cables!" Ariel’s silver eyes narrowed, tracing the pulsing veins. Weakness lives where stone meets storm. The very corruption welding the Colossus together was tearing it apart from within. Stress fractures radiated from the nexus, thin as spider silk but deepening with each tectonic shift.

Nihilim’s Wrath remained cold and heavy at her hip. No shadowflame stirred in response to the corruption’s proximity. Precision first. Flame later, she reminded herself, though the sword’s hunger vibrated in her bones. Millicent’s silent doubt echoed in the stillness between steps: Are we saving Aincrad or unravelling it? The Valley’s creed answered: survival demanded balance. Cut the corruption, not the world.

They reached the brow—a plateau of fractured obsidian sharp enough to slice leather. Before them, the head weak point blazed: a nexus of intersecting fissures, throbbing with volatile energy that cast long, dancing shadows. Millicent traced the pattern with a gloved finger. "I-It’s a stress focal point! Kro’s power anchors it, but the strain… it’s destabilizing the entire cranial structure!" A tectonic lurch cut her off. The Colossus’s skull tilted skyward, grinding stone like continents colliding. Ariel braced, boots sliding on loose scree. Millicent gasped, grabbing her arm. They had reached the crown. The mountain’s mind, a corrupted star, awaited its reckoning. Below, the Valley’s trust weighed heavier than the sword on her back.

---

Post Action: 1/2 Climb > «Colossus» Head

• Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 74/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 117/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• «Colossus» | HP: 1400/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2 
  • Rotation#1

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

Climbing this walking hell was like scaling a collapsing cathedral drunk. Every step sent tremors jarring up my spine, and Kro’s vapor clung to Oath’s light like tar, dimming its holy radiance to a sickly, jaundiced yellow. Darius moved ahead, unnervingly steady, his butler’s attire now gray with volcanic dust but still impeccably buttoned. "The nexus glows brighter, sir! We approach the crucible!" His relentless optimism was a dagger twist. Below, the abyss yawned—a sheer drop into rivers of molten rock where the Colossus’s "veins" pulsed with lazy, malevolent light. My stamina bar was a thin, trembling sliver of blue. Each muscle screamed.

Ariel and Millicent were distant motes on the titan’s skull, vanishing behind curtains of falling ash. Let the lioness chew rock, I thought, bitterness like acid in my throat. We’ll carve its heart. The memory of choking on saltwater surged—useless against the fish king—followed by Ariel’s blade parting the waves. Humiliation burned hotter than the ambient heat.

We hauled ourselves onto a rib-like outcrop slick with condensed Kro-vapor. The heart nexus loomed: a swirling maelstrom of magma and inky black tendrils, embedded in the titan’s chest like a festering jewel thirty feet across. Its light bathed us in oppressive orange, casting long, grotesque shadows. The air crackled with static, raising the hairs on my neck.

"Still ignoring us," I snarled, slamming Oath against the unyielding basalt in a shower of sparks. The holy light flared weakly, then guttered out, leaving not even a scorch mark. "Worthless theatrics!" Darius laid a restraining hand on my pauldron. His own handwrap weapon glimmered with serene persistence. "Patience, Master Dracul. Even mountains bleed where they’re broken. Observe." He pointed to the nexus’s edges, where Kro’s corruption thinned like rotting lace. There, faint cracks spiderwebbed the rock, widening minutely with each titanic heartbeat. "Millicent’s analysis holds. The binding frays under its own strain. Strike there, where the light can penetrate Kro’s weakening grip."

I eyed the fissures. Light scours shadows. But Oath felt absurdly light in my grip—a toy sword against a continental plate. The ocean titan’s ghost laughed in my ears. Failed then. Failing now. Pride warred with desperation. I needed it to see me. To acknowledge the defiance sparking at its core. Channelling Focused Howl—a skill designed to shred aggro thresholds—I filled my lungs with toxic air and roared: "FACE ME, YOU QUARRY!" The soundwave hit the nexus like a physical blow. Kro’s tendrils recoiled. A pebble dislodged, tumbling into the abyss. That was all. No bellow of rage. No shift in focus. Just… geological indifference.

The Colossus didn’t roar. It shifted—a continental shrug. The world tilted violently. Darius grabbed my arm as the basalt spine beneath us groaned, fissures snaking outward. My boots scrabbled for purchase. The health bar of the party member I couldn’t see—Ariel—flickered at the edge of my vision. Gone. Swallowed by distance and ash. We clung like limpets as the mountain settled. "We’re here," Darius breathed, steadying himself. The heart weak point throbbed before us, radiating contempt. Unbroken. Unimpressed. Oath’s light felt colder than the Mōretsuna key.

---

Post Action: 2/2 Climb > «Colossus» Chest

• Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 74/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 117/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• HP: 1400/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2

Edited 2 hours ago by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The crown of the Colossus was a shattered altar to Kro’s corruption. Ariel knelt on obsidian shards, the head weak point pulsing inches away—a lattice of molten fissures seething with blackened energy. Millicent braced against a stone spire, scanners whirring as she mapped the unstable pattern. "Energy flux increasing! The binding is... vibrating! Like a plucked wire!"

Instinct’s whisper: Strike the resonance. Ariel’s hand hovered over Nihilim’s Wrath’s hilt. Still cold. Still patient. Shadowflame slept. Precision needs no ornament. Below, the abyss churned—Dracul and Darius mere sparks against the heart nexus’s inferno. The Colossus’s stride faltered, its foot crashing into a basalt plateau. The impact reverberated upward, shaking the skull. Millicent yelped, sliding toward the brow’s edge. Ariel lunged, seizing her coat collar. "Anchor!"

"I-I’m okay!" Millicent gasped, scrambling back. Her glasses were cracked, scanner flickering. "But the pattern—it’s syncing with its footsteps! When it lifts its right foot—" A grinding groan cut her off. The titan’s leg rose. Millicent’s eyes widened. "—now! The fissures widen! The binding strains!"

Ariel saw it. For a heartbeat, the molten veins dimmed. Kro’s corruption recoiled like a wounded serpent. Now. Nihilim’s Wrath flashed free—not with shadow, but silent steel. The blade sang as she executed a Silent Moon Draw. No flourish. No wasted motion. Edge met fissure.

Stone didn’t crack. It screamed.

A jagged line split the obsidian, glowing white-hot. The Colossus’s health bar—a monolithic red pillar at the edge of Ariel’s vision—shuddered violently. A third of its length shattered like dropped glass. Millicent’s scanner blared a discordant chime—"CRITICAL STRUCTURAL FAILURE!"

The mountain noticed.

Not indifference. Not curiosity. Annoyance. The skull tilted violently. The world inverted. Ariel drove her blade into the rock, holding fast as gravity twisted. Millicent clung to her leg, screaming as the horizon became a vertiginous blur of ash and fury. The Colossus shook itself like a dog shedding water. Stone rained. The weak point flared—a beacon in the chaos.

Hold. The edge holds. Ariel’s ribs protested. Her stamina bar trembled, a thin blue sliver. The shadowflame within Nihilim’s Wrath stirred—a dormant serpent tasting blood. She clamped down.

Not yet.

---

Post Action: 2/2 Climb > «Colossus» Head

• Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 74/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 117/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• «Colossus» | HP: 1400/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2 
  • Rotation#2

Edited 2 hours ago by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

The heart nexus pulsed—a diseased sun searing my retinas, its light bleeding into the Kro-tainted gloom. Darius braced beside me on the narrow basalt spur, knuckles bone-white against the rock. Above, chaos reigned. The Colossus’s skull had whipped sideways in a blur of rage, and Ariel’s health bar had flickered crimson at the edge of my vision like a warning flare before stabilizing. Millicent’s scanner chime echoed down through the titan’s cavernous innards—a tinny shriek of triumph and terror. They struck. They carved into it. The realization was a poison-tipped arrow: pride for the party, acid jealousy for myself. Relief warred with resentment.

Then the mountain shook.

Not a tremor. A full-bodied convulsion, the kind that births earthquakes. The ribcage platform beneath us lurched violently, tilting toward the abyss of molten veins below. Kro’s corruption lashed out like living shadows—thick, inky tendrils snapping through the air. One caught Darius’s forearm as he tried to steady himself. His handwraps smoked on contact, the dark energy searing through fabric. He gasped, teeth clenched, as he peeled the viscous darkness away. Raw, blistered skin glistened beneath. No holy shield. No enchanted armor. Just flesh and stubborn resolve. The sight punched through my arrogance.

"Stay down!" I roared, planting myself like a flawed bulwark before him. Oath blazed in my grip—a defiant star against the nexus’s sickly glare. The thorns enhancement flared instinctively as debris hammered my pauldrons. Jagged spikes of crystalline light erupted, shattering falling rock into harmless dust, but each impact vibrated through my bones like a blacksmith’s hammer. My stamina bar dimmed to a ghostly sliver, the blue arc flickering erratically. Pathetic. Still just reacting. Still useless when it counts.

The shaking intensified, a relentless storm of stone and malice. The Colossus’s geological indifference had crystallized into raw irritation. It didn’t see us gnats at its heart—it felt an itch on its crown, a sting it couldn’t ignore. Rage, hot and familiar, boiled up from the pit of my shame. LOOK AT ME. ACKNOWLEDGE MY DEFIANCE. I abandoned caution. Draining the dregs of my stamina, I gathered breath fouled by sulphur and failure and unleashed Focused Howl—not a tactical taunt, but a raw, primal demand.

"ACKNOWLEDGE ME, QUARRY!"

The soundwave hit the nexus like a physical fist. Kro’s tendrils recoiled. A tiny fracture snaked across the stone surface, glowing white-hot for a heartbeat. The molten light within dimmed, just for an instant. Hope flared—wild and desperate. Then… nothing. The corruption surged back, thicker, angrier, sealing the fissure as if it had never been. The mountain’s stride didn’t falter. No roar echoed in the chamber. No shift in focus. Just the endless, grinding rumble of continents in motion and the sizzle of Kro’s breath eating at my armor’s polish.

Darius hauled himself upright, cradling his burnt arm. His face was pale but calm. "It… it barely registered us, sir," he said softly. No judgment. Only weary truth.

Humiliation was a cold stone in my gut, heavier than the Colossus itself. Ariel carved canyons in its skull with a single stroke. I couldn’t make it blink. Oath’s holy light guttered, overwhelmed by the nexus’s baleful glare. Then, a faint pulse at my wrist—the «Memory Fragment» bracelet Ariel had given me some time ago. Its simple blue crystal glowed softly against the gloom, a silent echo of an enchantment triggered by my futile roar. A gift from the woman whose shadow I couldn’t escape. The light felt like a reproach. Light scours shadows? Here, in the deep, my light was a guttering candle in a hurricane. The heart weak point pulsed before us, radiant and impenetrable. Unbroken. Unimpressed. Darius’s quiet words from the ocean floor returned: "Life persists, but balance trembles." Mine felt like it was shattering.

---

Post Action: Focused Howl > «Colossus»

1. ID# xxxxx  | BD: x (x +2, Hit!) | CD: x | [xYY] (1) = 0 -(75) MIT =0 DMG > «Colossus»
   • -(4) EN

 

• [5]Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 70/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• [0]Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 117/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• «Colossus» | HP: 1400/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2

Edited 2 hours ago by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Chaos ruled the Colossus's crown. The walking mountain shook itself with world-breaking fury, its skull a storm of shearing rock and screaming winds that stole breath. Each step made the obsidian platform buck like a wild thing. Ariel held fast, Nihilim’s Wrath buried deep in stone, muscles burning. Millicent clung to her back, arms locked around her waist, face pressed into Ariel’s coat. Ash scoured their skin, stinging eyes and choking lungs with sulfur and ancient dust.

Then—
A raw roar ripped through the chaos:
"ACKNOWLEDGE ME, QUARRY!"

Dracul’s voice. Focused Howl. It echoed up through the stone, bouncing off hidden chambers before fading into the grinding air. Millicent lifted her head, cracked glasses askew. She pushed them up with a shaky finger, scanner flickering. "I-It’s Dracul! Deep inside! His Howl…" She flinched as the last echo died. "It just… bounced. Like shouting into a cave. The mountain didn’t care." Her voice frayed. "Is he okay? Can he even scratch it down there?"

Ariel’s grip whitened on her sword. Defiance against stone. Like light drowning in the deep. Above them, a slab of basalt tore free. "Move!" She wrenched her blade free, shoving Millicent behind a stone column. The slab exploded against their shelter. Shrapnel rained—one piece tore Ariel’s temple. Warmth bled down her cheek. Her health bar flickered, a jagged chunk vanishing.

The quakes eased to a low growl. Millicent peered into the abyss, scanner whirring. "H-he’s alive! Vitality solid! But Darius… his bar’s yellow. Kro’s burn?" Ariel followed her gaze. Far below, Oath’s light was a stubborn spark against the heart’s inferno. Alive. Unbroken.

The head weak point pulsed before them, fissures spiderwebbing from Ariel’s strike. Nihilim’s Wrath lay cold in her hand. No shadowflame. A silent blade, not a broken one. Millicent traced the fractures. "C-corruption’s thrashing! Like snapped chains! Hit it now while it’s wild—"

Ariel raised a bloodied hand. "Gait rhythm?"
"L-left foot rising! Two seconds!"
"Strike with it."

She stepped forward, blade low in Shirajishi-ryū’s first stance. The mountain’s anger pressed down like a physical weight. Millicent whispered, "Sensei… can steel break a mountain?"
Ariel didn’t turn. "Steel breaks where stone frays. Breathe with the tremor. Cut with the breaking world."

---

Rec. ID# XXXXX  | CD:0 | +0 EN | +0 EN

Post Action: ST-I > «Colossus»

1. ID# 247602  | BD: 6 (4 +6+2, Hit!) | CD: 4 | [x12 +3] (32) = 480 -(75) MIT =405 DMG > «Colossus»
   • ST-II available!
   • -(14 -2-1) EN | Well Rested 2/3
   • Head 1/3
      
2. ID# 247595 | BD: 1  CD: 10 | «Colossus» > Dracul 
   • «Colossus» triggers [Shake]!

 

• [5]Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 70/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• [0]Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 117/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• «Colossus» | HP: 995/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2 
  • Rotation#3

Edited 1 hour ago by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

The echo of my Howl faded into the Colossus's stone gullet—swallowed by indifference. Darius sagged against the basalt spur, cradling his blistered arm. His stamina bar was a thin gray sliver. "Tenacity, sir," he rasped. "But stone has no ears for noble demands."

Fury burned my throat. Ariel carved canyons in its skull. I got echoes. The heart nexus pulsed before us, a diseased sun radiating contempt. Oath's light felt thin. Insignificant. Like polishing silver while the house burned.

Then—a spark. Not hope, but spite. Thorns. They'd shattered debris on instinct. Could I make them bite? TECH-A surfaced—a crude tank art. Turn defensive spikes into offensive force. Beneath a duelist's dignity? Maybe. But dignity drowned with Mōretsuna.

"Cover me," I growled. Darius nodded, bracing himself despite the angry red burn weeping through his torn sleeve.

I planted my boots, channelling the dregs of my stamina into the enhancement. Oath's glow dimmed as crystalline spikes erupted across my armor—longer, sharper, hungry. "Now!" I slammed my spiked vambrace against the nexus's lower rim, where Millicent's scans showed microfractures.

CRACK-THUD-SHATTER.

The light-spikes exploded against unyielding rock. Shards of hardened radiance sprayed like broken glass. A hairline fissure glowed white-hot for a heartbeat. My health bar didn't flicker. My stamina didn't plunge. Negligible. But the «Memory Fragment» bracelet glowed—soft blue against hell-orange. Proc. Contact.

Darius's eyebrows shot up. "You... commanded the thorns?"
"Adaptation," I panted, the word tasting like volcanic grit. "Not everything requires a lioness's fangs."

The Colossus shifted. The world tilted violently. We scrambled for handholds as the platform groaned. Far above, Ariel moved against the crown's fractured glow—a shadow dancing with annihilation. My fist tightened on Oath's hilt. Next time, quarry. Next time, I carve deeper.

---

Post Action: Resist Shake

1. ID# 247604  | LD: 1 +20 > 1 | Resisted!
   • +3 EN | Passive regen

 

• Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 73/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 106/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• «Colossus» | HP: 995/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2

Edited 1 hour ago by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The Colossus shook itself like a wet hound. Ariel locked her knees against the obsidian crown, Nihilim’s Wrath driven deep as an anchor. Millicent screamed as the world inverted, her grip on Ariel’s coat the only tether to reality. Basalt rained around them – fist-sized shards clattering, boulders the size of carts crashing into the void below.

Instinct:
Weight low. Hips fluid. Ride the tremor.

The titan’s convulsions made the skyline seesaw. Dracul’s light flared far below – a beacon in the chest cavity. Steady. Alive. Millicent’s scanner shrieked as a fissure split the crown beside them. "I-Inertial drift! C-Can’t stabilize targeting!"

Ariel hauled her upright. "Drop the scanner. Watch." She pointed to the Colossus’s shoulder joints – pistons of stone grinding with each quake. "Its rhythm. Not ours."

Millicent gulped air, eyes wide behind cracked lenses. She nodded, shoving the device away. Focus shifted to the titan’s movement: the deep crunch-thud of its footsteps, the way its spine flexed like a bridge under load. "L-Left foot impacts... causes a lateral sway... then right knee locks..."

Ariel’s bruised ribs protested. Her stamina bar was a thin blue ghost. The head weak point pulsed mockingly ten feet away – corruption thrashing like caged eels. So close. Yet reaching it meant crossing a chasm of bucking stone. Every lurch threatened to fling them into the sulfurous abyss.

"Can... can we even strike?" Millicent whispered, ash coating her lips.

Ariel watched a boulder dislodge, tumble, and vanish into the fog. "Not while it remembers we’re here. We wait. Breathe. Be the grit in its joints."

Nihilim’s Wrath remained cold steel against her palm. No shadowflame answered the corruption’s frenzy. Precision needs no flame. Only opportunity.

---

Post Action: Resist [Shake]

1. ID# 247605  | LD: 7 +19 > 1 | Resisted!
   • ST-II available!
   • +3 EN | Passive regen
      
2. ID# xxxxxx | BD: x  CD: x | «Colossus» > Dracul 
   • «Colossus» waits

 

• [5]Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 73/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• [0]Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 109/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• «Colossus» | HP: 995/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2 
  • Rotation#4

Edited 59 minutes ago by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

The Colossus stumbled. Ariel’s second strike echoed through its bones like a death knell. She carved deeper. Again. Kro’s corruption recoiled from the crown, black veins slithering downward toward the heart nexus—toward us.

"Sir! The corruption—it’s converging!" Darius pointed. The diseased light in the central nexus intensified, pulsing like an infected wound. Millicent’s frantic warning from above rang in my ears: "It’s trying to heal!"

Rage crystallized into cold purpose. Not while I stand here.

"Shield!" I barked. Darius braced beside me, burnt arm trembling but unwavering. I planted my boots and summoned RAW-A again—no longer a gambit, but a weapon. Stamina bled into crystalline thorns. Oath’s light dimmed as jagged radiance sheathed my armor.

The nexus swelled, corruption knitting stone. I struck not the core, but the fractures Darius had spotted earlier—microscopic flaws in Kro’s frantic repair.

CRACK-SHATTER-THUD!

Light-spikes hammered the weakened seam. Stone shrieked. The fissure yawned—a finger’s width, then a hand’s breadth. Molten light bled out. My light. Not Ariel’s sundering blow, but a scalpel’s persistence. The Colossus’s health bar didn’t fracture—but a hairline sliver peeled away.

Darius intercepted a lashing tendril of corruption with his handwraps. They smoked. "It’s focusing! The damage—"

"Is working," I snarled, striking again. RAW-A flared. More spikes. More impacts. The fissure crept wider. Negligible to a mountain. Critical to a binding. "We’re not carving canyons, Darius. We’re rusting hinges."

He nodded, grim pride in his eyes. "Then let us corrode, sir."

Above, the crown blazed—Ariel’s shadow moving against the light. The lioness poised for the kill. My thorns weren’t fangs. They were teeth, wearing down bone. And for the first time in this ashen hell, the «Memory Fragment»’s glow felt like approval.

---

Post Action: RAW-A > «Colossus»

1. ID# 247606  | BD: 8 (7 +1+2, Hit!) | CD: 11 | [x2] (1) = 2 -(75) MIT =1 +18 DMG > «Colossus»
   • +3 EN | Passive regen
   • -(10) EN
   • THORNS:18 procc!
   • 1/3 Chest

 

• Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 64/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 109/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• «Colossus» | HP: 976/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2

Edited 1 hour ago by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The Colossus settled. Millicent’s breath hitched. "Gait stabilized! Right foot planted... left rising in five!"

Opportunity.

Ariel moved. Not a dash – a flowing glide over treacherous rock. Nihilim’s Wrath slid free without a whisper. The head weak point yawned before her, fissures wide from her first strike, corruption boiling within like molten tar.

Shirajishi-ryū: Stone’s Embrace.

The blade didn’t slash. It pierced. A single, perfect thrust into the nexus’s deepest crack.

SHK-K-KRUNCH!

Obsidian screamed. Light – pure, white, and agonizing – erupted from the wound. The Colossus staggered. Its health bar fractured, another brutal third shearing away. Molten rock bled from the fissure, spattering Ariel’s boots.

Not dead. Wounded. Angry.

The titan’s head snapped sideways. A pillar of basalt – its knuckle – filled Ariel’s vision. Too fast. Too close.

"SENSEI!" Millicent’s shriek was lost in the wind.

Ariel twisted. Nihilim’s Wrath met stone in a shower of sparks. The impact hammered her backwards. Ribs shrieked. Her health bar peeled away like burning parchment. She slammed into an outcrop, vision graying.

Cold. The sword lay beside her. Still dormant. Still just steel.

Millicent scrambled to her, dragging her behind cover as the Colossus swiped again. Rock shattered where Ariel had fallen. "Y-You carved it! Deep! Like cracking a continent!"

Ariel spat virtual blood. Ash and copper filled her mouth. The weak point bled light, but held. Precision... wasn’t enough. Not this time.

The mountain’s shadow fell over them. Annoyance had turned to rage.

---

Post Action: ST-II > «Colossus»

1. ID# 247607  | BD: 6 (5 +6+2, Hit!) | CD: 9 | [x15 +3] (32) = 576 -(75) MIT =501 DMG > «Colossus»
   • +3 EN | Passive regen
   • ST-B available!
   • -(17 -2-1) EN | Well Rested 1/3
   • Head 2/3
      
2. ID# xxxxxxx | BD: x  CD: x | «Colossus» > Dracul 
   • «Colossus» waits

 

• Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 64/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 98/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• «Colossus» | HP: 475/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2 
  • Rotation#5

Edited 58 minutes ago by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Dracul 0]

The heart nexus convulsed. Above, Ariel’s second strike had bitten deep. Light bled from the crown like a beacon. Kro’s corruption recoiled, surging downward into the chest cavity – thick, panicked, defensive.

"It’s bleeding power!" Darius yelled. "Feeding the heart to heal the head!"

No. I wouldn’t be ignored. Not while it funneled its strength away.

RAW-A. I called it again. Stamina bled. Crystalline thorns sheathed my arms. The «Memory Fragment» glowed – steady blue. Focus. Not glory. Utility.

I didn’t aim for the core. I struck the conduits – the throbbing veins of corruption channelling energy upward. Darius spotted them: pulsing black cords amidst the molten light.

CRACK-SHATTER!

Thorns met corruption. Dark energy sizzled against hardened light. The cord recoiled. Not severed. Scorched. A wisp of foul smoke rose. Negligible damage. But the flow... stuttered.

"Again!" Darius deflected a lashing tendril, handwraps smoking. "It’s diverting energy to shield the conduits!"

I struck another. And another. RAW-A became a rhythm. Strike. Recover. Strike. My stamina bar was a sliver. My arms felt leaden. Each impact sent jolts up my bones. Dust. But dust in the gears.

The nexus pulsed erratically. Less light flowed upward. More corruption coiled protectively around the conduits. It noticed. Not with a roar, but with a shift in the diseased light’s pattern. It had to split its focus.

Darius grinned through gritted teeth. "Filing down the mountain, sir!"

I looked at my thorn vambrace. Crude. Effective. Necessary. Ariel needed time for the killing blow. I’d give it to her – one chipped conduit at a time. The ocean’s shame receded another inch.

---

Post Action: RAW-A > «Colossus»

1. ID# 247XX  | BD: 8 (6 +1+2, Hit!) | CD: 12 | [x2] (1) = 2 -(75) MIT =1 +18 DMG > «Colossus»
   • +3 EN | Passive regen
   • -(10) EN
   • THORNS:18 procc!
   • 2/3 Chest

 

• Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 57/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 98/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• «Colossus» | HP: 475/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2

Edited 54 minutes ago by Dracul

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Chaos below. Dracul’s light flashed like a strobe in the titan’s chest – relentless, irritating, diverting. Corruption writhed, torn between healing the crown and shielding its heart.

Instinct’s whisper:
The bindings fray. Strike now.

Ariel rose. Bruised ribs protested. Blood crusted her temple. Nihilim’s Wrath felt heavier. Colder. Still silent. It doesn’t matter. The edge was hers. The Valley’s trust was hers.

Millicent tracked the corruption’s panic. "It’s destabilized! The fissure... it’s vibrating! Like a plucked wire!"

The Colossus raised its left foot. The crown tilted. Ariel breathed with the motion.

Shirajishi-ryū: Silent Blade, Sundered Peak.

Not a skill. A truth. The sword became the focal point of every fracture, every strain, every ounce of the mountain’s unravelling tension. She stepped with the tilt. Blade met fissure.

No sound. No flash.

For a heartbeat, nothing.

Then –

The crown imploded. Obsidian turned to glittering dust along perfect geometric lines. Kro’s corruption vaporized mid-scream. The Colossus froze. A web of light raced down its spine, through its limbs.

CRRRRRACK—BOOM!

The walking mountain ceased to be. Gravel rained onto the shattered lands. Where its heart burned, the «Tanos Key» hovered – obsidian carved into miniature terraces.

Ariel landed amidst settling dust. Millicent stumbled to her, tears cutting ash trails. "You... you didn’t break it. You unmade it."

Dracul and Darius emerged from the fading dust-cloud, Oath’s light guttering. Dracul met Ariel’s gaze. No words. A nod. You cut. I distracted.

The keys resonated in Ariel’s inventory: Kumatetsu. Leech Lich. Mōretsuna. Tanos. Four fragments. Four dead guardians.

As the Transport Gate shimmered, Darius stiffened. "Oh dear. Forests shouldn’t feel... hungry."

Beyond the gate, Floor 20’s trees stood unnaturally still. A shadow flowed between branches – fluid, silent, gone before the eye could focus. Gold eyes flashed in the gloom.

Millicent’s scanner hissed. "L-Life sign! Extreme stealth! It... it vanished! Like it stepped between shadows!"

Ariel’s hand tightened on her still-cold sword.
"«Suterusu»," she murmured. "The forest’s ghost. And it knows we’re coming."

---

Post Action: ST-B > «Colossus»

1. ID# 247609  | BD: 6 (4 +6+2, Hit!) | CD: 12 | [x20 +3] (32) = 736 -(75) MIT =661 DMG > «Colossus»
   • +3 EN | Passive regen
   • ST-B available!
   • -(22 -2-1) EN | Well Rested 0/3
   • Head 3/3
      

• Dracul | HP: 605/605 | EN: 64/74 | DMG: 1 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | TAUNT | THORNS:18 | BH:30 | REC: 4 | HLY: 6 | PARA | LD: 20 [Assisted]
• Ariel | HP: 941/941 | EN: 98/117 | DMG: 32 | MIT:0 | ACC:6 | AA  | PHASE | EVA:2 | BH:10 | HB: 41 | REC: 6 | RISK: 6 | FLN: 12 | LD:19 | PROSP:3 | TXC-V: 24 [Assisting]
   
• «Colossus» | HP: -168/1400 | MIT: 75 | EVA: -2 
  • Rotation#6
  • Loot ID# 247610  CD:2  LD:17+19
  • Col: 1400*(3 +2CD +3prosp+1multipurpose) +5%(guild)
  • Mat: 2
  • 2x T3 Perfect Consumable | 247610a | 247610b
  • 2x T3 Perfect Shield/Armor | 247610c | 247610d

Edited 56 minutes ago by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

---

---

Final Rewards:

• Ariel
  • EXP: 15237 [Total]| 5676/5 *10 +2500 (Quest) +5% (Firm Anima R5) +5% (Assist System)
  • Col: 21540 [Total]| 12600 (Loot) +630 (Guild Treasury) +5000 (Quest) +2285 (para lv. 5) +5% (Firm Anima R5)
  • 2x Guild Token [Total] | 1 transferred from Dracul
  • 1 Mon
  • Tanos Key
  • 2x T3 Perfect Consumable | 247610a | 247610b
  • 2x T3 Perfect Shield/Armor | 247610c | 247610d
• Dracul
  • EXP: 6496 [Total]| 5676/5 *3 +2500 (Quest) +5% (Firm Anima R5) +5% (Assist System)
  • Col: 0 [Total]| 
  • Material: 2
  • 1 Mon
  • Tanos Key

Edited 42 minutes ago by Ariel - The Crowned Lion