[PP-F5] Blood in the Sand - Quest

[Mack 0]

"I hate the heat," Mack grumbled to himself, standing in the central portal plaza on the fifth floor of the Aincrad Tower. What he and Xion were going to tackle today, the Sand Shark, was a little bit dangerous. Before the system update when it came to combat, the quest was one that Mack could have safely taken by himself. Now, though, it was necessary to bring along a tank since the blonde man knew he had the damage output to kill the thing, but he he also knew that if he took too many hits from the beast that it would kill him. Still, according to the guide book, Xion would be able to tank the beast with absolutely no danger since the tank would be able to mitigate out of so much damage that the sand shark would only hit for its base amount. Even if it landed a critical strike. Still grumbling and muttering darkly about the heat and how much he hated it, Mack tugged the white cowl of the Angelic Sheath up over his head a bit farther. This was definitely not a Guild operation since the Grandmaster had no desire to wear the Crimson cloak on this floor unless it was absolutely necessary.

[Xion 0]

Xion chuckled as he saw Mack standing near the portal, Xion himself had just teleported to the desert wasteland that was floor five, but unlike the guildmaster Xion was not bothered by the heat, his <<Survival>> skill saw to that. "Mack..." Xion said as he stood beside the hulking blonde, encased in his armour of the maelstrom, his usual crimson shoulder piece and cloak draped over the left side of his body. "This was too easy with the old system, hopefully the update will prove to be a challenge. You have stupidly high damage output, my defences are hilariously high and we both have enough thorns to batter it to death without raising our weapons"

[Mack 0]

"Agreed, but I don't want to stand around in the desert all day waiting for you to do that... as amusing as it would be." the Guildmaster replied. "Anyway, I'm in no mood to spend any more time on this floor than I absolutely have to," Mack continued, slinging Guillotine down off of his back and beginning to head in the direction of the main gate of the city that would take them out to where they needed to be in order to fight the sand shark. "The sooner we kill this thing, the sooner I can leave this hellish floor," the blonde man grumbled, setting one foot outside the gate as he led the way. "When we find it I'm going to hang back until you've landed three hits, that way you've solidly drawn aggro since the Sand Shark can four hit me with its damage output. I barely mitigate anything anymore."

[Xion 0]

Xion nodded as they began to walk. listening to the guildmaster's plan.It was a sensible one, as Mack had hilarious amounts of damage, but no defences, while Xion had the opposite, large amounts of defence but pitiful damage. This meant that the pair complimented each other almost perfectly in battle. "Once the aggro is drawn a few crescent avalanches should take it down right?" he said with a smile, as he scanned the horizon. 

[Mack 0]

OOC: Also your turn on the 11th Floor Searching Thread. We only need a few more rounds to get our SP out of it. Also, Banshee quest. And Cerberus quest.

"Yes," Mack answered in reply, sweat already beginning to pour from his body in the harsh desert environment. "So, let's find this thing. Kill it. Then we can get out of this infernal heat," the blonde man continued, leading the way from the main settlement on the floor and out into the desert environment. Just because Mack had a lot of real world experience when it came to surviving and living in the desert it didn't mean he enjoyed spending time in such places. When it came to the heat there was only so much one could take off before they were indecent and still too hot.

ID: 31640
MD: 4

When they'd been walking for several hours and left the town well behind them there suddenly came a low rumble. Spinning on the spot, Mack focused his grey eyes on a moving mound of sand that was rippling across the desert dunes. Within just a few seconds the mound had come closer and a shark-like beast had exploded from the moving mound. As it soured over their heads, the beast snapped once at Xion, but missed before it hit the ground and disappeared into the sand again.

[Xion 0]

ID: 31642

BD: 6 ( 3 DMG) 

 

xion watched as th beast came at them with a reasonable amount of speed, but not enough for it to be able to hit Xion, as the tank was able to dodge the attack with ease. He then waited for the creature to circle around and attack once more, leaping jn and slashing at it's hide as it emerged from the sand, dealing a small amount of damage.

 

Xion (53/53)

Mack (?/?) [ on mobile, will edit once I know]

 

Sand shark (122/125)

[Mack 0]

OOC: Couldn't afford to waste another 10 on the BD.

ID: 31665
BD: 12 (10+2)
MD: 1
Mack: 81/81 (Hate: 2) - Crescent Avalanche 7x1 (Cost 7) - Energy: 12/19
Xion: 53/53 (Hate: 1)
Sandshark: 59/125 (-63 Dam., Bleed 2/2)

Mack watched as Xion darted forward and plunged his sword into the side of the sandshark, drawing aggro from the beast. Immediately, the animal whirled about and took off after Xion but, in its haste to get to the tank it clearly didn't pay close enough attention to where it was going. As a result, the creature slammed into a rock that was submerged beneath the sand, momentarily stunning itself. Seeing an opening that was too good to pass up, Mack moved forward to attack. Drawing Guillotine back over one shoulder he locked in his Crescent Avalanche sword art and raced forward. "This is how a damage dealer plays the game," Mack called out, his voice slightly muffled by the face mask of the Angelic Sheath. Reaching the sandshark's unprotected back he brought Guillotine's blade down first on the beast's neck. Reversing his grip he swung the blade in an uppercut into the side of the beast before chopping it down quickly on the other side. That done, the iron butt cap of the axe flicked downward to strike the sand shark squarely between the eyes before being followed with three quick tomahawk chops in rapid succession. By the time he stepped back the sandshark had gone from a nearly full health bar down into the yellow zone. It had also fixed its eyes squarely on Mack as the axe-man drew aggro from the tank.

[Xion 0]

ID: 31735

BD: 8 (3 DMG) [PAR for 1 turn] 

 

Xion watched as Mack completely decimated the health of the beast with his <<Crescent avalanche>> attack, reducing it to less than half. "What use am I anyway?" he said in a  rather despondent tone before realising that the shark was making another turn at them. Xion charged to meet the beast, knocking it's attack to the side before following up with a strong strike to it's side, slicing through it diagonally before driving the blade hilt-deep into it, electricity arcing from the blade to the beast, causing it to become limp and lifeless. 

 

Mack: 81/81 (Hate: 2) Energy: 12/19
Xion: 53/53 (Hate: 2)
Sandshark: 56/125  [PAR]

 

[Mack 0]

OOC: Please post in the Hellhounds and Banshee Quest threads… we need to get our SP from those. All said and done, you should be able to get enough SP to add another armor rank and a weapon rank between now and the Boss Raid… if we hurry.

ID: 31754
BD: 11 (9+2)
LD: 13
Mack: 81/81 (Hate: 4) – Energy 6/19
Xion: 53/53 (Hate: 2)
Sandshark: -2/125 (-56 Dam., -2 Bleed)

“You’re of plenty of use, who’s going to paralock the beast and make sure it doesn’t kill me if the random numbers aren’t on my side,” Mack asked, quirking an eyebrow in Xion’s direction as the blonde tank darted forward and jabbed the beast in the side with his sword, paralyzing it. “Yes, just like that,” the blonde man called as Xion stepped back after paralyzing the shark. “There’s also the fact that I need a witness to testify to my awesome power, that way we can tell Lawfer how to sing the song of this glorious battle. That’s the bard’s job, right? Excuse me for a moment.”

Mack proceeded to walk slowly and methodically right up to the beast and, locking in the Crescent Avalanche skill again, made ready to attack. Another shower of strikes from the blade of his axe rained down on the sand shark and it disappeared in a shower of pixels, leaving behind a pair sand armor potions, a crafting material, and a bag with six hundred and twenty-five col in it. Picking up one of the potions and the crafting material, Mack tossed them to the tank. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll take the a bit of extra col from the kill and you can have the mat,” Mack said, emptying three hundred fifty col from the bag and tossing the remaining two hundred seventy-five col in the bag over to Xion.

REWARDS:

Mack:
1 Sand Armor Potion
350 Col

Xion:
1 Sand Armor Potion
275 Col
1 Mat

[Xion 0]

Xion watched as Mack killed the boss with another <<Crescent Avalanche>>. "That's if you aren't killed by the crusader's AOE, remember you have barely any MIT, and I'm sure that a giant sword to the face is enough to kill most men. But yes I shall tell Lawfer about the battle so that he can write a song about it" he said before catching the col and other loot that Mack had thrown at him. " So what shall we do now? We have a whole floor of sand and all day to kill"

[Mack 0]

ID: 32333
LD: 6

Looking up from having killed the quest boss Mack considered the question that was posed to him by Xion. What should they go and do now? There was still plenty of daylight time left, after all. Throwing back the cowl of the Angelic Sheath, Mack mopped his forehead with the back of one massive hand and then probed around in the sand with the iron butt cap of Guillotine. Finding nothing from his searching, he planted the weapon in the sand and leaned on top of the dull top portion of the blade head. "I'm certainly open to ideas," he said, shrugging his shoulders and pulling up his inventory to select a bottle of water, which he began to drink. "Preferably something that takes us away from the fifth floor, though."

[Xion 0]

Xion rubbed his chin in thought as Mack poked around in the sand, presumably in hopes on getting some loot. "Well we can always go hunting on one of the other floors, although with you around it becomes 'how many hits can Xion get in before Mack rips the MOB to shreds'" he said with a slight chuckle before sheathing his blade and kicking the sand about in boredom. "We could go to floor four and see how many ice giants we can kill, they should be harder than normal MOBs" he said, the proverbial light bulb turning on in his head as he did. 

[Mack 0]

ID: 32427
LD: 20 (+1 Mat)

"Anything that involves leaving this accursed hell, I'm all for," Mack said, nodding his head sagely and taking one last stab into the sand with the butt cap of Guillotine. This time, there was a solid pinging thunk as the weapon's haft found something buried just beneath the surface of the shifting scorching sands. Kneeling, Mack retrieved a crafting material and added it to his inventory. Then, shouldering Guillotine he turned and began marching back off in the direction of the main settlement on the fifth floor. From there, they would enter the portal plaza and go to somewhere with much nicer temperatures than this awful desert. "Let's move out."

[Xion 0]

Xion couldn't help but chuckle at his guildmaster's hatred of the heat "You know that the survival skill should protect you from the heat, I'm assuming that you have it?" he said as they walked back towards armadillo, the sun beating down upon their backs as they did. "Although, I would rather be cold than hot, it's nicer to sit by a fire than drown yourself just to be comfortable" he said, remembering the nights by the fire at his own forge: they were nice ones. 

[Mack 0]

“I do have the survival skill and I still hate the heat and the desert,” Mack grumbled to Xion, trudging back in the direction of town as quickly as he could without exerting himself more than was absolutely necessary in the burning heat of the midday sun on the fifth floor of Aincrad. “You would too if you were from a colder area of the world and if you had been on combat deployment to an area with a desert environment. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about on this one,” the Grandmaster groused, trudging determinedly up the nearest sand dune just to walk back down the other side.

[Xion 0]

"Look I come from England which is basically shitty weather central ok, but still I'm not bloody moaning am I. Anyway, I never joined any kind of armed forces so I have no idea what you guys go through, although I think the heat was the least of your worries out there" he said, in an attempt to be sympathetic with the members of the army etc. Xion had never seen the appeal of such a thing, but still treated such people with respect as they had courage that he could never muster. 

[Mack 0]

OOC: Just trying to drag out the return to get to the length we need for this to be completed.

“I’m in charge of this quest, and as the song goes,” Mack answered, traipsing back down through the sand on the far side of the dune that he had just ascended. “It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to.” Opening his inventory once again, Mack extracted another water bottle from storage and began to guzzle down the sweet cool liquid knowing that in the oppressive heat of the desert the water would not stay nice and cool as it was when it left his inventory for all that long a period of time. “Are we there yet,” the Grandmaster asked, scanning the horizon.

[Xion 0]

"You sound like my little sister 10 minutes into a 3 hour car journey" Xion joked lightly, sighing as he trudged along, his armour clanking as he did. "While the heat here is bloody awful, at least walking has given us a chance to talk casually eh? I mean most of the time were either in the midst of battle or sorting stuff out with the guild" he said with a smile. 

 

The he tank then joined the guildmaster in scanning the horizon "I think armadillo is right...there, not long to go now" he said, pointing towards a medium sized speck in the distance. 

[Mack 0]

"That's still too far," Mack grumbled, continuing to complain about the heat. The massive man was not a fan of hot weather, there was a reason why he had built his shop on the fourth floor of the tower. It was never hot in a winter wonderland. Never. Slowly, the axe man continued to plod his way forward. One foot in front of the other, his eyes fixed on the slowly, but surely, growing speck that had to be the town of Armadillo. Or, at least, it had to be the town of somewhere in the middle of a most unpleasantly hot desert. "When are you going to get around to getting the Howl skill back? Tanks need to be able to howl. Howl at the moon. Howl at the ladies. Howl at other tanks..."

[Xion 0]

Xion let out a loud laugh at Mack's last comment. "Howl at other tanks" he managed in between laughter. "Bloody hell Mack, that's how we assert our dominance and establish the tank hierarchy you know Mack" he said with a chuckle "but not in all seriousness hopefully soon, it'll make me more effective as a tank so it would be a good investment" 

 

The tank then stopped talking for a minute, before saying "I think we're almost there you know"