[PP - F5] The Chopping Block <<Butcher of the Sands>>

[Takao 0]

Takao stood at the eastern gates of Armadillo, staring out into the vast expanses of desert. His familiar was scurrying around in the sand just beyond the gates, clearly in a state of euphoria for being back in the sandbox it once called home. Not too long ago had he sent out a handful of private messages, one addressed to Lowenthal, one to Zelrius, and the last to Azide, all to organize a party. Despite only having spoken to the latter through in-game messages, he had still arranged for the small group of players to take on one of the more menacing field bosses that the cleared floors had to offer. His eyes fell to the menu in front of him and glanced at the name of the only unfinished quest on his list, "«Butcher of the Sand»". He knew the gist of what the battle would entail, a lot of risk for a decent reward. It wouldn't be an easy battle, especially not if luck wasn't on their side, but he had confidence in their ability to succeed regardless.

"You're sittin' this one out, buddy. I don't want you getting hurt or anything." he said to his familiar, who didn't seem to be paying even the slightest bit of attention to him. He huffed out a sigh and leaned against the wall, waiting for the others to arrive.

[Zelrius 0]

A Third time's a charm they say, Right? Zelrius had thought these words silently in his head along the lands he walked back through to the nearest town. He straightened his hair a bit before walking up the podium of a teleportation gate on Floor 11 before quickly zapping away to a small town on the Fifth floor. He had attempted this quest twice with those of the Azure Brigade, and both times, they merely got bored and turned around and went home. This was going to be different, or so the golden haired boy had hoped ever so desperately. Things needed to start getting done, and it needed to happen rather quickly. Supposedly this battle was meant to be difficult. But in the last year or so, Zelrius had heard that about a lot of battles, and yet none have proven to be much of a challenge for the bowtie totting teenager of Aincrad. 

He approached Takao upon recognizing him and formally (and quickly) rushed out some words in a hushed voice "Let's go. I want this done quickly, I have a party to setup and get to. Know that while we can come inside cities, the Leader of Velvet Room cannot, simply because he's orange." Zelrius said turning and walking right out of the city to the sandy deserts. 

[Lowenthal 0]

Lowenthal sat down in the hot sun. Perhaps wearing black was a poor idea in this heat. But dammit, he couldn't be a ninja master of shadows wearing sand colors. Lowenthal heard the crunching of sand behind him, and as he turned he saw Zelrius taking lead along with Takao. "There you two are. Thought I was gonna have to fight this guy by myself." Lowenthal said, shrugging. "So, game plan?" Lowenthal said, following into step with the two beside him. Lowenthal was feeling a bit more confident than usual. Perhaps it was because of his recent outings with women, or Velvet Room, or the fact that Zelrius was actually going to fight beside Low this time.

[Takao 0]

Takao glanced aside after hearing somebody approach and noticed the familiar blonde-haired and formally dressed leader of the Azure Brigade approaching. He pushed off the archway and nodded in agreement to the hurried words. "Quick sounds good to me. I don't wanna be out in this heat for any longer than needed." he said, following after Zelrius once he'd gestured for his familiar to come along. He'd have the little red monster trail far behind them and sit off to the side once the battle began, which would hopefully keep him out of harm. He raised his hand to wave as Lowenthal came into view and began walking alongside them. "I'm thinkin' a blitzkrieg-type deal. Whoever has the strongest stun hits first, then the rest hit 'em as hard as we can. What about you guys?"

[Azide 0]

"Sorry... to keep... you guys... waiting," called Azide, as he doubled over to catch his breath. His chest rose and fell as if to the rhythm of a symphonic allegro- that was to say, his heart felt as if it were going to explode at the drop of a pin. "I bet you guys..." he drew in a deep breath through his nostrils before continuing. "...didn't even think I was coming." With his breathing beginning to stabilize, he straightened himself up and shifted his eyes among the three players before him, offering each of them a standard smile. He was vaguely familiar with two of the three- there was Zelrius, the leader of the renowned Azure Brigade, and the other was known to him as Lowenthal of The Velvet Room. Two guild leaders, and two household names, so to speak.

By process of elimination, that left Takao as the name of the final player- a friendly-enough brunette that was somewhat taller than himself in stature, but wore an easy smile about him. "Just to remove any doubt, Azide here," he said, offering a firm and practiced shake of hands.

Luckily enough, the party had not gone too far in either physical location, nor in its pre-planning, and he had been able to catch Takao's proposal just in time. He pulled up the quest window, and reviewed the boss' statistical data before nodding at the young man's suggestion. "Between the four of us, I believe that seems to be the best course of action. With the Blood Buccaneer himself fighting alongside us, I can't say I see this going wrong."

[Lowenthal 0]

Lowenthal chuckled. "Well, I'm sure that we can take this thing without him. Zelrius is here just to make sure it gets done." Lowenthal said, placing his hands behind his neck. "Well, I do have a 3 hit move with stun. But it eats a lot of my energy. I can only use it twice, before switching up tactics. But I'll probably be throwing up most of the DPS. Unless you guys are more skilled in your weapons then I am." Lowenthal said, has he had turned away from his 'Glass Cannon' build and decided to go more balanced in his weapon and armor skills. Being mediocre in everything sucked. He didn't stand out like he used to, which was something he somewhat missed.

[Takao 0]

[ OOC : If there's no objections, I'll spawn the Butcher in my next post. Also, Lemon, you might wanna check the dagger sword arts. They were changed recently. ]

"Hey!" Takao said in greeting as he noticed the unnamed player that approached them. "You're right, I was startin' to think you'd be a no-show. We were just talkin' tactics." he continued before shifting back to the topic of how they planned on going about the battle. "I'm close to capping out my weapon skill, and I have a decent stun too. I can use it four times before I'm tapped out - but I do have energy recovery items on me. I should be able to use my strongest sword art from full energy about... three times. I can try to stun it first since I'll be less affected by the energy loss, and then we'll all just charge it at once. How's that sound?" The zone that would spawn the Butcher laid close ahead, and his familiar had already hopped down from his shoulders and taken respite a short distance away. Their task was daunting in both scale and danger, yet Takao still spoke rather calmly, almost as if he wasn't entirely aware of the risk.

[Azide 0]

It wouldn't exactly be difficult to imagine the orange player clocking in higher on the damage scale- at least, compared to a guy using an unenhanced dagger from some scrubby merchant. Still, in spite of the inconvenience of this particular sore mark, confidence in his own skill was something he held in abundance. With several solid day's worth of dagger experience at his command, where could he go wrong?

Glancing first from Lowenthal to Zelrius, then finally to Takao, Azide nodded once again. "Three uses just about describes my own limits, and I have a feeling that neither Lowenthal or even Zelrius is faring significantly better in that department." He stole another look at the quest panel before continuing. "Over the course of three turns, Sando Satsu is able to dole out a flat 120 points of damage; to spare you guys the math, that would potentially be enough to handle three out of the four of us."

Azide laughed and scratched at his head, then added in a more light-hearted tone, "Of course, we can decrease the risk by having Lowenthal stun the beast on the first turn. As a fellow dagger user, I'm almost certain that you won't find a lower-costing stun move anywhere else, as of the latest patch." He cleared his throat, making no effort to hide his disdain for the constant state of flux in which they endured. "From there, we'll have to throw everything we've got at the butcher, or we'll be out of luck should we run out of energy..." His voice trailed off, though the telltale smile on his lips seemed to write off the possibility of failure altogether.

(OOC: If Lowe goes along with stunning Sando Satsu, it would be best for him to spawn it. Otherwise, I have no problem with Takao spawning it.)