Chaos surrounds you as the caravan of NPC workers you were leading scream and try to flee from the ambush you and your team walked into. Instincts kick in and before you can even think you're shouting and moving. "Mae! Serena! Get the workers out of here! Take down anyone who follows! I gotta back up Ryuji!" You call you as your firing off your grapple gun into the ceiling. The wire goes taut and you're already swinging over the wall of ice before they can say anything. Sparks fly as Ryuji's glaive slams directly into his opponent's shield causing the fading mist to light up with every strike. He quickly adjusts his grip to thrust the hilt of his weapon right into the brawler that's attempting to get in a quick hit from behind. The brawler quickly raises his spiked tonfas to parry the attack and allow the fighter to close the gap and swing his blade for a solid hit. "INCOMING!" You shout at the top of your lungs causing everyone to stop what they were doing and look up at you. You pull your knees to your chest and thrust both your legs out with everything you fly straight at the fighter. You can feel your feet strike something solid as your target raises his shield just in time to block the blow. Even so, the force of the blow causes him to stumble backwards just as you hit the ground and get a lungful of poison gas. Ability: Indomitable Will activated. Poison resisted
You cough and wheeze as you feel the burn settle into your lungs. Despite resisting the status effect, every breath felt like you were inhaling fire, tasting pennies, and having that strange feeling one gets before a big nose bleed. You quickly roll to your feet and engage the brawler with a series of punches and kicks. He deftly blocks each attack with one of his tonfas and quickly follows up with the other with a counter attack. It was clear that he had some experience with his class and weapons compared to the other players you fought today. Unfortunately there were not words for how unlucky he was to have you as an opponent, someone who mained brawler in the pro scene for several years. Years of muscle memory take charge and you lean, twist and step away from each attack causing them to miss by mere inches. Behind you, Ryuji is locked in a fierce duel with the opposing fighter. His glaive bend and cut through the air like a whip as he swung it straight down on his enemy's shield only to whip it backwards like a fishing rod and sweep it back around in an upward strike with the momentum. The fighter was locked behind his shield and any time he attempted to strike back, Ryuji would simply step back and keep his distance with his weapon's superior reach. Once, the fighter managed to get an opening and advance with a thrust but Ryuji simply hopped back and thrust his weapon out mid air. He lands and swings his weapon before letting go and walking forward allowing the glaive to spin around his body cutting down on the space it was taking up and letting him close the gap once more. To anyone watching, it was like something straight out of a martial arts movie. The untouchable open palm master and the untamed spear master. As cool as it was, you were at a stalemate and one that was slowly slipping away from you. With poison coursing through your tank's body, his HP was slowly draining away and even if the debuff cleared, there was no knowing if one of these guys or a third party was simply waiting for another chance to drop another poison bomb. It was clear, however, that this was their tactic. Play as defensively as possible and slowly whittle your enemies down via DoTs and attacks from the dark. But the tactic was a double edged sword. They were banking on a domino effect. With every enemy they took down, it only got easier to take the rest down and that principle worked the other way around. The moment their defensive line fell, there would be nothing to keep you and your team from zeroing in on their squishier members. Right now, something had to give and you didn't intend it to be your tank. Party:Regal_20 (John Doe)HP: 85%MP:FullMae Su-Hyun(Gloria)HP:85%MP:FullRyuji Yamada (Roland)HP: 70%MP: 60%Status: PoisonedSerena_StarlightHP: 70%MP: 70%
>What do you do?>Work with Ryuji to swap opponents as frequently as possible. The constantly fluctuating attack styles should be enough to throw off their ability to block. >Fight "dirty". If they want to rely on status effects and items then so can you. Use your Igniter to blast one of them with fire. With your corruption effects, it should slow them down enough to get some solid hits in. >Hold the line alone. Tell Ryuji to use your grapple hook to swing back over the ice wall and back up Mae and Serena. You'll face the two alone and hold them off for as long as you can. >Push your weapon proficiency ability to it's limit. Constantly swap weapons with Ryuji and throw your opponents off. It'll require more coordination than simply trading targets. >Write in. Weapon Proficiency: [Single Weapon Use:] Become proficient with all weapons for a single attack upon disarming an opponent, redirecting a weapon attack, or picking up an unattended weapon. Proficiency may be "reactivated" upon picking up a different unattended weapon, performing another successful disarm/redirection, or being empty handed for a set period of time (roughly 30 seconds). While proficient with a weapon, said weapon may be used with weapons skills/abilities as your unarmed attacks can be.
>>6465227>>Fight "dirty". If they want to rely on status effects and items then so can you. Use your Igniter to blast one of them with fire. With your corruption effects, it should slow them down enough to get some solid hits in.
>>6465275>Fight "dirty". If they want to rely on status effects and items then so can you. Use your Igniter to blast one of them with fire. With your corruption effects, it should slow them down enough to get some solid hits in. Welcome back, QM! Please enjoy this art from Ms Eve of our boy Regal_20.
>>6465382Just woke up to see this. This is awesome! Props to the artist and many thanks! So glad people are enjoying the posts enough to do something like this.
>>6465227>Fight "dirty". If they want to rely on status effects and items then so can you. Use your Igniter to blast one of them with fire. With your corruption effects, it should slow them down enough to get some solid hits in.
>>6465227>Fight "dirty". If they want to rely on status effects and items then so can you. Use your Igniter to blast one of them with fire. With your corruption effects, it should slow them down enough to get some solid hits in. >>6465382I'm suddenly reminded that John's character is literally just him with red hair and green eyes.
>>6465382Man, he really does look like a mage without the belt.>>6465225>Fight "dirty". If they want to rely on status effects and items then so can you. Use your Igniter to blast one of them with fire. With your corruption effects, it should slow them down enough to get some solid hits in.Now is the best time to pull it out, kinda worried about the fuel lines in other areas.
When are we returning, QM?
>>6467593Right now! Sorry about the wait.>>6465382>>6465275>>6465447>>6465751We're lighting some guy up with fancy blue fire. Writing.
The brawler continues to block and throw out counter attacks as the two of you duel. Despite not taking any damage directly from your opponent's attacks you can feel the soreness in your arms and legs from slamming them into the metal tonfas. Behind you, the battle between the two tanks was raging on with neither getting an upper hand. You had to push the odds back in your favor and you had only one tool in your arsenal that you think could help. "Ryuji! Use your Steel Cyclone!" You shout. Jumping at the sound of orders, the brawler pushes forward swinging both his weapons high and low. You duck under the first attack aimed for your head and then step back for the incoming jab at your stomach. As you're midstep the brawler briefly blurs and appears right before you as he uses his movement ability to close the gap while your still off balance. He uses the momentum of his sudden movement to swing his arm up wide in a wild uppercut. Everything seems to slow down as your instincts kick in and you twist as you let yourself fall before throwing all your weight on your back foot. You swing your other leg wildly slamming it right into the side of the brawler's head and sending the two of your sprawling to the ground. You pray that Ryuji's attack had moved him in the way you wanted and raise your wrist up. The small nozzle riases up and the tiny pilot light ignites as you fire widly in your tank's direction. "Holy shit! Waitwaitwait. You'll kill us all-" The opposing tank shouts in fear before the sound of fire fills the air and everything is tinted in an eerie blue light. You quickly twist around and scramble to your feet to see the results of your desperation. The Fighter was covered in icy blue flames still desperately trying to fend off Ryuji's onslaught and trying to put the flames out. Each flame left a thick layer of frost on whatever it touched covering the burns underneath them. With every swing, the fighter's movements grew more and more sluggish until he caught a glaive to the side. He stumbles, trying to adjust his footing and position but even that was slowed by the flames that burned him. Ryuji swiftly sidesteps and hefts his weapon with one hand. Skill: Pin activatedThe glaive punches through the fighter's gut as it flies true and slams him against the icy wall, pinning him in place. Ryuji rushes forward with a roar, ramming his elbow into his opponents head and dealing minimal damage but disorienting him enough to pull the weapon free. The fighter falls to his knees, a large red splotch growing from where the glaive held him and dripping on the ground despite there being no visible wound. He tries to get to his feet but is immediately thwarted by Ryuji who rains blows upon him until he stopped moving. You tear your eyes away from that to refocus on the brawler and get ready for a fight only to see him scrambling to his feet and heading towards the dark.
"He's getting away!" Ryuji shouts. He grabs you by the hood of your cloak and pulls you to your feet as the two of you begin to give chase. Party:Regal_20 (John Doe)HP: 85%MP:FullMae Su-Hyun(Gloria)HP:70%MP:FullRyuji Yamada (Roland)HP: 65%MP: 60%Status:PoisonedSerena_StarlightHP: 60%MP: 45%Status:Bleeding"The girls are taking some hits." You say as you glace at everyone's HP. "How are you holding up?" You ask. Ryuji shoots you a big grin and gives you a thumbs up."My nose is on fire. Remember that time I took you out to that sushi place for the first time and I got a mouthful of wasabi? Kinda like that. Also I taste pennies. Do you taste pennies?" He asks and you can't help but snort. "No. I managed to resist the poison. Got any potions to tide you over til the poison wears off?" You say with laugh as you leap over a pipe."Nah, I had to chug em all to stay up. Poison status wasn't counting down while in the cloud but now I got like 20 seconds left on it. This stuff hurts like hell. It ain't the cheap stuff." Ryuji replies, shaking his head as he rams his glaive into the ground to vault over the pipe. You hadn't noticed before but there was a large sheen of sweat all over him as his body tried to fight off the debuff. "Take my last two. We're gonna need everyone up. Got a feeling that we're gonna run into something big soon." You say pulling your potions out and tossing them to Ryuji. "I can hold out. We can finish this fight and I'll just bandage up." Ryuji protests but takes the potions nonetheless. "If you're right, and you always are, we're gonna need to hold out on all of our instant healing.""We could always ice wall and spend a few seconds bandaging up." You counter though Ryuji remains unconvinced."In combat? That's crazy. They'd never let us get away with it. But playing with you is always like that isn't it?" He laughs uncorking a potion and chugging it while pocketing the other one. "Now let's catch this guy before he manages to get away.">What do you do?>Have Ryuji hurl his Glaive at the brawler. If it connects, he'll be pinned to the nearest surface. >Use the ice staff to cut him off with a wall. Might cost a lot of mana to seal all his exits though. >Try and swing to him with your grapple gun. With all the turns your target is taking, you're more than likely to burn it out completely in catching him.>Let him go and regroup with the others. If he's running off to alert more people then you'll deal with that when it comes.>Write in.
>>6467744>Have Ryuji hurl his Glaive at the brawler. If it connects, he'll be pinned to the nearest surface.
>>6467744>We can throw the Glaive right? We should have some mobility options for it to come from an unexpected angle.>Ryuji focuses on running and picking up his weapon as it comes down.Do we still have bow proficiency?
>>6467753Yep. The bow also has a split shot ability.Splitbark Bow: A magical bow that can split a single arrow into two by tapping into the wielder's personal aether reserves. Wielders can toggle this ability at will. Every arrow shot while the ability is active will become 2 and fly in the same direction. Costs 5% mana per shot.
>>6467762So we could just.....shoot this guy. Even fake him out on a fork using this split ability.
>>6467744>Use the ice staff to cut him off with a wall. Might cost a lot of mana to seal all his exits though.
