Plant Food (3/3)

[Jane]

Cedric was more than pleased with his work on the front lines. He had to give the plants credit where it was due, for realistic scraps of data they sure seemed to have a few more tactics than any monsters she'd seen in a game before. Then again, the two sided pack mentality circling was pretty standard in some different game types, the fact it was happening in an MMO was the only surprising part of the whole situation. It didn't matter too much however, as the Guardian was able to foil their tactics and hold one of them in place, along with her taunts to keep them on her, which meant everyone would be able to use their AoEs any moment now. Aaaany moment now.

Jane was waiting way too much for the others to do something and let her guard drop, leaving her back exposed which resulted in a fleshy vine smacking the back of her armour, letting out another vibrating zing as her entire set of equipment absorbed the blow. Jane rarely let herself get hit, usually opting to keep her board of a shield between her and the enemy to absorbed all the damage, so the tingly feeling of her equipment vibrating like that was a new one. It was probably because of the less than excellent craftsmanship of the starter equipment that caused it but it put the girl's teeth on edge as she continued to try to keep her shield up.

"Would you two hurry up already!"

Distance and cooldowns, two things she didn't really have much concept of considering she wasn't in a position to see them, what with not being the person waiting or the person running into position in her blind spot. In the real world Cedric usually frowned upon anger at teammates for no good reason, something which seemed a distant memory now that he was actually feeling every blow his character received. Also the whole being a small female thing wasn't exactly helping with his temperament, though that was more a personal problem than a valid excuse.

It wasn't long before the other two adventurers were finally able to spring into action and it felt like before she could even blink that all the monsters around her were exploding into experience and gold. Jane certainly blinked a few times after that, she knew the enemies were close to dead but the fact she could actually see it now was a little daunting in its own ways. She wasn't often part of a team big enough to take out so many at once, though she did usually team up with her own Sorcerer friend so she really shouldn't have been surprised. At least it meant she could pull her foot out of the ground, what with her heavy anchor target being dead and all.


"Well okay then, we should probably do that again, right?" Jane asked, checking through what information she could to try and figure out the levels of the creatures they'd just been fighting. "If that other group is all the same level as this one then we should be able to get the same number over here and do it all again. As long as we don't somehow agro another group of them or something we should be fine."

W: 552

[Shuwen]

Words: 387

They finished off the plants in short order, though apparently not quick enough to satisfy Jane. He supposed he couldn’t blame her, as she was the one taking hits while they were still moving their butts, but something about having someone playing one of the slowest classes telling him to hurry up really irked him for some reason.

When they were done, Darko wondered aloud what to do next, while Jane expressed her eagerness to move on to the remaining plants.“I agree, with their numbers down by half, they should be more then manageable, as long as we finish up before any reinforcements show. We Needn’t bother pulling this group. Darko, you want to start this one off? We can follow up while the plants are still closing in.” Normally having the Sorcerer lead an attack was a bad strategy as far as controlling agro was concerned, but if the previous fight was any indication, they weren’t going to last long enough to reach him.

Assuming that the Sorcerer started off an attack, Shuwen moved in. As a monk, most of his skills had very short cool downs, allowing him to attack with the same moves again. Activating Iron Skin, he used the same combination of area of effect attacks as earlier; Aura Kick to draw some of their agro, and Tiger Echo Fist to knock them away. After that, he moved to one side as Jane caught up with him and started using moves of her own. Letting the tank take the lead, the monk then proceeded to focus on monsters that were either ignoring Jane and continuing to make a beeline for Darko, or if that wasn’t an issue, the ones trying to get behind Jane at hit her from behind. They were too deeply rooted to knock back or away, but he could draw their agro, function as a moving barricade, or at least significantly reduce their HP until one of the others in his party had time to do something about it. I need to learn that taunting skill that monks can use, the one that prevents opponents from targeting anyone else for a few seconds. What was it called again? Rafting Taunt I think. With Aura kick being his only agro-drawing move, his ability to function as an evasive take was limited.

[Darko Lipowitz]

As they were wondering what to do next, the guardian suggested that they should take the attention of the four remaining Nepents, but Darko thought that it would not be needed. It seemed that the monk was in line with that thought as he ordered Darko to take the lead in attacking the plants. Although he would be targeted by the Nepents after that strike, he had something nifty to evade them and make them cover more ground, taking up enough time for the two tanks to get into them. Or the monk might be confident enough that they could get in before the Nepents could reach Darko. Either way, they would come in before Darko could lose a single bit of HP, so it would be all right. And so Darko silently moved towards the four remaining Nepents, staff in hand. He would need to deal the most damage he could deal for this battle to end quickly.

As he walked towards the Nepents, he first surveyed the surroundings. It should not be wise to attract more Nepents while they were trying so hard to fight them off. And so he was trying to minimize the danger by checking out first if there were hostiles in the area before commencing with the attack. Fortunately there were no signs of activity in the area, let alone other monsters. He then started to cast his Orb of Lava spell towards one of the Nepents that was at the edge from the others. If he would cast it at the middlemost Nepent, chances are that it might spiral off and not hit the other Nepents. He then aimed steadily at the Nepent so that he would not miss on the shot. A fiery red orb of molten mass began forming at the tip of the wand, and then, with the flick of his left wrist, the ball began hurtling towards the Nepent that he targeted. It connected to the flower of the living plant, and then bounced towards another Nepent which was hit in the middle section, and thence towards a third Nepent hitting it on one of its leaf stalks, and then again towards the fourth Nepent, hitting it on its flower. Due to that, the Nepents' attention was drawn on him as they prepared to uproot half of their roots to move towards him. But not stopping on his assault, he then equipped the grimoire and cards on each of his hands and started raining down magic bolts and cards towards the Nepents. He had hoped that the two would follow as he was assaulting these plants.

Turnout: 437
Ambient: None
Quote: The Battle of the Murderous Flowers, HP: 90%, MP 72%
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen, Jane

coded by benetnasch of ET

[Jane]

Jane just shrugged at the comment about being able to fight them now, Cedric figured it was more this guy's style to stick to his plan, ensuring no unexpected situations could cause him issue, but apparently he was as interested in just getting this done instead. He was showing several sides of his personality today, or at least his gaming style. So many people went off to do things their own way and never adapted, he'd seen it so many times in campaigns he'd run back in the real world.

"That's fine with me, might as well get back to it then!" Jane announced cheerily, not even waiting for Darko Lipowitz to start his first spell. There was some logic to the small Guardian's actions, though in part it was as much Cedric playing to the character he was giving the world as it was the idea that by the time the sorcerer had finally attacked she would be that much closer to the creatures to try and taunt and attack them on her own.

Guardians may had been slow, but they weren't that much slower all things considered. Jane's actions meant she could catch up with the enemy that much sooner, so the Monk didn't have to go it alone. Of course that meant she had to consciously pull back at the last second to avoid his AoEs, as much as Cedric enjoyed being silly, getting hit by something he could avoid was not on his to do list. As soon as she was clear, Jane would crash into one of the plants, ramming shield first into the creature with a Shield Smash. There wasn't much reason to actually bother with the attack, it wasn't like the plant was using an interruptible move or anything, the Guardian just sort of put her body into the move and let the skill activate as she went.

Not that it really mattered. Some damage was better than no damage and it was likely the Sorcerer would finish off the monsters before they got much further. Still, a quick Taunting Shout at the furthest enemy would drag it back to her while the other two would get to attack the monsters freely. Or at least that was her hope. Just to be on the safe side Jane would slowly start backing towards the Sorcerer, keeping whatever plant she could distracted with some slightly off target attacks and blocks, hoping to distract them with her body as much as her agro and skills.

On the one hand she didn't want to let the plants any closer to her party member than necessary, but on the other, she wanted to make sure any attack that flew his way would be able to be blocked with Covering. Mixing her party defending moves with her taunts and aggressive CC was important, but one aspect required her close to the enemies, and the other close to her allies. Annoyingly enough the game sort of required those two things to be mutually exclusive to do the tanks job right. Cedric did his best to keep Jane in position, but his understandings of things weren't as good as they could be, and his level sort of made it hard in its own right.

W: 542

[Shuwen]

Words: 531

Darko Lipowitz started off by casting Orb of Lava, used the menu to swap his wand for a grimore and followed up with various ranged attacks. While Jane charged in and hit one of the plants with her shield, and using a taunting skill draw the furthest one in. Most of them were still more interested in Dark then the two melee fighters, but that would likely change soon. Eager to close the distance quickly, the farthest plant uprooted itself to increase it’s speed and closed in on Jane.

Wait, uprooted itself? Wouldn’t that mean- Shuwen grinned. This was the opportunity he’d been waiting for. Kicking the nearest plant, he jumped towards the farthest plant, which was still focused on either Jane or Darko. With it’s roots out of the ground, it’s center of gravity would presumably be higher, and it would be much easier to stagger. The move he’d tried to use earlier and failed might have a chance of working on it. However, he had a fairly limited time frame in which to make use of it since it was moving and the other plants were somewhat agro’d at him, and it wasn’t going to stay still long enough for him to be sure of his target. Instead, used Zoom Attack while he was closing in to get in a first strike, and followed up with a shoulder barge. The hit was a little off center, so it didn’t get completely knocked down, but it swayed dangerously and it’s movement was briefly interrupted. As it tried to move away, he followed up with a side kick, then hit it again, then stomped on it’s roots. Unfortunately, it didn’t have quite the staggering effect he’d hoped it would have, but it was enough to reduce it’s HP to zero, killing it. Blah, didn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped, but that was some progress at least.[/I] There was still a few things he needed to figure out a way to make that become an effective tactic, such as an easy way to make it uproot itself, a technique better suited for knocking it down, and getting the hang of timing it. Still, he’d at least gotten an idea to start brain storming. I guess that’s enough of that for now though, I need to work on the other mobs. Iron Skin was still active, so he’d best not screw around. Taking a few steps towards the nearest unengaged plant, he hit it first with a jump spin side kick. Normally, such a move would be too flashy and too easy to avoid to bother with, but since the plant wasn’t focused on him, it wasn’t that big a deal. After landing back on his feet, he followed up with a right jab, left cross, right uppercut. He then finished it off by jumping back while hitting it with a front kick. That was enough to take off the remainder of it’s HP, leaving them one less enemy to deal with.

Having finished off two of the plants, Shuwen looked up and scanned the field again, to see how the others were doing and what target he’d best go after next.

[Darko Lipowitz]

Darko was getting a little impatient as he assaulted the plants all by himself. Apparently, even when the plants were very slow in movement, the two other people in the party were also slow. But the irritation on his part made him more focused on his attacks on the plants such that the cone of uncertainty of his attacks narrowed down as he became much more consistent than ever before in his attacks; the magic bolts and the cards that he threw hitting the plants in every part of their body, only a few of the projectiles missing their mark. He distributed his attacks on the four plants so that he could mow down as many of them as possible on his next attack.

The plants were some meters away when the guardian came to his rescue, and seeing a target for the spell Serpent Bolt, he then cast it towards the guardian, enveloping her in a streaming ball of purple electricity. By then he needed not to worry about the Nepents that might come his way, since the lightning enveloping the guardian's body would strike down every monster in its range, temporarily stunning them. He then counted three Nepents engaging the guardian, and one still far off. But he noticed that the fourth plant uprooted itself and catapulted itself towards the direction of Darko.

Darko almost cursed, thinking that it was a real foolish move by the plant, but that was to be expected. Although he was the higher-level person of the three, his HP was a little bit lower than either of the two others, and so it would be a shame for the predatory tendencies of the Nepents to notice it. Fortunately, the monk saw through what the Nepent was attempting to do, closed in with his body clad with the Iron Body skill, and smacked the Nepent around with the Zoom Attack skill followed by a shoulder barge. After some more kicks and punches by the monk, the Nepent shattered into shards of anima. He then moved towards another Nepent to kick it on its trunk. The Nepent staggered as the Monk gave no breathing space for the plant as he made another flurry of punches and finishing it off with a kick to the lower part of its flower, leaving only two to contend with. And these two, after the successive spells and attacks of Darko and the guardian, were running so low on HP that they are within the killing range of Orb of Lava. The cooldown of the Orb of Lava spell being reset, he then started to cast it, and after a few seconds, an orb of molten earth was generated out of the ether and began to move towards the two Nepents, continuously bouncing between each of the two plants until they exploded into bits. Darko then sighed as he returned the cards to his satchel. He then said, "At least they were finished immediately. Now, what would we do next? Would we split up here, or continue hunting together?" Darko was still ready for another battle, but if these two were not willing to do so, he would continue hunting all by himself.

Turnout: 533
Ambient: None
Quote: The Battle of the Murderous Flowers, HP: 90%, MP 63%
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen, Jane

coded by benetnasch of ET

[Shuwen]

words: 259

Judging from the look of things, the other two had handled their opponents just fine. Jane had held back the closest plant’s attacks with her shield, while Darko Lipowitz had finished them off with his magic. The resulting gold, items, and experience was quickly deposited in their respective inventories, and the battle was effectively over. With the fighting over for the time being, they resumed conversation, namely over what to do next. Dark asked whether Jane or he wanted to continue working together, but Shuwen just shook his head.

“Thanks all the same, but I’d rather not continue working together.” Something about Darko, most likely his immaturity, rubbed him the wrong way, and while Jane was much easier to deal with, she was oddly slow at the wrong times, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to drag her along any longer then he already had. They’d managed to work together well enough while dealing with the plants, but they’d probably fall apart as a group if they had to work together any longer. “Well, see you two another time then.” Manipulating the interface, he selected the option to leave his current party, resulting in their status screens disappearing from his view. Waving his hand behind him, he turned around and started moving elsewhere in the forest, so he could give the others the space they’d need to continue doing whatever it was they wanted to do. It would be a shame to start fighting with them right after partying up, after all. Best to give them their space.

-Exit-