Plant Food (3/3)

[Shuwen]

Words: 604

Combat was an important part of almost any mmo. It was the primary way by which one gained experience and materials. That was why Shuwen found himself in Windsor forest. Unfortunately, his level wasn’t very high, so he didn’t really want to stray very far from Londinium. He could handle Windsor forest, or at least most of the monsters in it as long as they didn’t gang up on him, but not much more then that at the current time, so accidental agroing could still be a problem.

Yeah, focusing more on avoiding them would have been a great idea. He thought to himself as he jumped back to avoid a Nepent Snatcher’s bite. Even as he did so, two more of them crept closer to him, trying to feed on his succulent adventurer flesh. Fortunately, the movement brought them close enough for Shuwen to hit them all with area of effect attacks. First, he jumped forward and brought his leg down to use Aura Kick; the resulting shockwave hit all three of them. As they tried move around him and hit the hapless monk with a three-pronged attack, he brought his fist down and followed up with Tiger Echo Fist, not only dealing further damage but knocking them all back a short distance. Hitting all three at once may be more efficient in the long run, but if I don’t cut down the number of mobs I’m fighting, they’re gonna swarm me. After all, It wasn’t unheard of for more mobs to join in if a fight dragged on. All the noise they made could make it far too easy for the enemy to get reinforcements.

He ran up to the leftmost plant and began attacking it. First with a one two punch combination, followed by a knee strike. It tried to bit his head off, but the knee forced it’s mouth shut briefly, and he then followed up with a jump front kick, leaping backwards so he could get some distance and actually have room to make the kick. The barrage of attacks was too much for the plant’s dwindling HP, and it died in a burst of bubbles and plant matter. Now for the remaining tw- Unfortunately, while he was distracted with the first carnivorous plant, the second had gotten behind him, while the third was approaching him on his right. The plant behind him rammed him as he was about to land, knocking him forward onto his stomach. It tried to hit him again, possibly with the intent of pinning him against the ground but the monk managed to evade by rolling to the left. The key to dealing with two opponents… he thought as he dredged up memories from his martial arts classes is to keep one of them in between you and the second one, so only the first one can hit you. The trick is you have to keep moving so the second one doesn’t just go around. He circled around, trying to put himself in a straight line with the plants. Fortunately, being plants, they didn’t cover ground very quickly, and he was able to do so without too much difficulty. While he was moving, he managed to come close enough to his crossbow, which he’d previously dropped, and picked it up. The first one tried to bite him again, but he saw the attack coming and fell back to avoid it. As it closed in, Shuwen used Zoom Attack to punch it while he was outside it’s attack range. The Nepent Snatcher thrashed angrily, trying to bit the extended leg, but it retracted too quickly.

SPOILER: Click to show

Nepent Snatcher
Level 6-10
Type: Plant
Rank: Normal
Nature: Predatory
Found in: Forests
Weakness/Resistances: Weak [Fire]
Skills:
- Seismic Detection: Passive. Automatically aggros targets by sound and vibrations from movement. Suffers no accuracy debuffs from blind effects.
Description: A large mobile plant the size of an adult man, animated by a mysterious power. Nepent Snatchers resemble a sort of flytrap which attempt to clamp down on victims and melt their bodies with strong acid. Adventurers should beware of its detection abilities. Having no eyes, it detects foes rather from the vibrations they make on the ground. It is advised that if one were to run into one unprepared, it is suggested to stay perfectly still until the monster wanders off. They are generally more active at night and tend to shy away from bright light sources.

SPOILER: Click to show

Aura Kick: The user jumps into the air and deals a powerful kick at the ground, creating a shockwave that damages nearby enemies and draws aggro. This skill has an animation time of 2 seconds and a cooldown of 10 seconds.

Tiger Echo Fist: The user punches the ground, unleashing a powerful shockwave that damages nearby enemies and sends them flying. The effect is obviously variable depending on the targets' size and weight. This skill has an animation time of 2 seconds and a cooldown of 10 seconds.

Zoom Attack: Usually called Zoom Punch or Zoom Kick by players who use it in the respective way, the Monk launches a punch or kick at the target as their limb extends for an additional meter forward for a few moments. The suddenly extended range of attack catches most melee opponents off guard. This skill has a cooldown time of five seconds, making it a viable fighting style for unconventional Monks who want to fulfill a mid-ranged role. It's said that a Monk named Dhalsim on the India Server popularized this skill by suggesting a build based on being able to use it with greatly decreased cooldown. This skill has an animation time of 1.5 seconds and a cooldown of 6 seconds.

[Darko Lipowitz]

The young sorcerer set off again to the Windsor Greatwood to study the monsters that were prowling within this area. He had already seen what boars and slimes could do, in both what's surmised about them from his Evaluate skill, in which he was given data to ponder upon for his strategies in approaching; and the information that was not supplied by the Evaluation skill, meaning attack patterns, movement patterns, preference on attacks, and some others. Although the expeditions to the hunting grounds tended to hurt a lot, these made him learn a lot of things in dealing with other monsters of a higher level and of those within the uncharted locations within this game, which could bring him closer to the secret of how to escape this game and bring himself back to his family. And so he tried to experience everything thrown to him in this world with his body. Well, if such a something managed to make Darko feel its power with his body, which happens very rarely due to Darko's extreme dodging and excessive use of the spells Blink and Serpent Bolt, as well as with his careful study of everything moving and what they could and might do. His excessive training within the woods, only returning to Londinium whenever he was at 10% mana (a deterrent against anyone who plans to do an ambush against him), made him a formidable mage-class of the middle levels. Not only was his spells cast accurately into every situation, his fencing style could be at par with the hybrid classes of the same level if he was not hampered by the lack of stats to distribute on every attribute.

But now this would be a new challenge for Darko: he was out in the woods to try to defeat a new genus of mobs living in the Windsor Greatwood: the Nepents. Having no knowledge about them except the fact that they are like the pitcher plants back in the real world and they move slowly on the ground by uprooting some of their roots and then reaching out the uprooted roots to root on a patch of land farther away, he decided to search for the land where they spawn and grow. But given that he did not carry even just a torn piece of a map of this location, he did not know where to go, and if he discovered where to go, it would be a hard time to get back to Londinium again. Yes, there is an easier way to go back, but Darko would not dare to push it, but he might get into it when the real time comes for a game over. He wandered aimlessly to every undiscovered piece of territory looking for the giant plants. Fortunately he did not need to wait for a huge span of time and many miles of walk before he found one of the Nepents. Correction: not just one but three of them, with a Monk fighting them as a bonus. This would be a perfect time to watch how the Nepents fight, and to use the Evaluate skill on them so that he would learn more about these animate plants.

While watching the Monk fight the plants and comparing it to what he had learned of them from his Evaluate skill, Darko conjured vital points about the plants. First off, the Nepents do not use sight or smell to sense their enemies, but uses their tactile sensations from the hairs of their bodies as well as what their roots feel from underneath the ground. Therefore, as subtle rustling of leaves were muffled by the noise of a rock concert and stays muffled until the ears recover from the concert, a strong seismic blow could incapacitate the Nepent's ability of feeling subtle movements from the ground it stood on for some time, buying him time to move quickly but softly and silently nearer to the target. Dragging the soles of his boots across the ground, Darko made sure that his footsteps could not be followed by the Nepent as it was still focused on the source of the loud sound. Why Darko was intent on helping the Monk lied in the sight of some more silhouettes of moving plants across from the sight of the Monk. When these would come in, it would be doubtful if the Monk could get away without help. Those Nepents going towards them might have felt the shudder of land and that's why they are going there.
 
The second discovery is that the Nepents attack using their limbs and heads. Therefore the Monk and the Nepents had roughly the same strategies. It could also be said about them that they had a weakness against Fire. Therefore Darko maintained his distance while casting Serpent Bolt towards the Monk, to draw the aggro of the Nepents towards him due to the damage and sound of striking lightning. And then, drawing out a pack of cards from the satchel dangling on his hip, he started to throw the cards towards the Nepents, while the Monk had the full attention of the plants. He would only use the spell Orb of Lava against these plants only when the tide of battle goes rough or whenever he got excess mana. Therefore he preserved the mana for more pressing issues such as healing the Monk or keeping aggro towards him. The sight of more Nepents joining in the fray quite bothered Darko for a bit, but he and his fire spells stood ready to go whenever it was the right time.

Turnout: 933
Ambient: None
Quote: Distancia Amigo
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen

coded by benetnasch of ET

[Jane]

It really would be foolish to call Cedric sensible about this whole situation. Even though it had become abundantly obvious to a lot of people in this new world that the game and the situation they found themselves in these days were very different, the young Welshman found it hard to look at it as anything other than a glorified version of the original game. He tended to take risks, sneak out of the city and generally get the most out of the game he could. Sometimes this came in the form of practicing his skills but if he was truly being honest with himself he would probably realise that it was in an effort to distract his mind all the change that had come with everything.

Jane was good at sneaking, and as Cedric practiced the tiny Guardian's skill was getting better. Jane would occasionally sneak after some other Adventurer's as they left the city, trying to see how far she could get, and if they'd notice, before inevitably losing them thanks to her lowered movement speed and just turning to randomly explore the world around her. That was probably the best part of this whole thing. Adventuring, exploring, seeing the sights. Thanks to her endless sneaking Jane rarely had to deal with aggroed mobs, though it did happen form time to time. A little bit of combat experience on her own was probably good for her. In the end she'd get bored, use Call of Home to avoid any of those players that waited along the path back, then do it all again.

This time around she'd actually stumbled upon someone fighting some of the mobs and, after a short bit of watching from the tree line, started to realise it wasn't exactly going too well for him. Cedric had never liked these darn plants, their agro worked differently from most of the mobs in this area and Jane's sneaking only seemed to go so far. Still, they were aggroed quite firmly on the Wolf Hair out there so maybe it wouldn't be too hard to get in close and give a hand. Instead of going in quickly Jane would take her time, using her Tracker class so that her platemail wouldn't make much sound as she slowly moved towards the battle.

Or tried to, that Monk sure liked to move! Instead of sitting in once place and fighting, like so many other people preferred to do back when it was a game on a screen. Still, he could have held still for a few moments while Jane snuck into place! He also may have entirely missed the tiny sneaking Guardian with bright sunshiny hair coming up behind the horrible mobs he was taking on, but considering how bright Cedric had made Jane's hair he didn't believe that. The whole situation probably would have been easier if she'd just thought to use the party system to invite the Monk so she could use her Covering skill on him but just as her mind was distracted from the idea of it, he probably would have been distracted by the notification or worse, by it.

Once Jane had snuck close enough to be in range of one of plant creatures she stepped forward and slammed her foot down, using the Heavy Anchor skill to root its root in place. The skill didn't seem to do much damage to the thing, so she hadn't drawn its agro just yet, but it did mean that it would no longer be able to follow. That would keep one of the monsters she'd seen from attacking for a moment and Jane figured the Monk could probably use a bit of a break from the fight. Slamming her giant shield down in front of her so that it was between the other plant and her she banged her spear against the side. "Why don't you come get some, you oversized weed!" the little girl screamed out, the animation for Taunting Shout visible for all to see as the plant slowly turned in place and looked towards her before starting its approach.

"Well that was probably badass in some way or another." Cedric thought to himself, a smirk crossing Jane's face for no one at all to see considering the struggling creature that her foot was keeping pinned between them. It would be a few moments before its agro changed to the little girl who held its brethren's attention, Jane would deal with that when she had to. Keeping the shield between her and the monster Jane would wait for it to get close enough so she didn't have to move, so as not to break her skill. As silly as it looked the Guardian would soon be reaching around her shield to jab at the creature with the business end of her spear, not wanting to move anything but her shield while trying to defend against its attacks.

"Hay-o~ Figured you might want a break!" she called out cheerily to the Monk, "Though if you want to beat them up still that's fine too."

W: 849

SPOILER: Click to show

Heavy Anchor: This skill is performed by facing a nearby target at equal footing. The Guardian slams their foot into the ground, causing the opponent to essentially be pinned to the very spot they stand. Neither of you will be able to move while the skill is active. This skill has an animation time of 2 seconds and a cooldown of 30 seconds. The maximum duration of this skill is 10 seconds, ending immediately when either the Guardian or target is moved by an outside force.

Taunting Shout:A aggro-gaining skill that targets a single enemy and boasts one of the lowest cooldowns in the Guardians' skill list. The Guardian provokes a single opponent and draws their attention. Because of this basic utility, it is a very simple skill mostly used by beginners. Of course, if there's only one opponent, why waste your time when you can stick with this classic? This skill has an animation time of 2 seconds and a cooldown of 5 seconds.

[Shuwen]

Words: 511

Shuwen sensed the spell coming an instant before it hit him; a feeling of heat from somewhere to one side, and a bight light seen indirectly. Without even looking to confirm what it was, he attempted to get down into a crouching position and roll to one side to evade it, but as his attention had been on the nepents, and he was too late and slow to do so. The bolt of lighting struck him squarely. “Gya!” He flinched reflexively as the spell hit him, but to his surprise, there was no damage or feeling of pain. Instead, he began release electric sparks at an interval of a few seconds. He checked his interface; someone had hit him with a de/buff called “serpent bolt, that would damage those close to him. He turned towards the source of the bolt, and saw a dark-haired youth wearing mage gear. He flashed a quick thumbs up in his direction and went back to the battle.

The brief distraction had given the plants time to flank him and close in, but that wasn’t really a problem for him any more. Zeroing in on the plant he’d already damage, he swung around it to try and behind it, then hit it with an elbow strike, the sparks doing additional damage. As he turned around, he noticed something shiny yellow in one corner of his vision, another player perhaps? However, he was too focused on the monster in front of him to look away an confirm it. As it turned out, he didn’t need to; a moment later, he heard someone from that direction taunting the other plant, I guess the cavalry has arrived. He thought, trying not to admit how surprising it was to himself. Better deal with this one quick. He used a low kick to disturb the plants balance, and charged it, slamming his shoulder into the center of the plant’s mass. It wobbled precariously, but didn’t fall down.

I guess it stands to reason that plants have a lot of lower body support, with their roots and all that. He frowned. It lunged for him again, and managed to snag one of his arms painfully despite his attempt to evade. Growling, Shuwen dropped his crossbow again and backhanded it with his free hand, releasing more sparks as he did so. Though it wasn’t enough to make the plant actually let go, it was enough to reduce its HP to zero, causing it to dissolve into a stream of rising bubbles and items.

With the first one down, he turned towards the remaining plant, picking up his crossbow again as he did so. The remaining plant was probably engaged with the guardian by that point. Fishing a wooden bolt from his inventory, he loaded it into the crossbow, pulled back the drawstring and fired at the plant’s oversized… flower thing, the part that would be a head if it wasn’t a plant. If it wasn’t dead by that point, he’d then charge in and attack it from the opposite side of the Guardian.

[Darko Lipowitz]

Darko, watching what was happening, was severely disappointed in what he had done. His attacks, though penetrating their target, were not enough to incapacitate even a single leaf of the plant. Although the hit point bar of the plant was decreasing, it seemed like it had no effect on it, as it still was actively fighting against the monk. The monk seemed to be also experiencing the same problem as he was unable to unbalance the plant he's fighting. There was the arrival of a guardian, but she seemed intent on being like castle challenging itself to be besieged as she pinned one plant and issued taunts on another. At one time Darko thought she was stupid for barging in without support, but quickly forgave the guardian when the monk finally finished the plant with a back hand. He then accompanied the monk towards their next target that was aggroed by the guardian.

As the monk closed in on one plant he took his crossbow and aimed at the flower part of the Nepent that was his target as he ran. Though Darko thought that it was a difficult thing to aim while running, as the guardian could be hit with the quarrels of his crossbow, he actually admired the strategy that he was doing. That's because he would be doing the exact same thing. Moving towards the other Nepent while the target of the monk was behind it, Darko threw a number of cards towards it, aiming for the slender stalks of the plant, and, when he was two meters away, he returned the cards to the small bag on his waist, and drew the black sword that was on his back. The Nepent might not be dead after all what he have done, but still, it would be a shorter drive for Darko to finish it up. As he drew the sword, he maneuvered it quickly enough to slash at the stalk that connected the body of the plant to its flytrap-like flower. He then jumped sideways, so as to avoid anything that the Nepent might do, and then dealt again a merciless stroke to the same part of the plant. The Nepent again attempted to attack Darko with a bite of its flower, but Darko, anticipating the move, suddenly vanished, sign that he used the Sorcerer spell "Blink", and then appeared again, standing now on the top of flower of the plant, quite a distance away from its "mouth".

As Darko stared at the flower beneath his feet, he muttered, without even a shard of emotion, "Consummatum est."

He then plunged his sword on the same spot of the plant, and as its HP bar dwindled to zero, its flower was severed from its body and both disintegrated into pixels. As he descended, he landed on the ground with the tip of his right foot so that his boots didn't made a sound as he descended to the ground. He then looked towards the horizon, and said, "Be alert, many more are coming."

Turnout: 506
Ambient: None
Quote: It is done.
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen, Jane

coded by benetnasch of ET

[Jane]

Even though the plant kept trying to leave the space next to Jane so that it could go and assault the Monk, the effects of Heavy Anchor were continuing to keep it in place. The little Guardian was more than happy to play a sort of CC role for now, keeping things rooted in place and distracted from the supposed allies while they did their best to take care of them and hopefully do all the damage. Cedric hadn't noticed the Sorcerer off to one side, who seemed interested in casting spells at the same creatures as the Monk was fighting, which made her wonder if she'd just walked in on the minimal side of a party.

The thought pretty much drifted away as randomly as it came when the Nepent she was holding finally turned its natural aggro to her, like a sudden decision she'd be tastier than she was half a moment before. Jane took a moment to shift her shield between her and the plant and waited to be sure she actually had its aggro before cancelling her skill and trying to avoid touching the creature as it tried to eat her shield arm through the shield. Keeping the solid metal between her and it, Jane jabbed at the few encroaching bits of plant flesh whenever they made it past, as well as using the slight natural reach of the short spear to jab around her defences to strike.

While it would be a lie to say she could do it all day, Cedric sure felt like Jane could defend and poke at this one monster all day long without much trouble. So it was a good thing that the Monk soon finished off the other one and came over to help. With the extra damage from the higher damaging class it wouldn't be more than a few more probing jabs and actual auto attacks before they whittled down the other plant between the two of them.

Jane stood back in wonder as she watched the mob disappear into the world around them. No matter how many times it happened there was just something pretty and amazing about something being defeated in this world, so Cedric always took a moment after defeating the mobs to stare up and enjoy the effect. Of course this was interrupted by that Sorcerer mentioning that more of the creatures were coming up on them, and the Guardian's attention was immediately dragged across the horizon as she tried to locate whatever creatures it was that were coming from.

"Are you guys already in a party?" Jane asked, glancing between the Monk and the Sorcerer for a moment while she waited to see if they were planning on fighting more of the Wood's monsters. Cedric was all for helping people out when they needed it, he wasn't that interested in jumping into a fight if no one else wanted to. Jane was probably tough enough to deal with a few mobs on her own, but if that's how this was going to end up she didn't exactly want to be bothered. Fighting for the sake of fighting was not something Cedric enjoyed, though it was hard to escape considering the kind of game this world was based off of.

If either of the other Adventurers gave her comment the answered it deserved and no one thought to initiate the party themselves, Cedric would open up the menu, quickly flicking the two an invite to a party before waiting besides the Monk to see what the plan would be. PuG groups rarely worked perfectly well together, as none of them would have any idea what the others were capable of, but Cedric had always been patient enough to watch for the style of play his teammates used before joining in. Slotting in as best he could would often save them from that slight mistakes and counter play in some games, though he'd rarely had to be bothered with it since the world changed over.

W: 670

[Shuwen]

Word Count: 606

His build was… certainly odd to say the least. The physical attack stats of a Sorcerer were… generally pretty low, generally low enough that it was only worth attacking if you really didn’t want to consume any mp, but somehow managed to make it work regardless, and even managed to prepare spells like Blink at the same time as engaging in swordplay, though how he managed to do them both at the same time was a mystery. He also took some awfully crazy risks; sticking close to the plant instead of striking from afar, and teleporting onto the creature’s head in a pointlessly dramatic fashion. Why the plant didn’t just grind him against a nearby tree or brush him off with its limb-things, Shuwen had no idea. He reminded the Monk of some of the blander MCs he sometimes saw in manga or light novels.

The Guardian, on the other hand, was a tad less archetypical. A slight girl, quite young from the looks of her, far less sturdy then her class and presumed defenses would suggest. However, despite her low weight, she seemed to be doing just fine, guarding and trading blows with the plant. She quickly sent party invites to them both, presumably with the intent of taking on the plants. While Shuwen accepted the invite quickly enough, he shook his head in regards to fighting the rest of the monsters head on.

“There’s no point in trying to fight so many at once.” Shuwen said. “We’re better off just running for now.” While their levels might be a bit higher then the plants’, the plants could easily swarm them with those numbers. Even a guardian like the one next to him probably wouldn’t last long against their combined attacks. And even if they did somehow manage to win, it would cost far more HP then the fight was worth losing, and their chances of winning were too low to make the potential prize of experience and items worth it. As someone used to soloing, Shuwen considered himself to have fairly good judgment regarding when to fight, and when to cut his losses. Courage had its merits, but with only potential experience points at risk, he didn’t consider it to be worth the nightmare of dying. “You can stay and fight them if you want, I’m cutting my losses here.” With that, he turned in the opposite direction and began to flee, mindful of the path ahead. He’d been in that area within the last few minutes, so it was the path he was least likely to find more monsters in. Maybe the other two were the type who took pride in winning every challenge they came across, but Shuwen didn’t have that kind of pride. Fortunately, the plants didn’t seem interested in following him.

Once he was far enough that it was unlikely he would agro the monsters, he stopped and turned around to get a closer look at them. They seemed to have been drawn by the initial fight. Cautious and weary, but not quite ready to launch into an attack. However, that was partially conjecture; he didn’t have any far-seeing aids that would allow him to get a better look, like a spyglass or binoculars. Maybe I should get some He thought grimly to himself. After the apocalypse, all sorts of issues and opportunities that hadn’t existed in the original game due to programming limitations had opened up. Some of them were quite convenient if seized. Others were… less so, such as the fact the game hadn’t bothered to program bathrooms in, but this wasn’t the proper place for that discussion.

[Darko Lipowitz]

As the party invite was sent by the guardian, Darko instantly accepted it. He then looked at the silhouettes in the horizon, and counted the plants moving towards them. As soon as he counted 8 plants actively moving towards them, he saw the monk run away from the battle. Darko was reminded one time about the shaman who ran away from her comrades in the heat of the battle. As a support player he found it not only imprudent but also insulting that a support to run away from a battle. But this and that are two different cases. Sometimes it could be normal for a person fighting at the front to overestimate things and run if they thought the number of creatures were too high. But in this case they have a tank, a flank-hitter, and a heavy MP damager as well as support, and so the battle should only depend on the will to fight. But he didn't use yet this skill on others, and so he still was not known in using this type of skill. Still, when he used the skill, he felt something evil, as if someone around him was laughing, thinking he was effeminate.

Darko was surrounded by a hazy warm light, sign that he was using the generic spell "Heal". Some streams of particles of light showered down on the monk, healing some of the damage he had incurred from the battle before. This should remind the monk that he was in good hands. Withdrawing behind the guardian, he then set the motion for another spell. When a plant wandered in his striking range, his wand glowed fiery red. That's a sign that he was using a spell used only by Sorcerers: "Orb of Lava". A fist-sized ball of molten mass then fired from his wand and hit the plant squarely on its flower part before bouncing on to other plants on the same altitude, hitting on their flower parts as well. Not relenting on what he did, he then slung his wand on his back and then got the deck of cards from his satchel. He then started to throw the cards towards the first plant that he saw, all targeting its flower.

Turnout: 371
Ambient: None
Quote: The Mahou Shoujo... err, Shounen, in action.
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen, Jane

coded by benetnasch of ET

[Jane]

Cedric was never more glad to be a patient man than right now. In the real world, rushing ahead could cause so many problems for a situation, but the worst of those was generally a ruined friendship or shoddy work. In this world he could have easily run head first into an entire group of monsters, taken lots of painful damage, and ultimately died (though he had to admit the whole dying thing didn't seem so bad. At least from the point of view of someone who hadn't had to deal with it yet).

Jane turned to follow after Shuwen for a moment, nodding her agreement to his logic, though not actually saying a word. She figured that one of the physical combatants leaving would be more than enough to tell the mage that it was time to go. Instead, despite joining the party and probably being able to tell with certainly that people were leaving, the Sorcerer started casting his long range spells. Jane couldn't help but stare between the two adventurers, one leaving, one still fighting and eventually shrugged to herself. She wasn't going to try and tank that many creatures for a single Sorcerer, at best she could get 3 or so of them on her after a bit of waiting on her skills, but that would leave a whole lot of angry plants for the glass cannon to have to deal with.

Even considering how stupid she saw staying, it was not in Cedric's nature to leave someone behind, and that much hadn't changed in this world of technical immortality either. Jane turned her back on the leaving Monk and walked up behind the Sorcerer. It was fight or flight, and fight really wasn't going to win, so there was only one course of action. While Darko Lipowitz's back was to the sunshiny little Guardian, reached up to grab the back of his shirt, taking firm hold if she were able. Then, if he still didn't quite understand what was happening with their other party member, Jane would start dragging the Sorcerer after her, hopefully away from the agro of all the monsters he had just been firing spells at and after the Monk. If that didn't work she'd just cut her losses and leave. There was stubbornness, and then there was stubbornness, and while Cedric knew how stubborn he could be, he was quite convinced he wasn't flat out stupid.

When she finally caught up with the Monk, with the other human or alone, Jane took a casual glance at their surroundings. Cedric still wasn't too sure why he had decided to join in the battle here, beyond his usual urge to help people in need, and he was still a little uneasy. While he didn't see much problem with having to die every now and then, he didn't enjoy the potential idea of it and meeting new people always seemed to have that tinge of danger considering PVP was allowed in so many zones.

"So... you plan on fighting anything else?" Jane asked curiously, not too sure that this party was needed in the first place. It was more a precaution on Cedric's part, not wanting to miss if anyone was low on health or anything like that, but as they had left the fight behind for the questionable safety of wandering around somewhere else it seemed a little pointless. "I don't really have anywhere else to be but..." Jane left the comment hanging, not too sure what she meant by it, but sort of wanting to drag some communication out from her companions. So far they hadn't really said anything beyond what you'd expect a bunch of random people to say in an MMO and it was a little off-putting.

W: 626

[Shuwen]

Words: 575

The Sorcerer had apparently wanted to stay behind and fight them, even healing him, presumably in an attempt to convince him to stay, but the Guardian, demonstrating physical strength far disproportionate to her size, bodily picked him up and carried him away from the battle. Looks like she’s smarter then she looks. I thought both of them were just kids. When they finally got to what he hoped was a safe distance, he turned towards the other two, first checking behind them to see if they were still being pursued, then towards them to see how they were. The Sorcerer was probably more then a little angry at being forced to retreat, but assuming he didn’t turn on them in anger, or something equally reckless, he’d live. The young guardian asked him if he planned on fighting anything else. There was something about her voice that tickles his nerves for some reason, but he couldn’t put his finger on what.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, I haven’t given up on beating that Nepent train, I just don't want to fight them all at once, which we would've had to under those circumstances.” He very notably avoided looking directly at the Sorcerer when he said that. As he spoke, he pulled a crossbow bolt out of his inventory, and set it into his crossbow, replacing the one he’d used earlier.

“Unless we want to find more players to help, we’ll need to pull them if we want a good chance of winning. Are you two familiar with the tactic?” It was probably a stupid question; it was an invaluable tactic for solo play, and they’d all been on their own when they met, but the Sorcerer in particular didn’t seem to have a very good grasp of such things yet, judging from his unwillingness to run. He pulled back the bowstring on his weapon, and soon the weapon was once again ready to fire.

If either of them appeared to be unfamiliar with the tactic he’d mentioned, he’d try to explain it in detail. “Pulling is a tactic used to isolate individual mobs from a larger group of monstesr, so you can fight them, without having to fight all of them. You look for a mob that’s farther away from the main group, and attack it just enough to get it’s attention, while leaving it’s compatriots alone. This is best done with an unobtrusive ranged attack, as that means you won’t have to get as close. Since one monster in the group was aggro’d but the others weren’t, the individual will split off from the main group to chase after whoever attacked it, while the others stay behind. If the monsters are social, it might bring one or two friends with it; those close enough to realize their ally was attacked, but usually not many. Using yourself as bait, you lure whatever mobs you aggro’d to a spot far enough away from the main group that you likely won’t agro the others, then engage them. If you do it right, you only have to deal with one to three attackers trying to kill you at a time as opposed to… well, all of them.” He hoisted his crossbow over his shoulder. “It’s one of the reasons I use a bow despite being a monk; it’s more accurate and has greater range them the monk’s regular ranged option, and it’s not as flashy as magic, so you’re less likely to agro other mobs by accident.”

[Darko Lipowitz]

Darko widened his eyes in surprise as the other party member dragged him by the scruff of his cloak away from the battle. Why did these two withdraw even when Darko thought that they could win by minimizing the danger from a good distance? "It had to be a better plan or else..." Darko thought as he was dragged away by the guardian. If they could not come up with a better plan and run away, he might as well knock the two of them out and continue hunting the Nepents on his own. At least he was not that averse in doing that, but it was still sad for him to turn on other people, and he had not experienced fighting with other players even though he knew what to do in that situation.

He continued on being dragged by the guardian towards the monk, who happened to stop by a distance away from the giant plants. That's fortunate for both of them, since if the monk was not nearby, Darko might have thought he had already ran away, and he might have attacked him outright should they meet again. That meant he might still have the interest to defeat the large mob before them, only that he should retreat and regroup for the next assault. As the two stopped to meet the monk, the guardian asked the monk if he planned on fighting anything else. The guardian's voice had some somber tone on her, signifying that even if she just pulled away out of the battle, she did not lose yet the interest on fighting the huge mob, only that she thought two persons were not enough to even hope for a breakthrough. Fortunately that also was the sentiment of the monk, as he told them that he never gave up on fighting the large mob of Nepents and suggested that they pull some of them into their direction and finish them by ones or twos. Although Darko knew that was the most efficient strategy, there was still a problem. It's not a matter that "Darko would do it", but a matter that "Darko might be unable to do it". His spells were geared on the "area-of-effect" build, where he could control considerable numbers of monsters using spells that could incapacitate and damage anything within their reach, and then attacking either with melee or ranged attacks when the monsters were low on life. However, if he accepted the tactic of the monk, he could only devote himself to attacking with his long-range attacks with his cards and healing, which should be easier but would waste the potential of learning on how to use his spells as a Sorcerer at the right time.

He then replied towards the monk, "If you didn't think of that and thought about running away for good, I might have ended you both. Fine, we'll lure out those Nepents one-by-one, and then defeat each plant that we could lure. But I'm afraid that you're not using my skills to their true potential, as those spells you have already seen were my only spells. I'm afraid I don't have anything to strike a single target except physical weapons and something that would waste my mana for some measly damage. So, except you planned on luring two or three targets at a time, I might not be of any help. I do not prefer on becoming such a worthless sitting duck when I could do something more powerful than that."

Turnout: 584
Ambient: None
Quote: None thought of at the moment.
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen, Jane

coded by benetnasch of ET

[Jane]

Cedric gave a mental sigh of relief to Shuwen's confirmation, while he wasn't usually out and about to get into fights, it was still good to know that the one time he'd tried one wasn't for naught. It was nice to get out and practice fighting a little, and finding people willing to fight with you was rare indeed.

"I'm familiar." Jane confirmed with a smile, "The only question is how many do you think we should pull? We have the numbers and damage to take out small groups rather than two or three at a time. Four to five would be a good aim if we can catch a few of the lower level ones, though if we pull some level 10s we should probably be careful. I think we have the damage to deal with them considering the AoEs you guys were using."

"I should be able to keep them off you as long as you take care of the lower level mods quickly. I know we have to be careful enough as is, but Darko will need to make sure the damage output is worth his mana. That will pretty much put any pulling down to your crossbow or my taunts, if I can get close enough to use it without agroing the whole group." she added with a glance over her shoulder, "You guys wouldn't happen to know how they agro, would you? I've tried sneaking past them but unlike most mobs in this zone they seem to sense me anyway, my Tracker skills aren't as useful against them."

Cedric hoped his comments would ease the tension that seemed to be building between the Monk and Sorcerer. He really didn't understand why the smaller of the two males was reacting that way, could it be that Darko Lipowitz was one of the younger player in the game? It would explain the attitude, as well as use of terms like 'end you'. While Cedric hated generalisation and would always judge each individual by their own merits, he couldn't ignore the feeling that he was correct about this one. The single minded desire to do as much damage as possible could also back this up, but in a real MMO such a build would actually be quite normal. It was just as possible that he was just a seasoned layer who had designed his character to work with specific types of other players in a rather streamlined party.

The Monk on the other hand seemed rather unique from the people she'd seen before. Warning and careful, he was obviously one of the people that felt strongly about avoiding treating this as the game it was. While she had to admit it meant he didn't have to deal with things like pain and potentially getting defeated, it probably sucked all the fun out of any adventure he went off to have. Still, he had to respect someone who had their way of doing things. The only question was whether he would adapt that way when others came into the situation, or was he unable to adapt. Regardless, it would probably be a learning experience for the lot of them.

W: 529

[Shuwen]

Words: 504

The Sorcerer, who’s name was Darko according to the interface, appeared to be more then a little unhappy with being forced to run. He also acted more then a little arrogant after he explained his plan, claiming he would have killed them had he not done so, or something to that effect. Shuwen adapted a fake smile and avoided looking the Sorcerer in the eyes. If he dosen’t drop the attitude there’s going to be issues. He generally didn’t like doing pvp, and it was generally unheard of for him to engage in it, but the kid was seriously getting on his nerves. Yep, definitely a kid. Though it was possible to pick an appearance very different from your own in real life, Darko’s attitude indicated he looked at least very close to his actual age; all hormones and attitude, under a thin veil of disinterest that appealed to his own demographic when done correctly. Can we get this over with so I can ditch the brat already?

Jane, on the other hand, was probably much older then she looked; though her physical appearance was even less mature then Darko’s she carried heself like an adult, and acted like it as well. She’s probably at least around my age, possibly older. He decided to let Jane handle his complaints; she seemed more willing to talk things out with him, and he’d probably just antagonize him further anyways.

Darko didn’t seem to be familiar with pulling, which irked him a little, but didn’t surprise him. He seemed to be the type that was rather bad at having to do anything that would require admitting he was outgunned. Jane on the other hand, was familiar with the strategy. “Unfortunately, all my taunts are area-of-effect, and I’m not so good at judging distance when using those.” Judging distance in melee combat, on the other hand, was a completely different story, but there wasn’t any point in bringing that up. “We’d best stick to using my crossbow for luring them in.”

Jane had another important question; figuring out how they detected their prey. Considering the plan relied on drawing agro in just the right amounts, it was a pretty good question. “Hmm,” he rubbed his temple. He thought about the plant’s deep roots that had made it so difficult to knock them down. “There are a few underground dwelling animals such as moles that use whiskers to detect vibrations. Maybe the plant’s roots have a similar function?” Their sense of touch was probably better then their sight or hearing, as they didn’t seem to have the organs necessary to possess those senses. He scratched his head. “They might also have a way of communicating with nearby plants, so they might know whenever we step on a branch or lean against a tree in their general vicinity.” But he wasn’t sure if plants possessed a form of communication, or what form it took. Either theory was at least somewhat plausible. It could even be both methods used in tandem. Once the others said what they wanted to say, he'd turn in the direction they'd left the plant monsters and started walking.

[Darko Lipowitz]

Darko seemed to like the guardian more as she was somewhat calm-headed and aimed to bridge the situation between him and the monk by partly agreeing to what they both said. Though seemingly not the sort, her aura reminded him of a much older person than her appearance claimed to be. She was receptive to various strategies that they plan on doing, and suggested a path where they could lead to greater damage against the mob of plants. The monk, however, seemed to be the cowardly sort. He seemed to not take chances on multiple enemies even though he revealed a lot of spells to him, and decided on picking the mobs one-by-one. But Darko would not let that happen, since it might endanger their consistency in dealing with the mobs, and might end up getting far less experience in a span of time. His plan on picking the mobs using his crossbow, though, was the best way to lure them, since shouting at the plants might pull all of them altogether.

"I admit that the monk was saying the truth in that using his crossbow is the best way to lure the Nepents." He then recounted the information that he gathered before using his "Evaluate" skill. "Based on what I have researched, the Nepents sense their victims by either sound or vibration in their surroundings. So therefore sneaking would not work here except when someone is not making any sound or vibration on the ground while sneaking, and using sound might lure all of them altogether." There was a similarity in the monk's assumption that the plants' roots were like the whiskers of a mole in the real world, but there was a difference: the plants have the whiskers all over their body. "Furthermore they are weak to Fire, so spells like Orb of Lava would hurt them a lot. So the plan should be this: we could lure four of the Nepents in our direction using Shuwen's bolts and my cards, and then finish them off using any area of effect skills and any skills of the Fire attribute that we have. I'll handle the healing. Is that fine with you?"

Turnout: 363
Ambient: None
Quote: Strategies galore MK.2, HP: 90%, MP 92%
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen, Jane

coded by benetnasch of ET

[Jane]

Jane couldn't help but tilt her head to the side as Shuwen explained that his taunts were all AoE, what that had to do with her sneaking in close and taunting out small groups from the 'herd' confused the tiny Guardian, though she held her tongue so she could at least hear what else he and Darko Lipowitz had to say. If the information the Sorcerer supplied was correct then her idea of sneaking in close and taunting would fall a little flat the moment the rest of the monsters sensed her movement and started swarming. It was really funny to apply all these different animal-related words to plants, though she had to hold that thought in lest she start laughing like an idiot.

"I didn't mean for you to use your taunts." she directed at Shuwen, "Though mine and my skills in general seem less and less useful the more we discuss how to lure them in. I think it might be for the best if I stand by Darko and make sure he doesn't get too many agroing on him. I've got Covering so if they get past my taunt and other crowd controls I can easily stop a few extra blows from landing."

Cedric wasn't sure if his comments would annoy or please the Sorcerer so he was erring on the side of caution. Blind aggression didn't seem like a good idea, and the fact that Jane had no real way to get more than all of the mobs to come to her would stop any stupid assaults like that. Considering Jane's role was a defensive one Cedric had never really seen much need to spec her towards any sort of ranged combat, but usually that meant she ran in ahead of the others, drawing agro and pulling monsters. This monster wasn't very willing to work with that and it annoyed him to no end.

"How fast can you fire that thing anyway?" Jane asked, not sure how the weapon would work with drawing in the smaller groups that they planned on taking out. She would follow after the Monk to see how this plan of his worked out, but she wasn't too sure on that one. "If you can't pull enough I might have to try and tank a lot of them at once. With you two putting down the damage I could probably soak up most of the damage they could answer with. I wasn't planning on staying out much longer anyway."

W: 416

[Shuwen]

Words: 670

His speculation appeared to be unnecessary; Darko’s scholar subclass had already allowed him to gather that particular information; they did indeed sense vibrations through the ground, though not necessarily just through their roots. Lovely. Well, it wasn’t like it made a whole lot of difference.

Jane asked him about the firing rate. “Not quite as quickly as a longbow user could, though I can load it and keep it loaded without any effort. I normally just launch a shot or two while the enemy’s getting into close range then focus on melee combat.” He thought about it a little more. “These guys aren’t particularly fast though, so I could probably land three or four hits before the first one got into melee range, especially with a guardian to keep the pressure off.” Normally, he only stuck to one or two shots because he needed that last bit of time to get in a good position for the upcoming melee combat, so he didn’t use it as much as he could.

“The one issue I’m concerned about is their socialability; often as not, if you attack one from a group of monsters, sometimes it will agro other monsters that you didn’t attack. Like, attacking one with my crossbow might agro the two monsters closest to it, even if they hadn’t been attacked yet. Fighting in general also seems to attract other monsters; that’s how I ended up getting attacked by three of them at once. I might only take aim at one or two, and end up luring in four or five.” He thought about it for another second. “I guess we’ll compromise; I’ll shoot three that appear bunched up, and expect at least two more to get drawn in.”

He turned towards Darko. “You seem pretty trigger happy with your magic, but try to make sure they’re well and away from the ones we don’t intend to draw in; magic’s pretty flashy, so if you strike too soon you’ll draw in too many.”

If neither of them had anything else to discuss, they’d put the plan into motion. Shuwen went first, moving towards the clearing they’d last left the plants, but he’d stop as soon as the plants came into view. I reeeeeeeally need a pair of binoculars or something. He thought ruefully.

He studied the cluster of Nepents for a moment, trying to pick out the biggest clusters and the most isolated targets. He quickly spotted a group of three that seemed somewhat isolated from the rest of the group, with a fourth a little off to the side of it. That’s about half their total group. The others should be satisfied with that. He lifed his crossbow, and took aim at the rightmost plant.

The bolt made a THWAP sound as it hit the plant. Not quite like the sound of it striking flesh, but close enough to make him mentally cringe a bit. As expected, it hissed and started moving in his direction, along with one of its compatriots. Ignoring them, Shuwen fished out another crossbow bolt, loaded it, drew back the drawstring and fired again, aiming at one of the still unmoving plants he’d picked out earlier.

THWAP

It started moving too. Contrary to his expectations, the fourth plant, which was somewhat close to it, didn’t move along with it. I guess they can’t sense airbourne attacks as well, even when it strikes an ally. I guess their socialibility isn’t very high. It’s there, but it’s not high. He remembered one time when he’d accidentally agro an entire pack of monsters just by striking one of them. He’d barely gotten away by moving to a different zone. After reloading again, he took aim at the fourth one, but one of the already agro’d plants had gotten in between them. “Tch.” He circled around a little bit, the distance involved requiring a bit more movement then usual to change the angle, before firing a third time.

THWAP.

“That makes four. Hope you’re ready.” Shuwen told the other adventurers.

[Darko Lipowitz]

Darko listened as the monk spoke about his line of action against the Nepents. Although Darko believed that the monk just repeated what he had said, at least they had the same plan. Saying nothing in response to the monk's words, he just stood ready at the back of the two warriors, and waited for the time that he should cast the Orb of Lava spell. The only useful spells in this situation should be the Orb of Lava and the Serpent Bolt spells, since they didn't bring much attention and deal heavy damage. But these should be enough for the battle at hand. The Nepents were vulnerable to Fire spells so it should not be a problem with the speed of their being defeated. But the amount of spells that they could cast would be a factor here, and so he should be cautious. There's never telling that they might need the extra mana for an emergency.

Moving forward, the monk shot one Nepent with his crossbow. That shot drew that plant and another one to their direction. Reloading and aiming again at another group of Nepents, he fired again and hit another plant on its flower, and it also started to move. But one of the other plants were not lured by the attack even though it was quite near to the plant that was hit. Darko, seeing this event, thought that the plants could not sense the pain of others, or whatever that did not make a sound. As he noticed that the first two Nepents were far away from the others, Darko started to attack one of them with his cards. The monk having reloaded, then aimed at the remaining Nepent isolated from the others. Although it took him a hard time before he could draw the fourth into their direction, he still succeeded. But as the fourth was still near from the other plants, he did not use his spells yet. He just continued throwing his cards towards his only target so that he could bear down its HP before he would unleash the fire spell. He then waited until the first plants were in point-blank range with the front of their group. He then looked at the fourth plant and judged its distance from those which was not pulled into them. It seemed that the fourth plant was too far away from the others such that there would be no sound even when the orb would hit it. He then started to cast the "Orb of Lava" spell that he had. As well as it was a Fire-attribute spell, it would not hit other people in the party even if they went too close. He then unleashed the fiery ball of molten rock towards the target that he attacked earlier, which bounced between the four plants as it collided with them. Darko then started to cast another spell, and then when that was finished, he fired a bolt of purple lightning towards the person which should take the forefront on the start of the battle: the guardian. Instead of colliding with the guardian, the bolt enveloped her in a large ball of lightning, and anything that is within her reach would be showered with bolts of lightning that would momentarily stun her targets. This should set up the pace that they would need to defeat these four plants.

Turnout: 564
Ambient: None
Quote: The Battle of the Murderous Flowers, HP: 90%, MP 82%
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen, Jane

coded by benetnasch of ET

[Jane]

With a shrug and a nod at Shuwen's explanation of his speed Jane took up position at the front of the group. She was a few steps ahead of the Wolf Hair but it wasn't like she was about to draw the whole group in and be forced to battle them. With Darko Lipowitz's information in mind she stood quietly while Shuwen drew in the enemy with his bolts. Hopefully she'd be able to create enough noise and distraction when the monsters got close enough that she wouldn't even need to bother with the taunts and CC to stop them going for the others.

"Alright, any moment now..." Cedric thought to himself, eyeing the approaching monsters as they approached the group. "You're not getting past me whether you like it or not!"

When the first pair were within a few meters of her Jane would start banging the head of her spear against the front of her shield, the clanging sound of metal on metal ringing out and luring the two monsters to her through their own abilities. There was no way the beasts could ignore such a ruckus, but to make sure they didn't Jane would also taunt one of them if it didn't come in. Shield raised Jane would walk a few more steps forward, clanging her equipment a bit more before suddenly lashing out at one of the monsters to try and impale its roots with her spear, dealing damage and hopefully distracting it more than it already was.

While she attacked the beasts Jane couldn't help but notice the fire spell the Sorcerer was directing around their enemies. True to his word the fire damage seemed to be eating through the monster's health bars a lot quicker than a normal Sorcerer's spell would in a situation like this. The only issue with the attack was that the large amount of damage he was doing was bound to draw the agro of the plants, and sure enough one of the creatures was starting to draw away from her noise and attacks. Thinking fast, and doing what she had planned to do in the first place, Jane moved across to the plant in question and slammed her foot down on one of its roots. Heavy Anchor would keep the monster in place to receive more damage from the party, and her earlier taunt would be off cooldown shortly. That would mean at least two of the four monsters were stuck attacking or near Jane, and if it stayed that way for a few more seconds she could taunt the third closest monster over to her to make even more sitting targets.

The only real problem with this plan was that Heavy Anchor needed her to remain in place, and that made defending the attacks that were aimed at her that much harder. The little Guardian had to pivot on her foot, using her shield to ward off one beast's attacks while her spear dashed in and out at the other's flower and vines in an effort to offensively fend off hits blows.

"Come on guys!" Jane called out through grit teeth, "These three are so close to done, finish them off now!"

W: 533

[Shuwen]

Words: 715

The Sorcerer began to start throwing cards and attacking them with Orb of Lava. The damage dealt by the cards was practically negligible; they were light weapons that couldn’t really deal a lot of damage to begin with, and the Sorcerer’s low physical stats didn’t help in that regard either. His Orb of Lava spell was far more damaging, but due to it being the most damaging attack they’d been hit by a significant margin, and it being an element they were weak against, they became far more enraged at him then they were against the bowman.

Jane moved forward and made excessive noise to get the Nepant’s attention. However, as they’d previously discussed, it wasn’t sound the plants detected; they didn’t even have ears after all. Their method of detection was focused on ground-based vibrations. However, she was able to gain their attention regardless by virtue of being a closer target., and the fact that she was using a skill to do so. They approached her diagonally from either side, attempting to flank her. One of the plants engaged her up front, apparently accepting her challenge. However, it kept trying to move around her, forcing her to constantly turn to keep it in front of her, while the second moved around her on the opposite side and made a beeline for the Sorcerer. However, it was quickly stopped by Jane’s use of Heavy Anchor. However, in doing so, she gave the first plant she’d been engaging a chance to hit her from behind. It’s attack wasn’t strong enough to do too much damage to the guardian, but it was enough that it would probably make her not want to offer her back to it again.

After reloading, Shuwen hit one of them again with his crossbow. Tsh, not doing enough damage. Well, I expected that. The crossbow was a starter weapon, expecting it to do much damage against the plants was a foolish idea; it’s main use had been for pulling after all. Maybe I should change subclasses in a bit. He thought curiously. Holding the crossbow under one arm, he attempted

Shuwen, meanwhile was more worried about the next two plants coming up on them. The maneuvering he’d done to get in position for a proper shot at the plants required a little extra time to rejoin the party, but he was able to do so, getting in between the the two groups of two plants. Okay, I think I’m at the right distance. Hope it dosn’t hit Jane too. Skidding to a stop, he quickly made a short hop and slammed his foot against the ground, using Aura Kick to strike the second, third fourth plants, the first had Jane between him and it, so he couldn’t hit it without also hitting the Guardian, which he’d opted against. The third plant, which had already been hit with Orb of Lava and a bolt, attempted to engage him, lashing out with vine tendrils, but it didn’t have enough HP left to last very long. First, he used Zoom Attack to strike it as it came into it’s own attack range. He attempted to dodge it’s vines with a roll, but he wasn’t quick enough, making him forget about trying to dodge them. A spear hand, followed by a hook kick was enough to finish it off. Blah. While monks were expected to exchange blows at some point, his preference toward outfighting meant he was better at maneuvering and engaging in one-sided battles. Simply slugging it out wasn’t in his nature. But it didn’t look like he had much choice now if he wanted to deal any damage. By that point, the fourth plant, the straggler that had taken longer to agro, had gotten into melee range and was already attacking. Shuwen blocked it’s tendril attack with his forearm, reducing the damage a bit, but nowhere near negating it. He countered with a front kick, before circling around and getting into the position to punch the ground and use Tiger Echo Fist To hit it and the first plant, which was still presumably engaging the guardian. The agro on the Sorcerer would presumably have decreased somewhat, depending on if he’d attacked more and with what, but Shuwen didn’t have time to look over and check.

[Darko Lipowitz]

Darko, after casting his Orb of Lava and Serpent Bolt spells, watched what was happening while he was plummeting the enemy who had the greater amount of HP with his magic bolts and cards. The guardian managed to keep the aggro of all plants using her two skill, but ended up being unable to move from where she was standing on. Nevertheless, she still tried to fend off the attacks of the Nepents, and dealt enough damage to them so that the plants were on the striking range of his Orb of Lava spell. Meanwhile, the monk also dealt his own style off area of effect damage as he targeted three of the plants with his skill Aura Kick, and then proceeded to maul the third plant with some far-melee strikes, which burst the plant into shards of anima as it died. The monk then proceeded to use another area of effect skill, Tiger Echo Fist, towards the first and fourth plants, dealing considerable damage to them. With the successive strikes he directed at the fourth plant, that also brought it to striking range of his Orb of Lava spell. He then checked the spelll, and noticed that it had finished its cooldown. and so, he had started to cast it. After casting, the molten orb of earth then was fired from his grimoire, and then hurtled towards the first plant, which burst to powder after connecting with the skill. It then hit the second plant, which also exploded it to bits, followed by the fourth plant which also died. He then closed the grimoire, and then looked towards the remaining group of four Nepents.

"So, should we engage them right now? Darko said, still looking at the four plants.

Turnout: 290
Ambient: None
Quote: The Battle of the Murderous Flowers, HP: 90%, MP 77%
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen, Jane

coded by benetnasch of ET