Aykroyd's Got Nothing On Us [Mentor/Invite]

[Shuwen]

Words: 488

Valerie positioned herself so the melee fighters in their party were on either side of Sunny, presumably to ensure the Bonewalker wouldn’t be able to rush their ranged attacker. After quickly digging up what he’d learned about fights between one person and multiple people, the Monk silently agreed that was probably the best starting position for them. However, as soon as Sunny pointed her gun at it, the Bonewalker started moving again; it scampered to their left, putting Valerie between it and the person about to attack. If Valerie tried to shift her position, the skeleton would also move accordingly, keeping her between the other Swashbuckler and itself, making the chances of Sunny being able to land a shot at it slim at best. Whether she actually fired it under those circumstances or not would probably depend on how trigger happy Sunny was feeling. I guess it isn’t just going to let itself be hit if it can avoid it.

Frowning, Shuwen pulled out a throwing needle and threw it at the Bonewalker. He managed to graze it’s arm, taking a sliver off of its health bar, but only a sliver. That’s not going to get us anywhere. The only way I’ll be able to do any damage to it is to take it on in melee range. Still, if Valerie was thinking the same thing, they’d most likely end up getting in each other’s way, which would be a bad thing. He briefly took a look at the Swashbukler’s feet, trying to determine from characteristics of her stance what she was planning to do. Characteristics such as whether she was flat footed or on the balls of her feet, how she’d distributed her weight, and similar things could be used to determine how that person was planning to move. It didn’t look like she was going to right away; perhaps she was expecting the skeleton to charge at Sunny? It seemed like it would be a fair guess under most circumstances; most monsters only acted according to the agro levels of the opponent’s on its threat table, but that didn’t seem to be quite the case this time. Since it didn’t look like Valerie wanted to move in right away, the Monk made his move. Taking several steps forward, he spun around on one foot and tried to hit it with a round kick, using Zoom Attack so he wouldn’t have to get quite so close to it. The skeleton raised one arm in a vertical position, while using its other arm to brace it, to block the kick. It still did a noticeable amount of damage, but not as much as if the skeleton hadn’t braced itself or used a block to keep it from hitting a more important area, such as the torso or head. Fortunately, doing so created a brief opening that either Sunny or Valerie could take advantage of and follow up on.

[Sunny]

Valerie came close to them, standing in a way with Shuwen that made Sunny feel guarded. Not a bad idea, all things considered. Magic began to pool at the palm of her hand as she invoked Holy Banishment. Excitement built at the prospect of taking down this monster. Only problem was . . . it wasn’t leaning on programmed order anymore, as it had earlier proven by hunting down the trio. Much to the Ritualist’s slight annoyance –and partial amusement- it moved, putting itself behind Valerie and out of Sunny’s clear view. She tried changing angles, stepping to one side, but the creature only responded by moving accordingly and further shielding itself behind her fellow Swashbuckler.

Clicking her tongue in mild frustration, Sunny canceled her attack, not wanting to risk hurting her teammate in the process of trying to hit the Bonewalker. Some sort of strategy was in order to outsmart this one.

Beyond the skeleton and Valerie paradox was Shuwen, going in for a strike. Sunny didn’t waste time in just watching. She waited for openings, allowing Valerie and the Monk a fair amount of time to get their attacks in and back away before she tried taking a shot at the fiend. In the meantime, the Brazilian would take the moment to measure and maintain an appropriate long-rage position. If and when the moment came, she would reactivate her Exorcist skill.

---

words: 233

Valerie
Shuwen
ooc- I'm aware that this post is annoyingly open-ended. I'm going to be at work for the next few days and didn't want to keep the thread stalled while I was away. Take it away, folks!

[Valerie]

The moment Valerie had placed herself into a guard stance in the side front of Sunny, the monster seemed to recognize the positioning and moved in front of the girl, blocking the ranged fighter’s view of her target with Valerie. It was clearly an intelligent monster, or at least experienced. The small Swashbuckler debated whether to duck and crouch down to give Sunny an opening to shoot, one that the monster couldn’t use Valerie as a shield.

Then Monk drew a throwing needle and threw it at the monster, but it only grazed the monster and did the same to its health bar, decreasing it by a small bit as if the needle had grazed the side of the health bar instead of the monster. Valerie grimaced slightly, but her eye brows were furrowed together. It seemed like physical attacks didn’t do much damage to the monster, like the Black Essences. However, she couldn’t tell for sure because his attack was only a graze. The Swashbuckler could have thrown one of her daggers at the monster, but she wasn’t too comfortable losing one of her two blades, but she wouldn’t hesitate to use it if she needed to make a ranged attack that would safe her fellow party members, or at least give them some time to fight back.

Suddenly, Shuwen darted toward the monster and Valerie lifted a single foot to move forward, but the moment the girl saw the Monk’s foot go up into the air as he kicked the monster. With her party member’s limbs being thrown around as he attacked, the Swashbuckler wasn’t going to take the chances of getting in the Monk’s way. From what she had seen, Monks had amazing area effect skills, but they still affected the other members of the party. The Dancer replanted her foot down and glanced quickly at Sunny, checking up on her fellow party member. She was watching the monster carefully, her gun ready to fire at any moment.

Turning back to the fight, she saw the monster raise its arms to block Shuwen’s incoming attacks and she slowly crept closer, moving to the side as she went, letting Sunny had a clear view of the monster. Coming from behind the monster, she slashed its sides with her daggers, cutting into each side of its back before raising her leg and pushed to toward Sunny. Her attacks should have been enough to draw aggro to herself, causing the Miasmic Bonewalker to turn its attention to Valerie, leaving its back exposed to Sunny’s aim. Or that was what she was hoping to happen. Bending her knees, she balanced herself carefully on her feet, bracing for an attack from the monster. But with Shuwen nearby, and, hopefully, the attention of the monster was on the Monk and the Swashbuckler.


Words: 469
Shuwen Sunny

[Shuwen]

Words: 415

Shuwen managed to land his kick, somehow. As he did, he noticed Valerie slipping in behind it in order to launch a sneak attack. But either the skeleton noticed her moving, or it simple knew better to stay in one place when it had three opponents to deal with, because it didn’t give her enough time to attack. Shuwen tried to buy Valerie enough time to attack with a diversionary tactic; firing off a light jab followed by a heavier cross, but it didn’t stick around for the hits to land; the skeleton moved diagonally forward, ending up beside the Monk, slashing his arm with its hooked fingers as it passed. The motion also ended up with Shuwen between Sunny and itself, so unless she was able to take advantage of the short gap between when Valerie started moving and when it moved, she probably still wouldn’t be able to hit it. It also brought it out of range of Valerie’s intended attack, so she’d probably have to try something else.

I get it now. Shuwen thought with a frown. It’s not particularly strong for a boss, but it’s smart. It knows how to maneuver in a group fight, and take advantage of openings and opportunities as they’re presented. That’s dangerous. This was potentially even more deadly than an opponent they were underleveled for. I’d better disengage and give Sunny a clear shot. Shuwen jumped back, throwing another throwing needle at it. He managed to hit its forehead, but it still didn’t do more than a sliver of damage. Hmm, either the weapon isn’t powerful enough, or damage type is an issue. Is it physical resistant maybe? In that case, all the more reason to get Sunny a clear shot. Fortunately, Shuwen’s backing off created enough of an opening for Sunny to take the shot, which she most likely did. The attack would knock off about a quarter of its HP bar, and slam it against the nearest wall; it wasn’t nearly enough to finish it, but it was enough to make good progress towards doing so, and at that point, the Monk didn’t think they could really ask for more at that point. As it was briefly off balance due to the Exorcist skill’s knockback, it might also be a good opportunity to follow up and deal more damage to the boss monster. As Shuwen had just backed off and probably couldn’t charge in right away, it was probably Valerie’s turn to do so.

[Sunny]

The battle played out before the Ritualist. Valerie and Shuwen both took their shots at the monster. Her fellow Swashbuckler made an attempt to sneak-attack their opponent while the Monk did his thing, but the Boneswalker seemed to have caught on, because it moved in a way to avoid Valerie’s attack. The Monk took damage as the monster slipped past him, using the Wolfhair as a barrier between Sunny and her target.

Hrm. . .What to do. . .? Maybe try to overwhelm it with attack after attack?

Fortunatelly enough, her moment came as her teammates cleared the way and gave her the opening she needed. Yeah-yeah! Without another hesitation, she activated Holy Banishment. Light shot enveloped her hand and shot forth, splitting through the Skeleton’s dark essence and pushing it back into the wall with a force not unlike that of a raging bull’s. The Swashbuckler happily watched the monster’s HP fall, calculating in her head how many shots it would take to bring the Boneswalker down for good. Perhaps it’d take even less. Thus far, the creature had proven to be resistant to weapon damage at the very least. Sunny hoped it didn’t mean that she’d be the only heavy-hitter again. That’d take the fun out of this fight real fast.

“All right! Let’s keep it going, guys,” the Ritualist encouraged, voice bright and loud, as she prepared for some form of the monster’s retaliation. Cooldown was in effect, so there was that issue, or maybe hurdle was the right way to put it. Anyway! Fortunately, she wasn’t completely without a means of attack.

---

words: 266

Shuwen
Valerie

[Valerie]

The Swashbuckler’s face pulled into a tight frown. Things were not going how they were supposed to be. A low leveled monster shouldn’t be this smart. It was almost like fighting another player, one who was very experienced in fights. She backed off for a bit, watching Shuwen fight and soon after, Sunny shot her light skill again, knocking off one quarter of its health, leaving about 50%, which would mean about two more hits of Sunny’s Exorcist skill. In this case, I’ll just do what I can for now. She reasoned to herself before yelling to Sunny, “Tell me when your next cooldown almost finished.”


Noticing how Shuwen had stayed back a bit, she darted in front of the monster and began hacking away at it. Holding both daggers tightly, she slashed the monster’s forearms, using [Viper Raise]. Never pausing, the girl continued to slash away at its arms which it raised defensively. Valerie had seen it block one of the Monk’s attacks by simply lifting its arm and blocked it. As it moved back, the Swashbuckler moved with it, never letting the Miasmic Bonewalker create space between it and Valerie’s twin daggers that were taking turns into cutting into the monster’s arms over and over again. She avoided using skills, as the animation times would slow her attacks down. Her arms began to burn slightly from being flexed so tightly while she attacked. With a quick glance to Shuwen, she darted back, hoping that the Monk would take her place. From the sidelines, the Swashbuckler watched the fight with a careful eye and kept her ears open for Sunny’s shout for when the cooldown was almost over. If she happened to be in between Sunny and the monster, she would duck down so the Swashbuckler could shoot over her. But if Shuwen was the one in between Sunny and the monster, Valerie couldn’t do anything about it.



Words: 319
Shuwen Sunny

[Shuwen]

Words: 813

Sunny managed to spot the opening created when Shuwen broke away, and managed to strike it on the left side of its ribcage. The skeleton’s mouth opened wide and seemed to contort in what could only be described as a soundless scream, and it’s HP was down to a little under half its original amount. Things were definitely not going well for it, but did it have any tricks up its sleeve?

Valerie attacked the monster’s forearms with her daggers, focused on moving closer to prevent the bonewalker from evading her daggers, but that wasn’t what it had in mind. Instead of trying to move back to prevent the dagger from making contact, the skeleton instead moved just a little bit closer to her then Valerie expected, causing the forearm she’d targeted to instead collide with her own forearm, stopping the dagger from moving forward and briefly disrupting her balance.

So it can jam attacks as well as block them? Good to know. Shuwen thought. Has it had some kind of martial arts training? Shuwen couldn’t really tell yet. On one hand, it was doing things he’d learned during his martial arts lessons, and demonstrated some proficiency in such things; getting the distance needed to jam her attacks right, reading him well enough to guess what he was going to do. On the other hand, these were also things one could pick up simply by fighting and thinking, not necessarily in that order; it hadn’t done anything particularly technical yet; no throws or pins that would have definitely required training to learn. Either the monster was something of a minor genius when it came to martial arts, or it was more experienced then it’s level suggested.

Meanwhile, the bonewalker took advantage of its close proximity to one of its opponents to make a low scooping motion with its free hand, shoving it into Valerie’s lower torso, and flinging her in Sunny’s general direction. Had they been back on Earth, such an attack would probably be fatal; doing lethal damage to multiple organs, but here in Elder Tale, it was probably just a mid-sized chunk off of her health bar and a moment of disorientation. The pain would probably prevent her from making effective use of the dagger in her free hand, but she still might be able to scratch it if she pulled together long enough to do so before it tossed her away. Okay, I’d better take point. Shuwen briefly brought up his menu and readjusted his level to match the bonewalker’s. That would probably prevent it from taking advantage of the stats difference to beat up on him too easily. I need to figure out how much it knows. If monsters have already figured out how to use martial arts, we adventurers are in for a world of pain. Since Valerie had already been forced to disengage, he moved forward to advance on it. Ten seconds hadn’t yet passed, so Sunny’s exorcist skill was probably still on cooldown, but she might be able to still take a shot at it with a regular attack.

Shuwen, meanwhile, put his fists up in a boxing stance and used Zoom Attack via a jab to strike it from outside melee range. The skeleton jerked backwards, more of a flinch then a proper evasion, but it managed to prevent the punch from landing. So at least it doesn’t know soft style counters. That’s a relief. If it still had a trick like that up his sleeve, the Monk would have probably been doomed regardless of how little health it had left. The monk stepped in and threw a boxing combination at it; a jab, a cross, and a hook. It avoided the jab again by flinching back, but took the straight, which had greater range, in the collarbone, while it tried to block his hook with its forearm in a manner similar to before, but it misjudged the distance and is forearm ended up in the cook of Shu’s elbow, while the punch hit it right in the face. Okay, so it definitely doesn’t know anything about boxing. No slipping or counter punches. However, it responded by making a low sweeping motion with one arm, apparently intent on opening up his midsection with its hookish hands. However, Shuwen was able to see the move coming due to it drawing back its hand and rolling back its shoulders in preparation for the blow, and countered by stepping forwards, causing the monk to be too close for a sweeping attack to land properly; it’s palm simply hit the side of his torso instead, the fingers too far out to actually make contact. I can do that too. The Monk thought with grim satisfaction. I guess it dosen’t know martial arts after all. If it had, it wouldn’t have been confounded by boxing techniques of all things.

[Sunny]

At Valerie’s behest, Sunny nodded, taking her eyes off of her agonizing target long enough to acknowledge her teammate. The countdown was on. This time, the party seemed to stand a greater chance than in the battle against the Black Essence gang, which was good. The fact that this guy seemed to have a mind of its own versus mindless attacking made this particular match a fun one. There was that degree of danger in the way that the monster kept using her teammates as meatshields against her attacks. Exciting! This sure beat karaoke night.

The Ritualist narrowed her eyes as she watched Valerie move against the fiend, anticipating the outcome whatever it be. Her knives cut the air, approaching gaseous bone in mirrored motions. Sunny felt herself wincing as the Boneswalker got wise and intercepted the attack, taking the opportunity to lurch at Valerie with its clawed hand and fling her near the Brazilian, who followed the trail with widened eyes. Honestly stunned by such a force, the Swashbuckler would eventually run to Valerie’s aid, offering a helping hand to stand or perhaps defend her from any futher attacks that the skeleton would want to throw at her.

“How are you?” Cooldown continued, edging closer to the point of victory for the party. Sunny’s attention divided between keeping an eye on Valerie and viewing the spectacle of a spar between Shuwen and the Boneswalker.

---

words: 235

Shuwen
Valerie

[Valerie]

Valerie felt herself being thrown through the air after a bony hand gripped her torso, launching her into the air. She grunted, annoyed to leave the ground against her will, and then curled her body, readying herself for a crash into dusty furniture or the weak wall. While being in the air, the girl had turned onto her side, and then she crashing into the ground with her left side meeting the ground first and slide into the back of a couch. On contact with the old piece of furniture, her body flopped open, her head and lower body hitting the couch behind her, and then closing back up into a fetal position, groaning in annoyance.

A shadow fell over her, but Valerie knew it wasn’t the skeleton monster. She didn’t get the cold chill and breeze that washed over her when she was near the Miasmic Bonewalker. She opened her eyes and stared up at Sunny who seemed to be worried. The other Swashbuckler asked her how she was and Valerie simply groaned out loud, but a sarcastic smile spread across her face. “Simply splendid.” She replied as she pushed herself up into a sitting position. Her left side was numb and throbbing from pain from the fall. Valerie slumped against the couch at her back and watched the fight. She would have to find a way to outsmart the monster and lay a hit on it. Think that you’re fighting another person. The voice in her head chimed in randomly. Valerie stiffed at the thought. It was rare that her other voice would speak during a fight in order to help her. Instead, it would usually say something to shake her focus and lose control over herself.

Well, I’ll have to do something regardless. I’m not going to just stand here and do nothing. Valerie told herself as she rolled her left shoulder, trying to ease out the pain and stiffness. You’re not even standing. Try and so something while sitting. The voice in her head taunted her. The Swashbuckler rolled her eyes and hopped to her feet, ignoring the pain in her left side. Valerie nodded toward the monster and went to stand beside Sunny, her daggers out and ready to defend. “When your cooldown is finished, tell Shuwen to duck or get out of the way. Hopefully that would manage to get a hit in.” Valerie said, leaning over to whisper softly into Sunny’s ear.


Words: 409
Shuwen Sunny

[Shuwen]

Words: 411

Surprisingly, Sunny seemed to be enjoying herself. She wasn’t exhibiting any of the fear that had gripped her earlier. Valerie was having more trouble, apparently unprepared to deal with the tactics of an opponent that could apparently think rationally. Of course, Shuwen didn’t really have time to ascertain this, as he was locked in combat with the Bonewalker; participating in bloody battle tended to give one tunnel vision; that was why he usually left strategy to the back row fighters; they generally had a better view of the fight and had more time to think about such things.

With the Monk too close for the bonewalker to make decent use of its claws, it curled its arms around Shu’s midsection and began to run forward, attempting to either tackle the monk, or slam him against the nearest wall. Shuwen bent his upper body forward and loosened his body, pushing the skeleton, who was already leaning forward in order to push him forward. He tried to use his weight to push the skeleton into a mutual sprawl with himself on top, but he forgot that the skeleton’s strength was disproportional to its weight, and the maneuver failed, resulting in him getting slammed into the wall behind himself as the skeleton had intended. Right… things are different now. Shu’s martial arts training generally gave him an advantage in combat against humanoids, but he was fairly inexperienced at making use of it in the new world, so sometimes the differences between Earth and Elder Tale still tripped him up. In this case, a move that would have worked just fine back on Earth was ineffective here. He’d been trying to develop a new style that was optimized for Elder Tale with Jacoben, another martial arts inclined player, but they hadn’t made a lot of headway.

With the Monk pinned against the wall, the Bonewalker would start laying waste to him; pinning his neck with one claw-like hand, and disemboweling him with the other. Shu might have had a counter to that, but he was somewhat dazed when the back of his head hit the wall behind him, and didn’t have the means to make a decent attempt at resistance; the most he could do was lift up his hands and try to push the skeleton’s hands away. However, it would be an excellent opportunity for someone else to attack him from behind. Hopefully they would before he took much in the way of damage.

[Sunny]

Sunny’s concern was met with sarcasm, an attitude that indicated that Valerie was apparently fine. The Ritualist smirked, inwardly relieved that the attack hadn’t completely taken out the party member. Attention divided between her wounded teammate and the fight playing out before her eyes, the Swashbuckler tried to think of some sort of strategy that would help demolish the remaining life points of their latest foe. Holy Banishment seemed to work just fine against him, but with the way the creature learned and adapted, she didn’t think it’d be long before it wised-up to her skill and figured out a way to avoid it.

The current scuffle between Shuwen and the skeleton elicited another wince from Sunny, who was currently very happy with her decision to be a long-range fighter. Looking away to see how Valerie was recovering, she watched as the other Swashbuckler got to her feet. She felt her body tense as she prepared to help her stand if it should come to that, but thankfully, it didn’t. By the time Sunny looked back to see how Shuwen was faring against their opponent, she was surprised to see him apprehended, back against the wall and the skeleton wailing into him.

She felt cooldown run its course and the magic in her body coming within reach. Not another second longer, she was expending MP and charging it into her palm. “Hold on, dude,” she’d yell, holding her arm out to her side to prevent Valerie from running ahead of her. Holy Banishment’s laser shot forth and pierced into the Boneswalker’s body, taking another chunk of its HP. and ,hopefully, deterring its rage from the Monk.

---

words: 276

Valerie
Shuwen

[Valerie]

Beside Sunny, the dual knife wielding Swashbuckler was balanced on the balls of her feet, ready to jump at any giving moment. Valerie stood quietly from the sidelines along with the Ritualist and watched the Monk fight the skeleton. She stiffened as Shuwen was gripped at the torso and pinned to a wall behind him. Her side throbbed in recognition as she remembered a cold hard grip latching onto her torso and had launched her into the air, resulting into her current injury. The Swashbuckler’s leg tensed and readied to spring into the fray and pull, or at least attempt, to get the monster off the Monk. But with a glance to the side and Sunny’s arm popping in front of her, she considered otherwise. Valerie couldn’t take the chances of getting in the way of Sunny’s shot, for the sake of her own weak health bar and to quickly finish up the fight. Without the Exorcist skill, the trio would have been doomed as each move did about… two percent damage, and that is if one manages to land a hit, which Valerie was rather unsuccessful in doing. Gritting her teeth, the girl remained where she was and continued to watch the fight

Settling back into simply watching, the girl remained still as she watched the other Swashbuckler shoot a beam of light from her palm, piercing the Miasmic Bonewalker’s body. It was rather satisfying, seeing a bright beam of light enter a dark monster, almost like it was making it lose some of its darkness. With Sunny’s skill back in cooldown mode, Valerie darted around the girl and headed towards the monster, her daggers out and ready to slash into the bones. Sprinting forward, a brief plan appeared in her mind and she didn’t bother taking time she didn’t have to check if how likely it was going to work. As soon as she was in close proximity to the monster, the girl dove down and swiped at the skeleton’s legs as she passed down below the monster and then landing on the ground on the other side of the monster. Scrambling to her feet, the girl raised her daggers up, ready to strike once again.


Words: 368
Shuwen Sunny

[Shuwen]

Words: 391

The Bonewalker’s attempt to disembowel the captured Monk was foiled by another beam of light striking it. The boss staggered, it’s head colliding with the wall next to the Monk’s noggin, and it’s HP was down to about a quarter of its initial HP. Another hit from that attack would probably finish it off. Shuwen took the opportunity to wrap his arms and legs around the skeleton’s waist and shoulders, getting too close for the skeleton to hit him forcefully, and inhibiting his movements somewhat.

Valerie’s daggers made an uncomfortable sound as they hit the skeleton’s leg bones, leaving a noticeable gash along them, and another sliver off its health bar. They did not cause the skeleton to collapse by itself, but it did begin to wobble a bit, and with Shuwen’s weight on its upper body, the combination of the two was enough to send the Bonewalker toppling over to one side. Shuwen was more of a stand up fighter by training; he could grapple, but he wasn’t nearly as good at it. However, as his opponent didn’t even have that much, he still had an advantage in that regard. The Bonewalker, that ended up on top of him, tried to grab his neck, but Shuwen tucked his chin to his collarbone, giving it no neck to grab, though it still managed to claw his cheeks a little. Balancing on his tush, he pushed it away with a front kick to its pelvis. Instead of trying to regain its hold on him, the Bonewalker, backed out through the nearby doorway into the hallway, making sure to avoid the dagger-wielding Swashbuckler behind it.

"It retreated; that’s a good sign; it’s probably on its last legs now." Shuwen commented, trying (unsuccessfully) to wipe the blood from his face. “I’ll probably be on guard for Sunny’s attack though; that’s the only one that’s inflicted serious damage to it. So… who wants to go first?” He asked as he pointed at the door the boss had just gone through. They could hear sounds of the skeleton moving, though nothing clear enough to get a good idea of where it was located, or what it was doing. For all they knew, it could be running for its life, preparing to ambush them, or even gathering the ingredients to bake cookies for them. You never knew.

[Sunny]

With Sunny’s holy beam came a barrage of attacks from her teammates. The Ritualist kept her distance as cooldown initiated. She could easily fire a shot with her gun, but considering the monster’s already-lowered HP and the fact that Valerie was way ahead of her, she thought it’d be a waste of a bullet. She stood back and watched. Shuwen restrained the Boneswalker, leaving it exposed to Valerie’s twin daggers.

She clenched her teeth as the blades screeched against solid bone, cutting through it with ease and sinking its HP by another margin. She felt her muscles tense as Shuwen grappled with the creature, suffering a cut to his cheek. When he managed to push the monster off of him, the skeleton responded with retreat, resigning to the fact that it was outmatched by its three opponents.

Sunny wasn’t very happy about that, though, having wanted to finish it off, like, now, instead of having to chase it around the mansion. She put her hands to her hips, frowning, and meandered over to the entrance to the hallway to get some idea of where it had gone. Cooldown kept her from performing any skills at the moment, so she kept her right hand on her gun holster, ready to lock and load if needed.

“We should get moving. Don’t want it recovering while we stand here and talk,” she commented, shoving her shoulder forward as a way to say “let’s go”. Sunny would gladly enter the hallway first; although, she’d fall back if either Valerie or Shuwen decided to take the lead. Despite itching to beat the monster, she wasn’t going to be rash. She was a long-range fighter, and that’s where she intended to stay.

---

words: 286
Valerie
Shuwen

[Valerie]

From her crouch, Valerie’s eyes were glued onto the fight between the Miasmic Bonewalker and the Monk. After the Swashbuckler’s blow to its legs that had left two grooves in the monster’s legs and caused it to lose its balance for a brief second. Seeing the opportunity, Shuwen had seemed to tackle it to the ground. However, after a bit of rolling, the monster was on top of the Adventurer and its hands were going for the Monk’s neck. The Swashbuckler’s eyes widened in worry and her body tensed to spring as she opened her mouth, about to call out to the Monk, but when Shuwen’s neck suddenly disappeared into his body and the incoming claws of the Bonewalker scratched the Monk’s cheek, causing a thin stream of blood to trail down his face. Unfazed, the male kicked the monster in the torso, launching it away.

The girl whirled around to face the monster, preparing to launch an attack on the monster, but it deliberately detoured around her and headed for the door. The Swashbuckler growled inwardly, her other voice called out for Valerie to follow it and kill it. The girl’s body tensed as an inward struggle of whether to dash after the monster or remaining with her party. Slowly the girl turned back to face the Monk and other Swashbuckler. They were talking about the Bonewalker. Shuwen said that it had most likely retreated and asked who wanted to go first. Valerie didn’t trust herself and remained silent, looking to Sunny for her answer. The Ritualist said that they should get moving soon, or the monster may begin to recover its recently lost health. Nodding, Valerie turned to stare at Shuwen and stepped behind him, and glanced between the Monk and the doorway, indicating that he should lead.


Words: 300
Shuwen Sunny

[Shuwen]

Words: 420

Shuwen thought Valerie would want to take the lead, in order to increase her chances of taking a more prominent role in finishing the boss off, but that didn't seem to be the case. Shrugging, Shuwen put his legs into a fighting stance, pulled out another throwing needle, and stepped through. He figured he could tag it as soon as he caught sight of the bone walker, regardless of whether it decided to attack him or retreat as soon as they came into visual contact.

As it turned out, the bone walker wasn't really interested in running, so much as getting the drop on them, literally. Shuwen went through the doorway to follow it, only to be ambushed as he stepped through. The boss mob had somehow climbed up above the door frame without them realizing it, and when he walked through, it came down on him like a predatory spider.

"Mmphag!" The Monk sputtered gibberish as the sudden weight smashed him against the ground. While it didn't inflict any damage, the move put him in a compromising (read as: flattened) position, from which he'd have difficulty attacking or defending himself. He flailed a little bit, trying to turn over and reverse his respective position to the bone walker, but it didn't give him a chance, tearing into him with it's claw-like fingers. Though it tried to finish him off as quickly as possible, it didn't really have enough time to do so without leaving itself open to the Exorcist's Light attacks, so instead of continuing to attack until the Monk's HP was depleted, it attempted to scoot itself to one side of the door frame so only the Monk had a clear line of fire at it, and he currently wasn't in much of a position to attack from. He tried to go into a crab walk so he could kick at it, but the skeleton instead backed away out of range. Scrowling, the Monk attempted to circle around, trying to get a better chance to attack while simultaneously clearing the doorway so the other two could pass through and join in the attack. As soon as Sunny tried to pass through, it would quickly scramble behind cover, but until then, it would simply keep it's distance, trying to find an opening it could exploit. It seemed to be aware of both it's dwindling health, and the fact that most of the damage it had taken had come from one source; it was playing things much more conservatively now.

[Sunny]

As Shuwen took the leading role again, Sunny took a step from the doorway to the hall, allowing the Monk and Valerie –if she so chose- through the entrance first.

A shadow of their foe dropped from the ceiling then, landing atop the tank and issuing a relentless beating on him. The Ritualist could practically hear his HP dropping with each slice.

Sunny’s eyes widened at the sight of her party mate squirming beneath the Bonewalker. Had it planned this from the moment it’d realized it was outmatched? Despite having shown a capacity for independent action, it still surprised the Brazilian that the monster was capable of planning anything at all.

Everything was happening so quickly. It didn’t stay on him long, realizing that it had other opponents to worry about. The cooldown from her earlier attack was on its last few seconds, but the skeleton wasn’t going to be letting that happen apparently. Hand clutching her gun, Sunny rushed into the room the moment there was an opening, bullet already hot in its chamber, and grew frustrated as the Bonewalker slipped around a corner the instant it noticed her.

Trying to avoid me. . .

At least its HP was low. If they could only catch it by surprise, get the drop on ‘im. Maybe then she could feed it another beam. Yeah. They had to end this fast. Shuwen wasn’t looking so good, and she was certain she’d lost a lot of her own MP since their last break.

---

words: 249
Shuwen
Valerie

[Valerie]

Following Shuwen, the two Swashbucklers left the room, only to see the Monk being jumped as soon as he stepped through the door. Inwardly the girl thanked herself for not trying to run toward the monster mindlessly. Such an attack could have possibly been easier for Valerie to escape as she was smaller and her weapons were bladed, but she was also only a level one Swashbuckler, which made it also dangerous. Biting her lip, the girl stopped a sharp yelp and dropped into a defensive position, her daggers out and her eyes glared sharply at the monster.

Her muscles twitched as her body wanted to throw itself into the fray, but her mind saw no opening that would keep herself and her party member safe. He is a higher level then you, probably has more experience too. Let him handle it. The girl’s other voice said suddenly in Valerie’s head. The girl stiffened slightly as the though registered in her mind. She began to doubt her decision of staying behind. Usually, the girl’s other voice led to something bad, but that was what her own logic concluded with as well. So the girl sat tight and watched, her body coiled like a snake about to attack. The Bonewalker had practically pinned Shuwen to the ground as the Monk struggled underneath the monster. Without wasting a second, the monster clawed into the Monk, but only once before backing away from the Monk’s reach. Half a second later, the Miasmic Bonewalker caught sight of Sunny and recognized her as the one who inflicted most of the damage. The monster quickly retreated behind cover, popping out as it tried to find a good place to hide.

When Sunny had caught sight of the monster, she had quickly passed through the doorway as she tried to take aim at the monster. Following it with her own eyes, Valerie watched the Bonewalker disappear. Huffing in mild annoyance, the Swashbuckler walked silently to the Ritualist’s side. Valerie didn’t dare say a word. Considering how intelligent the Bonewalker was in the battle in the other room, the girl assumed that the monster was going to use its knowledge about the location against them. Looking around in the darkness, the small Dancer eyed the ceilings and the walls carefully as she tried to track any sounds or movements. If I were the Bonewalker, I would have use the layout of the house to my advantage. The house was weak and it is possible to break through the ceiling to drop down on Sunny. Valerie thought to herself. With a quick glance at her fellow Swashbuckler, she assumed Sunny was going to be okay for now.

Bending her knees, Valerie gripped her daggers tightly and her eyes continued to search. If she didn’t want to die, a good way to go about fighting an intelligent monster was using their tactics against them. Intelligence with intelligence. That meant they had to try and outsmart the monster. Peering into the darkness, Valerie’s dark violet eyes darted rapidly, but paused for a brief moment as they settled on Shuwen. He was wounded when the monster had dropped down and slashed at him before it had retreated. With a quick glance to his health bar, the girl whispered a soft “You okay?” to the Monk, wanting to check up on him.



Words: 559
Sunny Shuwen

[Shuwen]

Words: 522

Once the monster was off of him, Shuwen lifted his legs then pushed them forwards, using the momentum to jump back onto his feet. His HP had lost a significant amount, not so much that he was in immediate danger, but enough that he definitely couldn't afford another slip up like that. For now, the monster seemed to be fighting cautiously, particularly focusing on avoiding Sunny's super effective light-based attack. While it was certianly annoying, it at least meant Shu hadn't taken as much damage as he might have from getting ambushed.

Valerie made a quick check on him, to see how he was doing. "I'll live." He replied with a huff. As problematic as the loss of HP was, his ego had taken even more of a beating; he had a fair amount of pride in both his fighting skills, and his caution, which was one of the key traits that allowed him to fight solo as much as he did. The dark orb things had been one thing; his class had bad compatibility against those, but the boss was another matter; had he been fighting by himself, the battle would have ended then and there. Had the presence of his two companions made him reckless, or had he really overestimated himself that badly? It was certainly something he needed to contemplate. Later. They needed to finish the fight first. They needed a new strategy, and quick. He turned back towards Valerie.

"It's taking care not to get hit by Sunny's beam attack. It's probably desperate not to lose any more HP to her. As long as that's it's priority, I doubt she'll land another shot, but she could still create an opening for one of us to to attack it. Sunny; try to focus on getting it's attention. Don't worry too much about having a guaranteed shot, as long as you have a half-decent chance of landing it, take the shot. Valerie; whichever of us is in a better position to do so should rush it as she fires, and try to keep it busy; enlarge whatever opening Sunny creates and keep it open so the third of us can keep landing attacks. Even if we can't finish it off in one go, the damage should still take it's toll on the thing if we can ke-"

Shu's overly long strategy was interrupted by the sound of something tearing or cracking in the next room, which was swiftly followed by an eriee blue light. Whoever chose to look into the next room would of course, see the bonewalker, but it had changed. It's right arm was now missing, apparently torn off just below the shoulder. In it's right hand was the source of the blue glow; a twisted-looking weapon about the length of it's missing arm. It resembled a crooked sword, so bent and gnarled it could be mistaken for an old tree root, but it's edge was keen and the glow indicated it was something to be feared. "Well that can't be good." Shuwen responded. If the Brazilian Swashbuckler was slow to respond, he'd add. "Sunny, take the shot."