I got nobody yelling at me for my crap knowl of biology, so I must have done something right!
"Why are we going this way?" Asked Mayoko questioningly. She didn't question Tohaku's reasoning, just wanted to know it so she could apply it in other situations. She was walking beside her two friends, through a dense forest. The trees were at least a meter wide, with dark colored bark. The large wooden pillars stood many many meters tall, and looked impenetrable. Miho was off on a mission with Squad Thirteen, probably trying for the upteenth time to clear the Queen Spider dungeon.
"Deductive reasoning" he said. "I think this is the way to that blasted dungeon." He hated spiders, but wanted that rare drop (as everyone did, even though no one knew what it was) to pawn off. With that kind of money, he was sure he could hunt down his next objective.
Mayoko nodded, picking her way around a tree. "So, how will we know if we are close?" She asked. All of a sudden, something sticky and invisible clung to her face. She scraped it off with a shriek, and held out her hand to examine what it was. Little pale white strings reflected the little light that pierced through the treetops.
"We start running into spiderwebs." He said, not looking back, but knowing what transpired. Mayoko growled slightly, not liking the teasing tone Tohaku had.
"Well, I wanna see you dodge all of these damn things!" She grumbled.
"Easy" he said, stopping. "[Congelationis], Frostbite".
He waved his hand horizontally, and she saw a faint cloud expand, moving forward. It became the size of a person as it moved, but kept going.
"And what will that do?" Asked an interested Mayoko. She had never seen this spell before, but then again, only recently learned that the spell list expands with practice.
"Simple. The cold makes things contract, so send a wall of cold in fornt of us. The temperature of that cloud is somewhere near negative forty degrees fahrenheit. It is cold enough to make the spider webs brittle, and snap in the slightest breeze" he explained confidently.
"But there isn't any wind" said Mayoko, not following his train of thought.
"Says the Mage who can control it" he teased, laughing. "Just open up your spells, and send something out, like Gust, or Twin Slash."
Mayoko grumbled, but did as she was told. Since her spells were in Japanese, she could easily read them, unlike everyone else who had Latin. She drew her knife, and held it backhanded. "[Twin Razor Slash]!" She shouted, swinging the knife horizontally, then vertically. She saw two grayish arcs speed forward, made of compacted air.
"Razor?" Asked Tohaku, hearing that attack for the first time.
"Yeah. The upgraded form of Twin Slash" she said. "Much more powerful, and it doesn't tire me at all. In fact, I could probably break the webs without your ice's help!" She laughed.
"Then why didn't you think of that?" He smiled maliciously. He knew she wasn't a planner or thinker like he was.
"Umm, uh, well screw you too!" She shouted crossing her arms. "Because I didn't! Don't tease me so much!"
"No promises" said her friend as they made their way through the ever darkening forest. After about fifty meters, it already looked like night.
"Umm, Tohaku, why is it so dark?" Asked Mayoko, keeping an eye on the ground to not trip over any rocks.
"Look up" he said, also carefully picking his way through.
Mayoko did as she was told, and raised her head. There were webs above her. Webs with strands thicker than her arm. These were strung from tree to tree, and made a great shade in the already low light. The webs scared her, a lot.
"What made those?" She asked, hurrying to catch up to Tohaku.
"Spiders" he said simply.
"How big would they have to be?!" She reached out and grabbed his arm in her fear,
"About the size of a car? No, maybe a shuttle bus" he thought, doing proportions in his head. "Somewhere in between. I think a decent size SUV."
Mayoko made a noise that sounded like a mouse caught in a cat's paws. She was really not liking this.
"Why did you bring me and not Miho-kun?" She asked. "You know I can't stand spiders!"
"I brought you because in this situation, you will be more of use." He said honestly. "If a car sized spider scares you, you will hate the boss." He laughed at her discomfort.
"How big?" She asked, stuttering.
"Argo said bigger than a house." Said the Mage in front. "Don't worry, the strategy is simple. I deal with the lesser mobs, and you take on the boss."
"But I don't wanna face a house sized spider!" She whined. "Please!"
Tohaku sighed. "Fine. But you better keep those mobs away from me so I can focus." He sighed again. "This will be harder than I thought."
Wraith was letting out some steam. This was not like him, but lately, he has felt very very stressed out. His new taidachi, meaning 'short big sword', rang out as he sparred with Kora. Wraith swung viciously, and quickly, leaving Kora no time to counter or parry, but both knew he couldn't keep up that fast of an onslaught for long.
After ten seconds of fast paced slashing, Wraith danced away to give himself some time to recover. He recently pinpointed the source of his stress to be Lucy's death. She was his one and only friend in this world, so he kind of had a right to be stressed. Sure, Kora was great, and a nice person to know, but he wasn't Wraith's friend yet. And after Lucy, he had a lot to live up to.
"You better be ready!" Shouted the captain, running forward. "I can attack fast too!"
He swiped his two handed sword horizontally, trying to force Wraith to back up. As the taidachi wielder took the steps to dodge, Kora changed from a horizontal swipe to a stab, getting Wraith right in the gut. That one blow took his hp from max to half, ending the duel.
As Kora helped Wraith back up, he chuckled. "Who woulda thought that one attack would be a critical hit?" He smiled as Wraith sheathed the long sword. "I thought I was gonna have to hit you twice! Or couple of my stabbing skill with another one"
Wraith bowed respectfully, even though he wasn't satisfied. This anger built inside him kept growing, and it was burning his insides with the urge to annihilate everything within sight, but he kept it in check. Back in his neighborhood, where gangs ran rampant, he was often the kid nobody picked on, for he never made trouble. He learned early how to control the wrath he felt inside. Although it was hard.
'Please Lord give me the strength to keep calm' he thought as he followed Kora from the Training Hall to the Barracks. 'Every day, it gets worse, the depression, the misery, the anger at the Alliance. Please help me'.
Growing up, Wraith was never very religious. He believed in God, but never went to church, or anything like that. He believed that God is God and doesn't need him to go to a building to show his devotion. But here, he wished there was a church he could go to, and a Father to talk to. Sadly, there weren't any.
Once inside the barracks, he changed from his old dark cloak to his bright new one. The white fabric felt nice on his shoulders, like a warrior fighting for the Light. Besides, black was so overrated. Why must everyone think that by wearing dark cloths, and having a massive sword they look cool? It is just so stereotypical.
Shaking himself from these thoughts, he strolled out of the sleeping quarters, and out of the building into the open third floor.
The whole map was a forest. Just one massive forest, with trees thicker than a meter wide. This made for easy sneak attacks from someone such as Wraith. He has had a lot of practice, protecting convoys in the Elf War Campaign quest. He would hide in the trees, and when someone attacked, he would burst behind them, silently felling the enemy as efficiently as possible.
Right now, Squad Thirteen was going to meet up with a band of players who are going to fight the field boss. Everyone was hoping that this attempt would finally defeat it, since it was being very stubborn. No attempt yet in two days the third floor has been available was successfully ended. Usually, it resulted in two or three player casualties.
There were rumours spreading around the Info Brokers that the game was made to be impossible. How could anyone fight a third floor boss that took on seven level twenty players? The rumors seemed legitimate, but Wraith prefers to find out with his own eyes whether Kora's idea of calling in the other mages was necessary. Hopefully, just him and Miho, the person Tohaku left behind while he went after the Spider Queen, would be able to take this stupid Field Boss out, so they could enter the Labyrinth, but maybe Argo was right when she told him that calling Mayoko, Aoki, and Tohaku would be the only way to beat this thing easily. You never know.
Miho stood outside with his arms crossed. He and Wraith got along well, since neither was a real big talker. Many days, the pair would just stand around, doing nothing. Other times, they fought fiercely, training their magic to new heights. Some unfortunate soul made fun of Miho one day. The next, he was found strung up by his feet from a tree limb over six meters in the air. How he got up there, no one could prove, but Miho and Wraith seemed a little happier around each other. People learned really quick not to piss either of them off. Really quick.
"Are we about to go?" Grunted Miho to his smaller friend.
Wraith nodded, not speaking. He took his customary position right next to Miho, a little in front and to the left of the brute. Kora exited the building they had set up HQ in, to see them all ready to go. Kora wasn't taking the whole squad with him, just Wraith and Miho. The other group was bring a pair of spear users, and three archers to provide support fire in case Wraith and Miho couldn't wrestle this thing into losing, allowing the pair to escape.
The three nodded at each other, and started making their way to the floor's Labyrinth. It was a tall pillar, just like the two floors before it. Everyone was guessing they would have to fight their way through traps, dead ends, and worse when this field boss was dealt with. Kora sighed audibly. 'This floor is going to require a lot of patience I am sure.'
The road they now traveled on was the quickest way to the labyrinth, without cutting through the forest. It was much safer than cutting through, since one could easily trip, and be swarmed by mobs easily.
Recently, the Spider Queen was defeated, by Lind and some other Army members. He became the creator of the ALF, having fulfilled the requirements to make it after that arachnid was killed. This meant that Kora and Squad Thirteen were no longer an unofficial Squad, and were sent the request to join the guild almost as soon as the Queen was killed. This brought a lot of cheering and rejoicing from Kora's men, as they now actually had a salary instead of whatever they got from drops and what Kora decided among them, although he never gave himself anything more than he gave his men.
The path ahead branched out, forking. The trio saw the five people they were meeting up with on the right path, the one leading to the Labyrinth.
"Hey, Kora. Didn't think you were coming" said one of the pikemen.
"I always make good on my promises" said Wraith's captain.
"Only brought two men with you? Trying to shovel all the work on us?" He laughed.
"We already talked about this. They will do the fighting, you are only here in case they need to retreat." These people seemed to be purposefully annoying Kora.
"Well then, let's get going" he said, leading the way along the road.