Kage come running down the feild to join up with his friends when he get tripped up by and small rock and lands with a resounding smack. He finishes his trip sliding in between Vane and Helen, "You alright?" Vane asks.
"I'm alright. They ar having a meeting for the floor boss meeting in the ampitheater in Tolbana." Kage regains his feet and dusts himself off.
"So a month they just now decide to have a meeting? Men." Swan says with Helen nodding in agreement.
Vane looks at his wife and shakes his head "Who is calling this meeting?"
"Diavel, I remember meeting him during the beta he and I were doing a quest to get a skill on the third floor." Kage answers, "We should go I for one and getting tired of this floor."
The group agree and head for Tolbana.
Upon arrival Kage goes and rents out a couple of rooms then joins the others at the ampitheater.
A light blue sword and shield and swrod users claps his hands getting everyone's attention.
"Ok, now that everyone is here lets get this meeting started. So I wanted to thank everyone for coming and my name is Diavel and the job i rolled is Knight."
the few that have assembled laugh and one calls out "Dude there are no jobs in this game."
"Do you want to hear this or not? Right anyway heres the deal our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today." Diavel says as the crowd murmers of "What and wow."
"First we to defeat the boss and two we need to tell everyone waiting in the Town of beginnings that it possible to beat this game. Fact is it our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree or not?" Diavel says pounding his chest and the crowd erupts into cheers.
"Guy is charasmatic to say the least." Kage whispers.
Helen smacks his arm, "Be quiet."
"Okay glad hear your all with me on this, now lets figure out how we r going to beat the boss. First off we should divid into groups of six." The swords smiles as other begin to group off. except for a brown hair single blader and a dark red robed figure.
"Hey, why dont we ask those to join?" Swan asks already walking over to them.
"Nice of her to wait for an answer." Kage says sarcasticly
Swan smiles sweetly "Hey would you two like to party with us?There are four of us so you would round out the party."
"Sure, I'll join but i can't speak for the person next to me." Kirito answers accepting the invite.
The person in red give a single word answer, "Sure." accepting the invite.
Kage looks at the name display on his right,"Kirito and Asuna. Nice to meet you both. I am Kage this is Swan."
"I'm Helen great to meet you." she says joining Kage and Swan
"The stick in the mud up there is called Vane." Kage says looking up.
Vane flips Kage off and joins them on the lower row,"Pleasure is mine."
After the introductions are complete they turn their attention back to Diavel.
"Alright looks like everyone teamed up..."
"Hold on a sec!" and orange hair two handed blader interupt Diavel while jumping down the stairs.
"My names Keepal got that? Before we take on the boss i wanna get something off my chest. We all know about the two thousand players that died who've died so far yeah? Well some of you need to apologize to us right now." He says pointing his finger and a bald man with a soul patch.
Kage, Vane and Kirito all look down with a mixture of sadness and anger flashing across their faces.
"Keepal, I think i know who you are refering to. You mean the one who are ex-beta testers right?" Diavel says.
"'Course i mean them, the day this stupid ass game began the beta guys just up and vanished right. They stole all the good hunting spots and they grabbed all the easy quests too. They ignored us like we're nothing." He claims getting a look ofsuperiority on his face.
"I bet there are some of them here come on out beta testers, we should make them apologize, and give up their money and items they got."
Kage Kirito and Vane all get ready to stand up but the blad man with the soul patch beats them to it.
"Can I say somethin'? My names Agil i wanna make sure we are on the same page. You say the ex-beta tets should be blamed for the rookies deaths because they didnt help 'em? And they should apologize. I leave anything out?"
"No you didnt." Kepal says.
"The item store hands these out for free," Agil pulls out a small brown book, "It's a guide book, you got one didnt you?"
"Sure i got one."
"Know who was handing these out? The ex-beta testers." Agil says while some in the crowd look stunned.
Kepal give him a dirty look and sits down.
"Ok the info on the boss is in the latest issue of the guide book you just heard about, The name of the Boss Illfang the Kobold Lord with his two helpers the ruined kobold sentinals." Diavel says continueing the meeting.
"Has four health bars, the group that defeats the boss gets the xp and anyone who gets an item gets to keep it. Any objections? Good! We leave tomrrow at ten in the morning. Meeting ajourned people." Diavel walks off stage.
Kage and company catch up to Kirito and Asuna but it Vane who speaks first. "We should practice our timing so we don't get in each others way."
The newly formed group of six leave the rustic town passing by a few vendor tables.
"How about we head to the sub-boss in the tower?" Kirito suggests.
The group agrees and make their way to the massive stone tower.
"Wow, damn thing is huge." Kage comments entering the door.
The gang fight through the lower trash enemies quickly making it to the staircase.
"Oh goody, a cyclops and four harpies, I think we just stepped into a book." Kage says.
Swan turns back to him "What book?"
"I forget the title had something to do with a guy and a ship trying to get home, anyways he fought a cyclops." Kage says kneeling down.
"Alright heres the plan Kage, Helen take the adds on the left."
"Got it." Kage moves with Helen to the left.
"Kirito, Asuna take the adds on the right."
"On it, Vane." Kirito responds as Asuna silently moves into position.
"Swan and I will start with boss then we will rotate as needed to help." Vane says taking his spot with Swan.
Kirito and Kage kick the battle off by drawing arggo from their sides. Kage bobs and weaves landing light strikes pulling the harpys to the side allowing Helen to strike at thier backs.
Kirito draws them away attacking head on slicing one up as Asuna jumps over him hitting it with several pinpoint thrusts, she pivots kicking the second making it turn its back to Kirito.
Kirito taking the que charges up his skill and cuts the harpy in two. They move in unison striking and defending for each other taking the second own just as fast as the first.
Kage looks over as Kirito and Asuna finish their two "I'm starting to get the feeling we are just gonna be in their way." he grunts and steps up his attacks.
"Oh hell no we aint gonna let them show us up like that." Helen claims bringing her shield up to block an attack.
Kage slips under her shield using his x-cross skill to clip the wings off the first harpy then pins it in place with two thrown daggers.
Kage quickly kneels down allowing Helen to vault off his shoulder and bring her mace down with extra force.
"Shield!" Kage calls and Helen put the shield behind her head blocking the talons from their second foe.
They both stand now rotating between dagger sheild and mace cutting down the final harpy. They smile and join the other four.
While the others are busy taking down the harpies Vane and Swan handle the boss. Swan takes the lead in the fight using her spear to strike at the cyclops' eye enraging the beast but causing some crit damage.
Vane starts to activate his quick draw but freezes in place having flash back to the man in the cave. He draws but doesn't use the Battoujutsu opting for a quick charge.
Kirito switches in after joining landing a few cleaving blows then quickly switching with Asuna.
Asuna strikes with pinpoint accuracy then slips out to the side avoiding the fist of the cyclops. She launches her Linear then switches with Helen.
Helen holds the cyclops absorbing blows with ehr shield waiting for her best chance to strike.
Kage runs Over to Vane "Dude you alright? Get your head in the game or your going to get someone killed."
Helen lowers her shield quickly launching her mace bash then stuns the beast with her shield strike.
Kage then quickly switches in for Helen. He being by throwing seveeral daggers ducking under a slow thrown punch.
Sliding to a stop Kage slices into its back with x-cross followed by pinning its foot with a dagger.
They continue to rotate untill they get back to Swan.
Swan acctivates her skill but only lands a glancing blow.
The cyclops roars and hits her with a powerful blow dropping her health to dangerous level.
Kage takes a step but get ambushed by the respwaning Harpies.
"Helen! You help Swan I got these." Kage yells while blocking a pair of talons.
Helen jumps into help Kage ingoring his calls to help Swan.
Vane looks over to Kirito and Asuna who are also engaged by the harpies again.
Vane grabs his blade and momentarily freezes.
The cyclops stalks towards Swan readying a killing strike.
Swan regains her feet looking up at the towering cyclops, and screams.
The others defeat the harpies and try to reach her in time but
They know they will not make it bu they try anyways.
Vane's eyes flash open and he make quck step appearing behind the cyclops stops his advance turning to face the attacker.
"Did he miss?" Kirito asks.
Vane flicks the blade turns it back and sheaths it, causing the cyclops to split and shatter.
"YES! And he's back!" Kage says clapping his friend on the back.
Vane walks over and helps Swan up breaking a potionover her.
"I'm sorry I'll never hesitate again." Vane promises.
Swan kisses him "Let's go back. we got things to do."
The groups makes it way back to town when Kirito asks "What sword skill was that? The speed need for that had to be nearly impossible."
Vane looks at him "It's a unique skill called Battoujutsu. I was awarded it fo being the only player able to cut a pebble twice before it hit the ground."
Kirito nods "The speed of your attack is amazing. I couldn't follow your movement. how many others tried to get it?"
Vane rubs his chin in thought "About thrity or so. I had already taken some lessons outside the game and i guess that translated to in-game. Kage here is a accomplished muay thai kickboxer."
Kage shrugs "I've won a few awards and comps nothing big."
"Listen to mister modest here. He's placed second in the King's Cup then the following year won the damn thing." Helen brags for Kage.
"I got lucky." Kage says blushing a bit.
"Bullshit 'got lucky', you trained nearly every day that year cause you felt you could have done better." Helen points out.
"I wonder why your pointing out my accomplishments Vane. Your the three year reigning champion in not one but two kendo comps." Kage point to Vane.
Vane smiles "Alright maybe more than a lessons."
They exit out of the tower into the cool night air.
The gang banter back and forth for several minutes until the reach the entrance to Tolbana.
"Let's head our ways and party up at say nine thirty?" Kage suggests.
Kirito and Asuna head off toward a bakery.
Vane and company head over to a cafe and after a quiet meal they head back to their room to sleep for the up coming battle.
(Current lvs Vane, Helen, Swan-11 Kage-10)
As usual please review, Id love some feedback. Thanks for reading.