//------------------------------// // Episode 31 - Dagannoths // Story: EQG: Sword Art Online - Aincrad // by Mindrop //------------------------------// Floor 57 – Front Line 58 March 26 Bladescape had left suggestions for a team to head into the Floor 58 Labyrinth, and the other team to collect the materials they needed, but she was leaving the actual organization up to Knightstar and Backbreaker. They could handle things on the front lines for a day or two without her. The swamp on Floor 57 was way off the beaten path. There were no dungeons nearby and the closest town was a few hours walk. Times like this were when Sprint came in handy. It dramatically cut down on time spent traversing long sections of the Floors. Floor 57 was a good deal smaller than Floor 1 because Aincrad slowly tapered up, but it was still a large area to travel. The swamp slowed Bladescape down. She couldn’t sprint through it, especially when she was on the hunt for a creature. All reports had come in with only a few being spawned at a time, which would make missing them a lot easier. As well as making hunting longer. She needed 30 pieces of their hides. No one had drop information on them. They could drop a single hide, or they could drop 10 to a creature. It was a complete unknown. Bladescape was ready for the long haul of killing 30 or more of them. Her Search skill helped Bladescape navigate through the swamp with as little time spent fighting the giant flies and weird toad creatures in the swamp as necessary. She finally got to the center of the swamp around 9am, which wasn’t bad considering how early she had left. That and she had needed to buy a lot of standard sacks before she started. Her Search skill picked up something surfacing in the water. It looked like a shark head, and it was coming towards her. Bladescape didn’t have the Swim Skill. Drowning would be a horrible way to die. That was assuming something in the water didn’t kill her while she was defenseless. The grey shark head rose out of the water, connected to a large, upright body. As it came out of the water, Bladescape gulped. This was not going to be easy going solo against such a creature. Ironically she also knew it would be hard to have more than two players on the patches of land in the swamp. The only Wondercolt who would be advantageous to have with her would be Astro for her spear’s reach, but she should already be in the Labyrinth by now and thus, unreachable. Bladescape backed up to give the Dagannoth more room to come onto the land. He was bigger than she expected. The smiling shark head was only carrying a single row of large needle like teeth. A set of large spikes stuck out from its spine. Its thickly muscled arms were almost dragging on the ground and they ended with a pair of large, wicked looking claws. It leaned forward as it walked because of its heavy arms and a short, bony tail swing behind it, attached to its body above its hips. The whole thing looked like it stalked the floor of the swamp more than it swam. If it even could swim. Bladescape nervously rolled the hilt of Harmonic Salvation in her palms as she waited for it to approach. The Dagannoth stabbed at Bladescape with its claws. Weapon Defense handled the stab fine and Bladescape leapt into it with Rapture. It barely took off any HP. Bladescape ducked into a roll as soon as the delay was over, narrowly avoiding its stab. It was a very quick jab and those claws were not going to be fun to be hit with. Bladescape broke a vial of strong poison onto Harmonic Salvation. She jumped in with a simple stab. The blade pierced the hide well enough to register a transfer of poison. She jumped back from the Dagannoth, once again narrowly avoiding the claws. Twice was all she got as another quick stab came in. The claws jabbed into her shoulder. They hurt, but there were no extra effects. It was just a lot of pain. Bladescape had fought through plenty of pain in this death game by now. She was close enough to unleash Heaven Splitter and stagger the beast back. A green skull appeared above its health bar, indicating that it was taking some poison DOT. The health bar was barely going down from her strikes. Its hide protected it very well. It would certainly make worthy armor for Bladescape, assuming she completed the task. Strike, block, cut, dodge, hit taken, cut, block, lunge, dodge, reset, lunge, block, cut. Bladescape kept up her clash with the creature. She had just enough agility to avoid enough of the hits. Cuts did significantly less damage to the Dagannoth than a strong stab. She had to get the blade in deep enough to go past the hide. The high-level poison was activated, but it was slow because of the massive health of the creature. Bladescape was still happy to have it working in the background. Twenty minutes later, the Dagannoth was finally reduced to polygons. Bladescape was panting heavily. She stuck her sword into the ground for extra stability as she recovered. Her Battle Regeneration Skill kept her from going into the red, but she fought most of that battle in the yellow and drank several potions. The biggest problem was maneuvering on the little land she had. There were a few times where she knowingly had to take the hit in order to land a solid blow on the creature. Bladescape looked at the drop list. It was a great XP and decent Col., but what mattered was the two hides she got from it. That dropped her to only needing 28 more, and with the weight of each hide, it was a very good thing that Bladescape had Extended Weight Carry as a skill. Her regular strength stats would carry her a good way without the Skill, but she wasn’t Backbreaker. Bladescape was certain she had Diemond and Joltron beat for strength, still. AFCK was also a close runner up, but the rest were not strength-based fighters. Bladescape’s Search Skill found the next creature approaching. She downed a health potion, which she had forgotten to do earlier, and applied a paralyzer poison to her blade. It was a risk, but she was going to try and ram her blade into its chest and instill a penalty to its attack speed. Doombunny was good, Colorra provided a strong base, and they had branched to use other materials, but there were creatures even they couldn't inflict penalties or DOTs on. The next Dagannoth came out of the water and it was game on. Bladescape dodged low, avoiding the claw stab and put everything she had into the attack, running the beast through the chest to the hilt of Harmonic Salvation. It couldn’t get at her that close, but Bladescape couldn’t attack with her blade stuck in its chest. Bladescape pulled the blade out and got a real look at the HP gauge. It had a lightning bolt symbol above it, indicating paralyses. The swipe with the claws didn’t give any indication of the paralyses working though. Bladescape maneuvered to a better position and applied a heavy-duty poison to her blade. Her next lunge in was strong, putting a third of her blade into the Dagannoth. It earned her the business end of the claws, but it was survivable. The stabs were fast, but they were the only sequence Bladescape had been attacked with. The second one only took 15 minutes, but 15 minutes was still an excruciatingly long time for a solo fight on a single monster. It required focus and endurance that was unyielding and unforgiving. It would be easy to slip up and be pounded into polygons, forever lost. There were no known safe zones in the area, forcing Bladescape to stay in the field. Noon came and she was able to sit down and eat. She just had to wait for more to spawn. It gave her rest; uneasy rest, but at least it was better than nothing. The next one surfaced. However, this one was not the same as the others. Large green spines ran from its head to its tail. A tail that was much longer and better defined than the others. It stood a lot taller as well, showing off his green underbelly. If that wasn't bad enough, the claws were also a lot bigger. Three health bars showed up along with its name, Bulcalla Dagannoth Supreme. Bladescape rolled her sword in her palm nervously. This was a flag mob. She had dragged out a boss monster by killing just 12 regular Dagannoths. And, she had to solo it. Bladescape wasn’t running. Her HP had been topped off for a while. All Bladescape had to do to get ready was to apply a new poison to her blade. She still had several left over from the extras she had gotten from Doombunny. “RAWR!!!” Bladescape yelled as she charged. Like the others, a stab was going to be the best way to deliver any real damage. Also like she had established early on, a full stab was the best way to deliver the poison. Bladescape dropped under the jab and ran him through. She pulled the blade out and jumped back. Bladescape was knocked to the ground from a swipe. She had stupidly expected the boss to run off the same attack algorithms as the regular variants. A rookie mistake. Bladescape scrambled up and hobbled back out of the way of the stab. She pulled out a health potion from her healing pouch at her waist and fumbled it because her shoulder was numb. It shattered on the ground because it was dropped from high enough. Bladescape dove out of the way of the next attack. It gave her the moment she needed to get a potion and drink it. It was better safe than sorry. She couldn’t rely on her battle healing skill too much in a boss fight. The next swipe of the claws Bladescape activated Weapon Defense and with a twirl she knocked the claws away. It allowed her the opportunity to lunge in. Bladescape was more cautious of her exit and blocked another swipe. She didn’t dive right back in. She would have to figure out a better strategy. One that allowed for a steady, but safe, whittling down of his HP. Fifteen minutes didn’t even bring a health bar down. She took down a sixth of his HP. Slow and steady might win the race, but a marathon was always exhausting, no matter how quickly it was run. Bladescape dove out of the way of the raging Dagannoth. She came out of her roll behind him and lunged. It was a really good hit. She pulled out the blade and Bulcalla Dagannoth Supreme charged her again. Bladescape used a spinning defensive skill, Cyclone, that also moved her to the side. She blocked the swipe from the claws and unleashed a nasty gash up the back side and then Bladescape connected Sword Skills before the delay kicked in and she unleashed Avalanche. The boss staggered. Bladescape’s delay ended before his stagger did. She unleashed Volcanic Eruption. It wasn’t enough. Bladescape took a swipe from the claws while she was in the delay. It knocked her clean to the side. Bladescape rolled a bit and then tumbled into the water. It was shallow, but the mud was sucking her in. Bladescape saw her health had dipped to the red. She grabbed a crystal, yelled “heal,” and crawled out of the mud. It was a good thing she healed herself with the crystal. The foot came down on her exposed back, dealing damage as it slammed down and pinned her on her belly. Bladescape wasn’t out of tricks. With her free hand, she got out a few throwing picks. It was a horrible angle, but with the skill triggered, she flipped three at the face of the Dagannoth. Two stuck in and caused Bulcalla to reel back, freeing her. Bladescape jumped up and rammed Harmonic Salvation into Bulcalla Dagannoth Supreme. She drew it out, rotating so her back was to the boss. The boss took the bait and Bladescape unleashed Back Rush. It countered the swipe and Bladescape unleashed Double Infinity. The slashes did minimal damage, but the prize was the center stab. It was stronger than battering ram, and it was all she needed to finish the fight. Bladescape dropped to the ground. The time was at one hour, forty-seven minutes. Almost a two-hour solo battle with no breaks, no relief, no back up. Bladescape rolled over and sat up enough to view her reward. It took her to level 79, and it gained her a massive amount of Col. Col she didn’t have to share with a party. Some was automatically taken to the guild storage, but the rest was all hers. She had reaped 20 of the 30 hides she needed. The boss dropped 20 of its own. A third more than what she needed was dropped by the boss she had to kill after luring it out. But it was over. Bladescape wasn’t going to waste a teleport crystal. She could walk so she healed up and began to hike out of the swamp. It wasn’t hard. She had to fight a few monsters on the way out, but after the Dagannoths it was easy. Bladescape stopped at the edge of the swamp. She was on a narrow strip of land and had been for a while. Ahead, the exit of the swamp opened up to the fields where she could sprint to the next town, but it was flanked by two large trees. Search had picked up four players hiding behind them. They were good at hiding, but they were not Doombunny. “I know you two are there,” Bladescape said, intentionally leaving two of them out to give herself an edge. “Come out and announce what business you have trying to hide there.” Two figures in black clothes and short black ponchos, which were ragged and worn, stepped out. Their heads were concealed deep in their hoods but above them their orange cursors were clear. One had most of his face wrapped, but both wore the same, stupid grin on their face. It was not the kind of stupid grin Klein wore. One wiped his nose and on the back of his wrapped hand was a black marking. A coffin with the lid open. A skeleton arm was hanging out and a laughing face was on the face of the lid. Laughing Coffin, the murder guild. “So,” Bladescape asked, flashing her own sly grin. “Am I a random catch our am I long sought-after prey?” One chuckled deeply. “You wish. You stumbled upon us. But that won’t matter. You won’t be around to report us.” Bladescape put her hands on her hip. She didn’t move to draw her sword. She knew there were two more. She had to outwit them. One hand was on a slim pouch. It had a butterfly neatly stitched on the top. Bladescape could feel it. Inside that pouch was three vials; each was filled with a high-level anti-drug mix that Doombunny had said should protect her from high level drugs like poison and paralyzing agents. Her other hand was by her throwing picks. Thankfully she had refreshed them on her outside pouch. One of them drew a thin short sword. The other had a long knife. They both had drugs on their blades. Bladescape recognized the special shine. She had seen it on Doombunny's blades plenty of times. Bladescape took a step back, trying to look as scared as she could. She needed enough time to pop the vial into her mouth. The picks would help buy her that time. The terrain also would allow her to face them one by one. Bladescape’s plan wasn’t to kill them. She had a single paralyzer left. A strong one. She would cut them or run them through with her blade laced with it and drop them before they could drop her. One on four wasn’t a good statistic. Time was against her. Bladescape took a few extra steps back and they tensed up. They knew she was faking. Bladescape switched tactics and deliberately pulled out the vial from the pouch, bring it to her lips and drank it. She dropped the empty vial and pulled her sword off her back with the same hand. She wasn’t moving her left hand from the throwing picks. She sunk the tip of her sword into the soft ground and pulled out the paralyzer potion. They caught on too late and Bladescape applied it. She charged, blade forward, bracing the hilt on her arm to compensate for the weight in a single hand. Bladescape flipped out two throwing picks. They nailed the first and he dropped in a stream of curses. The second faltered at the reaction of his friend dropping. He wasn’t expecting him to go down, paralyzed. Bladescape jumped in, and landed, skipping back. The short sword missed because Bladescape baited him into striking. Bladescape drove Harmonic Salvation into his shoulder. It went clear through, forcing Bladescape to kick him off of it. The second target had the paralysis tag over his HP bar, which had dropped halfway down from the stab. “Now for you two,” Bladescape spat. “I’ll let you run, but I won’t run. Your choice. You have five seconds to decide.” Both stepped out. One had a skull mask on and glowing red eyes. He carried an estoc. The other was wearing black on black and had an inverse symbol of their coffin guild tag. He carried a short spear which had several nasty thorns on it to give maximum DOT. Bladescape walked forward slowly, seeing their intent. The one with the spear jumped in first. Bladescape saw the attack coming, sidestepping the thrust she was familiar with because of Astro, and slicing at his legs as he passed. One was severed clean off and the red player couldn’t catch himself with both the paralysis and the missing leg working against him. “Well, you are smarter than those three,” The one with red eyes said behind his skull mask. “I am guessing that the armor you wear isn’t a fluke. Blue of that color with skills like that, well that could only mean you are part of that girl guild, the horse one, WCS.” “Yep,” Bladescape grinned. “And you found the wrong prey today. Intentional or not, you tried to ambush me as soon as you discovered my approach. Your spearman could use work. It was sloppy and I saw it coming before the Sword Skill was even triggered.” His laugh was piercing. It was pure evil. “So you have some tricks at your disposal and you are well trained in combat. I guess we need to make sure Kurayaro actually knows how to fight a member of the Assault Team. The cursor above you may be green, but I know deep down, you want to kill. Everyone does. You want to kill, to control, to be the best. This game isn’t going to give you that unless you break from the mold. Clearing won’t get you that.” He chuckled some more. “Sweetheart, what is your name?” Bladescape glanced behind her to make sure they were skill incapacitated. “Bladescape. You?” “XaXa. Red Eye XaXa. You have that glint in your eye. You know real power. And you want it again.” Bladescape took in a deep breath, trying to resist tensing up. It wasn’t working. He was right. There were nights where she wanted the ability to control all of the players, to turn them into her own army that could storm every Floor, beat every boss, and then take over Ruby Palace and clear the game. She had kept that a secret from the others. But if Red Eye Xaxa could see it, was she more transparent than she thought? Bladescape saw the crown in her hands once again. The moment before she put it on her head and became the monster. The same dark lust began to surface. But then she felt the necklace Diemond had made her, pressing into her chest. One hand moved up to touch it. It was a very close copy of the geode she had gotten from their adventure in Camp Everfree. A piece of Light power. Power granted to her for good, for the person she had become. Bladescape let that feeling wash over her. She gripped Harmonic Salvation tight and set both hands on the hilt. “Have you met my friend?” Bladescape asked. “Harmonic Salvation. I walked that line before, that is true. But that was my past. And my past is not today. I didn’t dive into SAO to regain any of that. As soon as this death game started, my mind didn’t go there. It went to how I could protect and save every single player I could. I’m still holding onto that. But I won’t stoop to your level and cut you down. I will put you in your place.” Bladescape could see XaXa grin under the skull mask. Bladescape leaned forward to jump. She leapt, but it wasn’t straight at him. It was at an angle. The Sword Skill was simple slash. XaXa didn’t move as her blade slashed at him. CLING! The estoc blocked her sword and then stabbed at her, impacting in her right shoulder. XaXa was fast. Incredibly fast. Bladescape’s heart rate shot through the roof but she stopped herself with decently steady feet. The estoc rammed into her thigh, once again piercing her in less than a second. But the drawback of an estoc was its range. It was a very close up weapon, being about the same length as a short sword. It also lacked an edge, making it suitable only for piercing. It was effective against a lot of armor types, but that was about it. XaXa couldn’t avoid the bash to his face from Bladescape’s pommel. Her blade was up above her shoulder, allowing Bladescape to activate Avalanche. It was targeted at his leg and Harmonic Salvation cut through it with ease. Bladescape took a few steps back. She didn’t drop her guard. She gave them her orders. “If I were you, I would head to Marten, unarmed, and surrender yourself. You have a lot of guts trying to pull the shit you are. That is something that will come back to haunt you if you continue on this path.” XaXa laughed victoriously. “You don’t have the guts to strike us down. You are not a real player.” “A real player knows when to fight and when not to,” Bladescape shot back. “A real player knows when they are beat. When they step out of line, a real player rights that wrong. A real player is so much more than you understand. Courteous is one attribute I can think of.” Bladescape reached into her crystal pouch. She pulled out a blue crystal and looked at it. She didn’t use it though. Instead, Bladescape began to walk towards the closest village and its safety. XaXa and the other Laughing Coffin members wouldn’t get her to run, but they wouldn’t jump her either. She would move quicker when the time came. In the meantime as she walked, Bladescape sent a warning out to the members of the guilds she knew. She targeted the ones on the front lines today. The Wondercolts’ message could wait. Within minutes, the entire Floor and forward camp at Marten would be aware of Laughing Coffin being nearby. A message from Klein came back immediately. WHAT! ARE YOU OKAY? I’m fine. I paralyzed them all before they knew what was happening. I caught their presence in time. They didn’t jump me as planned. I’ve got a crystal ready if they decide to go for round two. Bladescape messaged Knightstar. LC tried to jump me. I paralyzed them. I’m fine. I got the Dagannoth hides. On to the stones. Knightstar kept it simple. Understood. Glad you are okay. We finished our shopping. Bladescape (SS): Lvl 79 – Two-Handed Sword – Search – Weapon Defense – Leather Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Sprint – Acrobatics – Blade Throwing – Extended Weight Carry Knightstar (TS): Lvl 68 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Equipment Appraisal – Parry – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Search – Armor Pierce Thunderborne (RBD): Lvl 71 – Rapier – Sprint – Acrobatics – Armor Pierce – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Leather Armor – Weapon Defense – Extended Weight Carry – Search Backbreaker (AJ): Lvl 74 – Heavy Shield – One-Handed War Hammer – Extended Weight Carry – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Fishing – Search – Martial Arts – Acrobatics AFCK (PP): Lvl 71 – Two-Handed Axe – Parry – Cooking – Weapon Defense – Martial Arts – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Thrown Weapon – Musical Instrument Diemond (R): Lvl 71 – Heavy Shield – Mace – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Heavy Metal Armor – Tailoring – Light Metal Armor Forging – Heavy Metal Armor Forging – Jewelry Making – Extended Weight Carry Doombunny (FS): Lvl 68 – One-Handed Dagger – First Aid – Hide – Search – Listening – Battle Regeneration – Fighting Spirit – Familiar Communication (Colorra) – Drug Mixing – Reveal Astro (PS): Lvl 71 – Two-Handed Spear - Purchase Negotiation – Armor Pierce – Acrobatics – First Aid – Light Metal Armor – Battle Regeneration – Weapon Defense – Parry – Extended Wight Carry Kiefer: Lvl 68 – One-Handed Curved Blade – Parry – Weapon Defense – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Slash Weapon Forging – Katana – Martial Arts Lessa: Lvl 68 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Light Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Equipment Repair – Metal Equipment Repairing – Armor Pierce – Search Joltron: Lvl 72 – One handed Axe – Heavy Shield – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Metal Refining – Blunt Weapon Forging – One Handed Weapon Creation – Two Handed Weapon Creation – Extended Weight Carry