Episode 72 — Main-gauche
Episode 72 — Main-gauche
Sixteenth Day in the Month of Sakura (April 16) in the Year of the Griffon
Floor 52 - Front Line Floor 59
Floor Fifty-Two was a quiet floor. Few people leveled there because of the Ashen Wastes. In the north there were the volcanic hills. Combined they were known as The Wilderness. A landscape of dead trees, various creatures that were always hostile, and a smoking mountain that was certainly mimicking an active volcano, just without lava, casting a shadow on the entire area. The Wilderness was famous for being the home weyr of the vicious black dragons, led by the even worse King Black Dragon. Because of that, most players avoided it or the three dungeons in the north half of the Floor.
Bladescape saw the first target. It helped that Doombunny pulled out Endbringer, her "hunting" knife. It was her poison knife, which was supposed to have one purpose; to be her last resort. That now appeared to be slightly different. The target was a pack of five black wolves, almost the same color as the ash. Her search quickly added their name and info. They were Level 88 Dire Wolves. They were nine levels above Bladescape and they would certainly not make for a good target to hunt.
Doombunny took her headband off and tied it around her forehead, like Klein did. It turned her look upside down and made her look less like a girl, and more like a rogue warrior. One who wouldn't hesitate to kill you if you crossed her.
As soon as it was tied down, Doombunny was on the move, forcing Bladescape to draw her sword as she ran after her. She applied a poison to her blade as she ran. The wolves charged them, snapping and growling. Harmonic salvation glowed and Bladescape sliced the side of the targeted wolf. It turned on her and she thrust the blade into its chest. The two strikes and the poison finished it. The other four were already reduced to polygons by Doombunny and Colorra.
"What is that in your left hand?" Bladescape asked. "Is that another dagger?"
"Not exactly," Doombunny said. "I chose Listen as a Skill. While most players only see it as being used on their fellow players, it's useful for other things. I hear things the others miss, including quest information. For Level Seventy, I did a quest that got me a skill that’s not on anyone’s radar. Main-gauche, meaning left hand, is a defensive skill that allows me to use this parrying dagger. It’s almost exclusively for deflecting an incoming attack, not stopping one like a shield. That is why it has a wide, narrow crossguard and a plate that wraps around my hand and anchors to the pommel. It's there to protect my hand from a weapon, like a shield, if I fail to deflect the weapon. It can’t deflect weapons over a certain weight, however, for the wolves, the dagger actually becomes a minor offensive weapon."
"So you are using two weapons at once?" Bladescape asked.
"No," Doombunny said, shaking her head. "While the wolves do cut or impale themselves on the blade, the blade is there to direct and defect incoming attacks, and control their direction with the crossguard and shielded grip. It's a defensive tool used in traditional fencing alongside a rapier. It’s supposed to be used by someone like Thunderborne who needs speed for their rapier, but can’t afford a shield, so it won’t slow them down while giving them more options to defend themselves with.
"For the system to actually allow me to activate the offensive stab skill, it's a very particular set of circumstances. I've done it once. Just once, as I gained those eight levels. The enemy has to be in the right position, compared to the quillon, and they have to be in a delay from their attack. If they are not in the delay, I cannot counter thrust. It isn't much of a thrust either, but it will hurt and I do have the blade coated with a paralyzer."
Bladescape grinned. "It still looks like you are duel wielding daggers."
“Yeah,” Doombunny said, shrugging. She opened her menu and the parrying dagger disappeared. It was replaced by a small circular metal plate with a center dome. It was no more than ten inches in diameter and all metal. "This is a buckler, not a small shield,” Doombunny explained. “A true buckler is the other item used with a rapier. It isn't attached to my arm; it's held in my hand by a single grip. Again, in a very specific circumstance, I can bash an enemy with it. But the entire point of using it is to guide the attack with a quick movement rather than hold or block. I move the strike out of the way with the buckler, not block it. I hold it out from me, not close like a shield, which helps hide my actions."
Doombunny thrust the buckler all the way out, towards Bladescape. Bladescape immediately understood what she meant. As small as the buckler was, the further out it was from Doombunny and the closer it was to her enemy, the less the enemy could see. Rapiers and fencing was a very different set of tactics from maces and swords in medieval melee. Fencers didn’t, historically, wear armor. At least not like knights and warriors did. They also never fought knights.
“So, are you going to tell Thunder about the skill?” Bladescape asked. “I assume she could use it.”
“I want to, but no,” Doombunny said. “There are some things I still need to figure out before I start to push that information out. For one, I want to sell it. Obviously not to Thunder, probably not Asuna, but the parrying dagger and buckler are the quest rewards. I don’t have a better one in either category and keeping it quiet means I haven’t been able to get a better one. I haven’t been allowed to do anything necessary to get the answers I need. If I had, then everyone would have realized I started leaving long ago.”
“That’s fair,” Bladescape said. She didn’t want to go down a path that would take them back to the argument. She was supposed to be getting her mind off of it. Training with Doombunny probably wasn’t the wisest way to do that, but she wasn’t going to back out now. “How are you going to keep it quiet now though?”
“I don’t plan to use it around the others,” Doombunny stated. “I know I can trust you because you abstained from the vote. You purposefully made it so that you would break a tie. You didn’t want to vote because you knew what they wanted to do was wrong, even if it was instinctual. But, I will need to take some days off so I can get the answers I desperately need. I don’t want to keep it from Thunder, but she couldn’t use what little I know.”
A howl interrupted them, alerting them of the seven wolves charging at them. Bladescape launched herself into battle. Doombunny was very aggressive, even with the buckler. Bladescape saw her push away a jumping wolf so she moved it around her instead of jumping onto her. In the process, she stabbed it several times and then immediately stabbed and gashed open the next Dire Wolf. Bladescape killed two wolves to Doombunny's three. Colorra took out the last two.
"That’s incredible," Bladescape said, panting a bit. "That little shield made all the difference for you."
"I'm a lot more effective," Doombunny agreed. "But it isn't a shield, it’s a buckler. It’s not attached to my arm and it doesn't shield me anymore than your crossguard shields you. "
"Fair," Bladescape conceded.
Doombunny began to run off to the next pack of wolves. The time to talk was over. It was a good thing they were in a party. Doombunny and Colorra were doing 80% of the work. Bladescape was fast, but a two-handed sword was designed to use its weight to its advantage. Doombunny was literally stabbing and slashing on the run, letting the poison do most of the work for her. Whatever she was using, it was very effective. It probably was Doombunny’s best — it seemed like Doombunny had begun keeping many things from them because of her confinement orders — not what Bladescape had applied on her blade, but Harmonic Salvation was doing most of the damage to each wolf in a few swings.
Doombunny was also scoring repeated critical attacks, magnifying her DPS. She was accurate on top of the speed. Daggers were great against a soft target like the wolves, despite how close they required the fighter to get to such a dangerous creature.
After a while they climbed into a dead tree and sat above the ground while they ate a snack they had grabbed right before heading out of the small town, Edgeville. A pack of wolves soon wandered by and were circling the tree, howling and jumping to try and bite their feet. They were too high up to be bitten.
"There's a Black Dragon," Bladescape said, pointing off into the distance. "Have they ever bothered you?"
"No," Doombunny snorted. "They would have to find me. The first few encounters were terrifying, but they can't attack what they can't see. You, however, they could easily spot. Max Hide is the only reason I can go undetected."
"Then we will have to be careful," Bladescape sighed.
"I have no doubt we could take one," Doombunny stated. "I’m not suggesting we try, but your weapons defense should be able to block a fire breath attack, right?"
"Yeah," Bladescape nodded. "It should, assuming I timed the correct action right."
"And I would just need to get inside its attack range, nice and close. A stab from my dagger in its underbelly will put enough poison into it that we can take off some real HP."
"I'm really tired, so let's not," Bladescape chuckled. "Now, how are we going to deal with these wolves? I could use my throwing picks."
"Colorra has it," Doombunny shrugged.
Colorra had been happily coiled around a branch. She was a tree snake after all. She waited a moment and then dropped right onto a wolf. It never saw her coming. She curled around the body so the wolf couldn't bite her and the others had nothing solid to attack. In the low light, it was a black and red snake buried in black fur and Colorra practically disappeared. Then it was a quick slither to the next, the black ash giving her more cover. Colorra was able to dart out of the way of an incoming bite and then strike right at the throat. She curled around the wolf again for protection. She repeated the process three more times until all five wolves were dead. The screen popped up in front of Bladescape showing her the XP, Col, and items gained from the battle. It was an impressive XP haul, good Col, and the pelts they had been getting had to be worth something good. Also dropped were Dire Wolf Canine Teeth. That was an unusual item with no immediate worth, but it had to be useful, somehow, especially with the numbers Bladescape was getting.
Doombunny dropped out of the tree and Bladescape followed. Doombunny switched from the buckler back to the parrying dagger. She clearly preferred the dagger.
Bladescape did her best to watch Doombunny while she pulled her weight against the wolves. The parrying dagger was never once thrust into a wolf. It was just like the buckler, it helped direct the swipe of the paw or the clap of the jaws. When a wolf jumped at Doombunny, it did impale itself, but all Doombunny did was hold the dagger out. No skill was triggered as it skewered itself to the hilt. The Dire Wolf couldn't move because of the paralyzer on the parrying dagger. Doombunny cleanly slit its throat with a calm ferocity that was disturbing.
Despite the lack of sleep, they stayed in the field until Nine P.M.. They were avoiding the situation as long as possible. When they got back, no one was there. They got dinner in a local shop, celebrating the day’s successful hunt with some cheesecake, and then they went to bed.
In the morning Bladescape was up at her usual time. Knightstar was at her usual seat in the meeting hall and Konpeito was cooking. Bladescape decided it was best to carry on as normal. Knightstar was doing calculations on some paper. Bladescape opened her menu and pulled out a canine tooth. She had acquired several dozen from the drops. Doombunny had to have thousands.
Knightstar put down the pen and plucked the tooth out of Bladescape's hand. "Intriguing," She said after examining its menu. "I didn't know any teeth were ever dropped by monsters. Where did you get this?"
"I got it in the northern wilderness on Floor Fifty-Two," Bladescape explained. Doombunny had told Bladescape that her time hunting Dire Wolves did not need to be kept a secret, just the Extra Skill.
"The black dragon area?" Knightstar asked, confused.
"Yep," Bladescape grinned. "Doom and I were speed hunting there. Well, I was trying to keep up with her and Colorra. They were killing four for every one wolf I killed."
"You were hunting Dire Wolves?" Knightstar asked, getting excited.
"Yes, we were,” Bladescape said, unsure what had Knightstar so happy. “Doom can dart in between a whole pack, stabbing and slashing for critical strikes and then she just lets the poison knock off the rest of their HP. That is without Colorra."
Knightstar was shocked. "She hunts them herself‽"
"Yep," Bladescape nodded. "Well she technically has Colorra helping. So two, not truly solo."
"I have a quest for her!" Knightstar squealed. "It's a kill quest. An NPC in Algade wants 100 heads. No one wants to hunt them because of the Black Dragons. It is too much of a risk for the mid-level players, and the clearers don't want to bother with the dragons. It is still a big risk."
"Doom's Hide skill has kept her safe," Bladescape added.
"I'm still mad," Knightstar stated after a moment of hesitation. "I can't get a hold of Malus either. I did get Konpeito, Diemond, Reisenki, Thunder, and Natora to the sand crabs. Kiefer and Soryuto stayed home. We got a late start, but were there all night and only got in about an hour ago. Malus isn't back yet and she still won't answer any messages."
"Look," Bladescape said, trying to steer things to a constructive path. "Why don't you go with Doom and do that quest. See what she can do."
"Except I can't compete with a dragon if we get caught,” Knightstar stated. “You can, I can't."
"Doom is skilled enough to make sure you won't have to fight one," Bladescape assured her.
"No, I can't," Knightstar sighed.
"We had a fight," Bladescape shrugged. "Our first real fight in eighteen months. Think on that. We have made it eighteen months in a high-stakes, anxiety provoking, death game, without getting into any major arguments. We have been a well-focused, single minded machine and we still are."
"No," Knightstar said, sliding forward onto the table, head on her crossed arms. "I got us to the sand crabs, but Thunder and Natora went off on their own. Konpeito just built sand castles. Diemond just sat there too, sunbathing, at night, in an actual bathing suit. Reisenki and I were the only ones working."
Bladescape chuckled.
"It's not funny!" Knightstar growled, on the verge of tears.
Bladescape rolled her eyes. "I've been afraid to take Konpeito to the sand crabs because I knew she would just build ridiculous sand castles instead. She can make them amazingly detailed! I can barely keep a tower together."
Knightstar chuckled once. "She did build the Town of Beginnings. And then a copy of Mishe. It drew a crowd. She charged a small admission fee to see them and several other creations she had made. Those waiting for a respawn actually paid because it was some entertainment in the downtime."
"See, it's not all bad," Bladescape said. "Go do the quest, I'll deal with the others."
"No," Knightstar said, shaking her head which was still on the table. "I can't. Not after yesterday."
"We had a fight," Bladescape said again. "A fight. One. She isn't holding it against you."
"I don't want to," Knightstar said firmly. "I drove her to be so mean. I fractured us. Malus isn't going to come back."
Bladescape sighed and crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair.
Knightstar tried to sniff back the tears. "Guilds split all the time. A big argument like yesterday's, statistically, ends a guild. We won't be Wondercolts for long. I'm looking at how we can divide up the guild's assets fairly."
Bladescape groaned. "It's not the end of the Wondercolts. Natora said so when we openly discussed that we had no recourse but to remove members from the guild. She said we would stay together. We will. This changes nothing. It’s not the end."
Konpeito had been hopping into the meeting hall with food and halted. "Why would it be the end?"
"The fight yesterday," Knightstar mumbled. "When I tore us apart."
"Oh yeah," Konpeito shrugged. "I forgot about that."
She walked over to them and put a breakfast pie in front of each of them. Konpeito had figured out how to make a personal sized pie full of eggs and cheese and other breakfast foods. It was like eating an omelet, but in a pie, not dissimilar to quiche, yet still distinct. They were wonderfully delicious.
"Look, Knightstar," Konpeito said as seriously as she could in her good mood. "Friends fight at times and we hurt each other's feelings. But we are all here and all still friends. You’re taking this way too seriously."
"She ripped into all of us," Knightstar sniffed. "She ripped into you."
"So?" Konpeito asked.
"What‽ Do you not remember anything from yesterday morning?" Knightstar exclaimed.
"Well duh,” Konpeito said, rolling her eyes. “It was only yesterday. But I took out the trash and let it go. That is how Konpeito does things. She cooks for her friends and then fights beside them. Cause I want to go back to being a baker."
Knightstar snorted. "You didn't fight at all yesterday."
"Nope!” She exclaimed with a giggle. “I was playing in the sand. Was I not supposed to be playing in the sand? I thought that was why you brought me. Besides! I made-"
"Stop!" Bladescape ordered. "Like I said, Knightstar, that is what I figured Konpeito would do, build sandcastles."
"I need to get these pies to the others. I can hear them all in the dining room." Konpeito stopped and turned back to them before squealing. "Also, Kiefer and Soryuto are finally together!"
The news only made Knightstar groan sadly. Konpeito nervously backed away and went to finish her job.
Bladescape stood up and picked up her pie. "Look Knightstar, it is done and over. Doom isn't mad at you. At this point, the only one mad is you and it’s at yourself. Hot words were all that were exchanged. I'm going to go eat with the others. It sounds like it is a fun morning. You really should join us."
Bladescape joined her friends to eat. There was a lot of laughter and fun surrounding Kiefer and Soryuto finally getting together. Reisenki had been waiting for them to start dating. He had even been trying to push them together by annoying Kiefer into making a commitment.
The only spots empty at the table were Knightstar and Malus.
After breakfast, they formed two parties and headed to the Labyrinth. Knightstar had disappeared from the guild hall. Bladescape guessed she just needed some time. She pushed herself hard and now she was punishing herself on top of it.
BLADESCAPE: Level 79 — Two-Handed Sword — Searching — Weapon Defense — Leather Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Sprint — Blade Throwing — Extended Weight Carry — Acrobatics
NATORA: Level 75 — Two-Handed Spear — Purchase Negotiations — Sales Negotiation — Weapon Defense — Light Metal Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Acrobatics — Armor Pierce — Sprint
KNIGHTSTAR: Level 70 — One-Handed Sword — Shield — Light Metal Armor — Equipment Appraisal — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Acrobatics — Extended Weight Carry — Armor Pierce — Search
MALUS: Level 74 — One-Handed War Hammer — Greatshield — Heavy Metal Armor — First Aid — Extended Weight Carry — Battle Regeneration — Fishing — Search — Martial Arts — Rend
THUNDERBORNE: Level 74 — Rapier — Sprint — Acrobatics — Weapon Defense — Light Metal Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Armor Pierce — Martial Arts — Blade Throwing
KONPEITO: Level 74 — Two-Handed Axe — Cooking — Weapon Defense — Light Metal Armor — Martial Arts — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Music — Blade Throwing — Bard — Extended Weight Carry
DIEMOND: Level 75 — Mace — Greatshield — Sewing — Heavy Metal Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Light Metal Armor Forging — Heavy Metal Armor Forging — Extended Weight Carry — Jewelry Creation
DOOMBUNNY: Level 78 — One-Handed Dagger — Hide — Fighting Spirit — Blade Throwing — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Familiar Cooperation — Mixing — Listen — Reveal — Main-gauche
KIEFER: Level 72 — One-Handed Curved Sword — Slash Weapon Forging — Light Metal Armor — Weapon Defense — First Aid — Katana — Battle Regeneration — Slash Weapon Forging — Blade Throwing — Armor Pierce
SORYUTO: Level 70 — One-Handed Sword — Shield — Light Metal Armor — Music — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Fighting Spirit — Armor Pierce — Acrobatics — Extended Weight Carry
REISENKI: Level 72 — One-Handed Axe — Greatshield — Heavy Metal Armor — Equipment Repair — Metal Equipment Repair — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Cooking — Metal Refining — One-Hand Weapon Creation
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Oh my!
Gulp.
Huh.
Smart move.
Even if it's not dual wielding, it's still pretty awesome.
Is that even possible? Snakes having fur?
Not to mention what Diemond wanted to do.
Go figure.
Be curious to see one irl.
I'm starting to get worried about her.
11947472
If you reread that paragraph, Colorra does not have fur, she becomes buried in the dire wolf's fur. As to the Main-gauche Skill, I am very happy with the better development from where it started. And yes, it would be interesting to see some of the unique food made in Aincrad having IRL versions.
11947667
guess I was feeling tired from work when I read it. But I have seen a youtube channel who's made 2 dishes Asuna has made.
Great update! I find it highly amusing that Doombunny is a total badass ass kicker. I look forward to seeing the rest of the WC's recover from this lil spat the all had.
And now let me pose a hypothetical situation and ask what you think the result would be. Suppose for a moment, Doom was off somewhere hunting with Colora. And lets suppose she came across LC getting ready to kill someone, how do you think she'd respond? Disable em? Kill em? Something else? Do you think her saving someone from an LC attack would rise her trust from other players?
Another demonstration of Doombunny being a total badass and not to underestimate her. I get the feeling that Knightstar is getting worse though. I remember from the original I wasn't a fan of how she left the Guild temporarily, and I feel like she is going to repeat that here.
11947673
I will need to find those videos!
11947756
I can DM them to you if you'd like?
11947682
We have definitely entered Doombunny's arc now. The base is consistent with her learning to be more assertive, across all material available, plus the inherent change in personality many people experience. It is fun to have have truly badass Doombunny.
As to the hypothetical, at this time, I believe she would disable them. That is assuming she cannot avoid them. Running solo, she would skirt around two players, never getting close enough to see what is happening. Even if she saved someone from an attack, the issue is that it wasn't a monster. It would break her trust. LC's biggest impact is how they continue to shatter the trust of players, often just by existing with their stated goals. Kayaba shattered a lot of trust for most players, probably the ultimate backstab. The second being LC.
11947696
There are big differences, this got a true rewrite, not just name swaps. Last time, I needed to shake up the pretty little guild who was always doing things right. This time it is much more calculated and in tune with characters. There is a much better reason for it all and it kickstarts both Doom's character arc and Knightstar's arc. The argument may be semi-unexpected, but we had some foreshadowing of her actions when Doom joined Blade hunting blue stones and the flowers.
11947760
Absolutely please!
And that is how the guild begins to crumble.
Doom been doing some serious training all this time.
11948122
Some very serious training!
Or Doom, hear me out, tell her anyway so that instead of working on it by yourself you include someone who could help you figure it out. The fact that she uses a rapier which would be more in line with main-gauche could provide more light into the situation. Man, SAO is a really toxic game when it comes to not sharing information.
11948544
Actually, this is one time it isn't toxic. You will eventually learn why and what the quest is. Doombunny shoehorned her way into it to learn. More like she came in through the second floor window of a house. She's inside, but she can't tell anyone else how to get in. Reveal and Listen helped her get inside, but Thunder doesn't have those skills. Neither does Asuna.