The Gamers: The Arcadia Games- Round 1

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Ah, that was their plan.

The Snakes weren't planning on playing to win after all. With their superior numbers, they probably decided that it would be a better 'use' of their time to kill their lower-numbered enemies in exchange for their own numbers, rather than to actually try for a result in which they all lived. They were, ultimately, suicide bombers, coming here with little to no expectations of surviving.

This was just a game for them, but as Tian-Gui watched another ally bite the dust, he couldn't help but feel something flicker within him.

He was fine with self-sacrifice. Hell, he thrived off it. But when these people were just jumping in here for some fucking suicide pact, with no intention of actually protecting anything? Tian-Gui's grip on the ranger tightened, the giant not even noticing that his enemy was attempting to break free. With a single grunt, he lifted the smaller man up over the head and took a single other step towards the archer that Artisia had engaged. They needed to make this fast. He couldn't risk leaving her to take both of them down. Could Colt and Xenon handle the two that made it to the frontlines? Could Alex bring another trick out of his sleeve to stop them, long enough for Tian-Gui and Artisia to finish off these two?

He put all his questions into a singular Overhead Takedown, as he shouted out, "HEADS UP!"

No doubt, that would give Artisia's archer a chance to see what was going on, but the other chance, the chance that Artisia accidentally gets hit by the flying man was too much of a risk. Though the optimal result did not occur, the martial artist did react in time, slamming the ranger down with a hammerblow, as Tian-Gui stepped up towards all of them.

His hands glowed, a blue flame dancing between his fingers. It was about time he switched to the offense.
 
Alex's eye twitches as he saw the flicker of sparks where is summon should have been. "Fine then be that way didn't need your hel-" he started to grumble then he noticed another ally of their go down. The lone wolf biting the dust. Alex looked at where the front liners had been fighting, "why is no one stopping them from hitting or back liners?" Alex was more than annoyed at this. There planning clearly needed a revamp if they had any intentions of getting more than a single base.

"Alright, come on now, have a bunch of mana, and get out here, we need help." He spoke before beginning the chant for his summon again, "Come to mine aid, O Servant of flame."

This time it was different, this time he got results. "Defend my allies at all cost!" Alex commanded his summon.
 
Alex's hands glowed blue as static began to form and flicker. The world next to the Cleric and Ranger began to glitch a bit, as suddenly with a blip and glitch of static, a surge of flame bursts to life next to the creature, with orange static flickering from its metaphysical, half humanoid shape.

"What the hell is that?!" asks the Cleric as the flaming creature appears right next to him, quite surprised and caught off guard by the beast suddenly appearing right next to him. This allowed the creature to glitch one of its 'arms' into a straight, sword like appendage, which then suddenly ignites to seem even hotter in a glitchy burst of static as it slashes at the Cleric. It cuts right through the man, and he lets out a loud cry of pain as the flaming, magical being cuts him with its metaphysical appendage.

Since Alexander summoned the beast, he can personally see its Health Bar beneath its own, and is alerted with 25 points from it draining as its 'blade' intensified. This did 46 Damage to the Cleric, the increased damage seeming to come at a price from one fifth of its own 'health' as it now has 99 Elemental Force remaining.

The Ranger decides to keep his own attack going as he rushes after Kensuke now. "Dammit, ignore the 'Justice' Monsters lets get the Peacocks! We aren't doing any damage to them."

Of course, while the Elemental appeared and slashed at the Cleric, on the other side of the battle Xenon was making his move against the Ranger who Artisia had beat up. While he wasn't really able to sneak up upon the man's back, he still was able to move in for three quick, precise stabs.


30 - 5 Flanking - 10 Accuracy + 25 Precise Penalty = 40

59 - 25 Distance - 5 Flanking - 10 Accuracy + 25 Precise Penalty + 20 Attack Speed = 64 (Partial Dodge)

20 - 25 Distance - 5 Flanking - 9 Accuracy + 25 Precise + 22 Off-Hand = 28


Xenon aimed for the gaps in the man's armor. The first one hit full on, Xenon managing to perfectly strike his Katar right into that gap for 26 points of Damage. The next one, unfortunately, was dodged by the Bow wielder, while the third one was even better done than the first, but still only did 26 points of damage. Unfortunately he didn't have enough determination to keep going as he fell to the ground as Xenon drew his bloody off-hand Katar from the man's underarm.

He then simply vanished after that. He didn't leave anything behind either.

Still, EXP was earned on this venture at the very least, 7 to be exact, for all of Team JUSTICE and Artisia. Plus it was one enemy down. Three to go. And one of them proceeded to quickly stand up and pull something out of his Inventory Pouch.

"I'm going to go get help, and then we'll beat you down you fucking traitorous monster!" The Ranger points at Artisia as he shatters a glowing stone in his hand. This causes him to glitch and vanish in a flash of light and a surge of static. It seems that he has retreated for now. They would definitely need to go after him later, and he's probably at one of the other camps.

In the meantime, the other remaining Ranger charges at Kensuke, slashing at the man with a flurry of Feather-Steel. Kensuke didn't even need to pull out his swords. He manages to duck away from the first slash and from the Ranger. A followup though has it fully slice into the man, but he manages to gracefully duck and weave from the other two slashes, with the last slash having Kensuke's full backwards Dodge follow-up with a "Counter-Shot!"

Unfortunately he pulled back with too much strength on his bow, snapping the string in the process and dropping the arrow to the ground, a 'tch' escaping from him. Until Kensuke could re-string his Bow, they would be down a valuable source of Damage, but the Ranger does take this opening to attempt another very swift, spontaneous leaping attack towards the man as he shouts "Chance Strike!".

His blade bites in deep, and Kensuke lets out a loud cry of pain as he takes a solid 78 Critical! from the Ranger's sword, the Ranger clutching his neck where a bloody gash is present from his neck to his shoulder. He's still standing from this Damage all things considered, which means he must have a decent bit of health to stay standing after the two heavy attacks he has taken so far.

The Cleric seems to take notice and charges at Kensuke as well. This allows both the Elemental and Colten to take a swipe at the escaping Cleric. Colten's sword would bounce off of the man's shield, but the Cleric didn't seem to know that defending against a purely metaphysical attack was actually rather difficult. The Flames of this Elemental seem a bit different than the Mana that the Gamers have had their experience using. So he wasn't able to fully block the metaphysical attack as it somewhat went around his shield, and still managed to do 6 Damage.

Not enough to deter the Cleric though from his target as he shouts "SMITE!"

His Mace suddenly goes aglow with bright light as he charges Kensuke. Unfortunately, perhaps he was a bit too eager to finish Kyouske off. He let his judgement cloud his mind. His holy light imbued Mace would instead smash right into his friend's side as Kyouske doesn't even need to dodge, the Ranger letting out a silent cry as blood comes from his mouth, the power of the blow being absolutely immense as he took 106 points of Damage.

The Cleric doesn't stop though, instead shouting "SORRY MATE!" to his friend as he smashes his heavy mace right into the side of Kensuke's face. Heavy metal and immense strength meet flesh. Bones snap, skin tears, and flesh goes asunder as the power and intensity of the Cleric's swing knocks the man's head right from his shoulders in a display of brutality, strength, and gore, Kensuke's bashed off cranium flying about ten yards before landing.

The body didn't stand a chance as it collapses, falling down as both head and body vanish.

Another ally is down. Two enemies are remaining, and both Gamer and Snake alike have blood splattered upon them.

​
 
Their combined assault against the archers took one down, with the other one retreating.

The enemy's combined assault on Kensuke took him down, the Peacock Ranger's head going flying from a powerful mace strike.

This wasn't going well. It took three of them to essentially defeat one, while it only took two to splatter Kensuke. Could the Ranger have lived if Tian-Gui had fully deflected the first strike from the Orc? Could the Ranger have lived if Tian-Gui hadn't decided to leave it up to Colt alone to suppress the monstrously strong Cleric? He had expected their new Gamer to be able to hold back the mace-wielder, but perhaps fighting with a 'real' body was still new to him.

Perhaps they should have traded places instead.

If that had happened, could Kamui have lasted longer? Could Kensuke have had enough time to move to a safe range? The enemy archers had been prioritized as a threat due to their long range, but perhaps that was an incorrect decision. He grimaced, turning towards remaining enemies, his body thrumming with power.

Thrumming with power, but they were still too far away.

And yet, he nevertheless had to go for it.

His charge, as fast as it was, still wasn't stealthy enough to escape the notice of the Cleric. The heavily armored man swung his bloodied mace clumsily towards Tian-Gui as his own attempt to grapple was deflected by a heavy shield. Tian-Gui didn't bother dodging. He didn't bother blocking. He slammed his head into the mace and stopped it.

Blood trickled down his face, but it wasn't his own.

It was the blood of those he failed to protect, because he was too busy running forwards and accomplishing what Artisia, Xenon, and Colt could do better. He wasn't alone in the front anymore. They had many others. So, when it came down to it…

It hurt. It hurt a lot. But it was the first hit he received during the entire fight. And from now, he needed to take more of these, in the stead of others.

The uninjured titan towered before his two armed foes.

"Why does a hero fight?"

His arms stretched out to the side.

"To save lives. Not to end them."

He had thought of it as a game. A fighting festival. A chance to prove himself. But he was awake now.

He was training.

And he had already failed.
 
Xenon's jaw unconsciously clenched as his first strike barely skimmed six points of damage off of his target. Tch. The muscles in his arms tensed once more, sinews reseting to deal two more slashes. However, each blow met the heavy resistance of the ranger's armor - ultimately dealing a trifling amount of damage and leaving behind a feeling of frustration.

In the midst of the battle in front of him, Xenon didn't register the sudden death of his other teammates until Colten suddenly broke into a rush back to where the back liners stood twenty yards away. Crap! The mages! However, his attention was quickly diverted back to the vicinity around him and Tian Gui lifted the ranger he was grappling into the air, then down by Artisia's fist.

It was times like these that the gamer's passive made itself apparent. Despite the mesh of the battle, Xenon's mind re-calibrated with ease as he switched targets to the low health Ranger that was still standing. He quickly approached from behind, brandishing his katars with a clear goal - the gaps of the armor.

If I can't hit through armor, I'll just aim for the weak points.

Xenon's first stroke found purchase at the joint between the armor's body and arm junction, slicing with ease through the flesh beneath. He then quickly retracted his arm and lunged forward for the next step in his dance, only to fall short as the Ranger dodged out of his blade's way. Not yet, Xenon thought, determined. With even more precision than his first stroke, he wedged his katar once more into the man's underarm, then pulled out as the Ranger fell to the ground.

With the enemy defeated the red haired teen quickly shifted his gaze to the retreating Ranger, who then disappeared in a flash. Though not before eliciting a smirk from Xenon. "Classic, Artisia," he quipped as he turned to the remaining skirmish... just in time to witness the slice that took Kensuke's upper cranium with it.

Had this happened before, Xenon certainly would have flinched in shock and looked away. Maybe even retched; gore really wasn't his thing. But in battle, none of the gamers had that luxury. The red haired teen switched gears to support Colten and Tian Gui from afar by aiming his hand at the remaining enemies and calling, "Volatile bolt!"
 
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As Artisia smacked the man that came flying at her to the ground, she noticed that the archer had taken a heavy blow and threw his weapon from his side. Unfortunately for him, Artisia would show no mercy if it came down to it. The archer who was untouched by Artisia for the time was assaulted by Xenon, who died by his hand. Artisia smirked as the body of the archer disappeared from the space he occupied.

Her head turned, she suddenly heard a shout from the archer who was on the ground. He pointed to her and said that he'd get back at her for being a "traitorous bitch". Artisia looked the archer in the eye and shouted, "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" She was about to lunge toward the archer, but then he disappeared, using one of the stones that can teleport you to different camps without the penalty. "Che. Guess my cover's blown then."

However, the archer was the least of her problems. As the archer disappeared, she could see that the Cleric mauled Kensuke and ended up killing him. With her Power Hand activated, she decided that it would be a good idea to go for that Cleric that just felled one of their allies. With the hard-hitting Cleric out of the way, Artisia would be able to fell the cleric and help her teammates come to victory.

As Artisia rushed toward the Cleric, there was a small explosion where Xenon was standing. It appeared that the red-haired male had launched a projectile that exploded in a small area, making for a very nice entrance for Artisia. "DIE YA ASSHOLE!"

Artisia threw two punches toward the Cleric, which caused him to disappear. She didn't pay attention to any of the damage, but she was able to fell the Cleric and she smiled widely. "GODDAM! FINALLY!" Artisia sighed and relaxed. The other enemy could be left to the others for now. Artisia celebrated the fact that she helped fell the strongest Cleric that she'd seen yet. The one she slew before was quite strong in comparison to this one, but this Cleric definitely seemed to be much more dangerous from a fighting standpoint.

She slammed her cestuses together and stood still for a moment. She'd wait until the battle was really over before she would reintroduce herself to everyone. Since her plan to be a spy became compromised, she now had to switch to Team Justice. The easiest way for her to do that was to follow her reunited teammates. It was quite a relief to finally be able to fight alongside these people. She remembered how well they fought together and the rush that battle with them gave. Tian had gotten even stronger and she looked forward to sparring with him once more.​
 
Even with his elemental there to do work and its attempt to block with Colten, the filthy snakes managed to break the line of two and slaughter the last remaining member of team peacock that had joined their group.

Damnit. Alex grit his teeth, things had gone so far from the way that he had wanted them to. Why did we charge in the way we did? why dont we have more defensive skills? Why is Colten wearing a robe into the front lines?! Why didn't we think ahead before going into this? Alex's brain was wracked with pitting the blame of their losses on everyone, including himself. If not for the passive gamers mind, he likely wouldn't be able to think straight.

Fine, lets just finish them off, we can set up after that. Looking at the final foe, Alex glanced at his Elemental, "Get him." He held his rod high, as if to cast a flame bolt, then shot his hands out, "Mana Threads!" Alex was planning on tripping his foe up by surprise and having his minion do the dirty work.
 
The Cleric fell after both Xenon's Volatile Bolt and Artisia's one-two combo hit the man. He simply fell and then vanished without much fanfare. Still, the group has gained more EXP from these enemies now, and still has one more enemy to defeat. Alexander is the one who moved to that.

Both of his threads would wrap around the man's leg as he let the threads out, but as Alexander attempted to pull he managed to stay grounded. Fortunately this kept the man distracted enough for the Elemental to move in and slash the man once again with a blazing, intensified arm. Unfortunately this would be more than enough as the man fell in a cry of blazing pain, vanishing in a flash of light unlike the others. Another 6 EXP had been rewarded to the Gamers.

That was three down, but they had one more enemy to go. He had fled, most likely to one of the other Camps. They could either go after the other Camps, or go after him.

For now, it seems like there is time to rest for a bit. There is also the matter of the Chest that is simply sitting there right next to the half flag pole and the small, blank flag on the ground next to that.

For now though, the battle is over and the Gamers have a moment to relax, but they should definitely stay on guard lest more enemies show up. They could also retreat to regroup, to try and go back to the Team JUSTICE Camp to get some more equipment and whatnot, but by the time they did that the Quest Time Limit would probably be heavily depleted.

For now... the battle is over. And a little bit of rest can be had.

But its end came at a price of three allies. It only shows that the Gamers still have a long way to go if their victories come at such a price. Both as individual fighters themselves, and as a team as a whole.​
 
A bitter victory. With a better formation, perhaps they could have prevented such losses. If they all weren't obsessed with taking kills and instead on staying safe, perhaps their numbers wouldn't be so whittled down. But, ultimately, those were all hypotheticals. Now, he had to focus on the present.

The chest left behind was empty, no doubt a last piece of vengeance from the losers. They will not be recovering their losses so easily this time. Tian-Gui narrowed his eyes at the message before them.

Come Find Me, you EVIL MONSTERS.
Click to expand...

"Mana Burst."

The message remained unscathed.

"Mana Burst. Mana Burst. Mana Burst. Mana Burst."

Concussive blasts burst from his right hand, but still, there was nary a mark on the crumpled note. Tian-Gui let it drop to the floor, before letting out a deep breath. How can he optimize things from now on? He looked at the Void Wizard Ring in his hand. If he possessed Second Wind, he didn't need this.

"Colt, catch. And take off your Mage Robes. Give them to Shouko."

His Minor Protection Ring now activated. He had lost 5 BR, all things considered, but the Instant Armor Repair Kit he utilized would make up for that.

"It takes me fifteen minutes to partially repair armor," Tian-Gui said, turning from Shouko to Xenon, "If we stay here for thirty minutes, I can patch up both your armors."
---
After the battle, Xenon joined up with the rest of the gamers at the chest. "Hm, I haven't actually been using my armor," he said thoughtfully. He'd taken it off back during the whole pig slicing affair and never really put it back on. "Inventory," he called out the window and pulled out the leather armor.

"You can still fix it if you'd like," Xenon said, "Though I will admit, I'm kind of liking going without it."
---
Tian-Gui nodded, taking the armor in his hand. "Your call then," he replied, before addressing the entire group, "I'm planning on taking at least 15 minutes to fix up one piece of armor for Colt to use. That's the least amount of time I'm willing to spend here. How about the rest of you?"

As he spoke that, the raven-haired grappler grabbed his tools and got to work, muttering a Physicality Rise under his breath as he started sewing up the leather once more.
 
Shouko muttered a curse when she missed the fleeing Ranger. She could hardly accept the battle as a victory when they had lost as many people as the Snakes had. There were only the Gamers left in the group, including their newest member.

"Kamui got killed as well, huh. I wonder if he'll come back like Bla- Colt did," Shouko said while gazing at their newest member. He was young as well, roughly around her age in appearance. "You did pretty well... is it a thing for guys to be so unfazed by life-threatening circumstances?"

Shouko had not noticed the sorry state of her leather armour until Tian-Gui offered to repair it. She had sustained no injuries in the fight, so it must have been the previous fight, or even further back. A check on its status told her that it was conferring zero protection to her body. Oops.

"I would like it fixed, but we're a little short on time. I think it's best we move on," she replied. Shouko unequipped the leather armour, which was only slowing her down at this point. She decided to try gaining a new Earth spell, and spend the remainder of the time idly casting her Earth spells and keeping watch for enemies.
 
Colt watched as the rest of the Gamers deafeated the remaining enemies in they're combined assault. After a few deep breaths and stowing away his weapons he made his way over where his friend Kamui had fallen. There was of course nothing there to see but empty grass blowing in the wind. Standing there for a moment quietly looking down until Tian called out and threw his ring. Turning about slightly and catching it then opening his hand to look down at it while the grappler continued on. Telling Colt to take off his robes and give them to Shouko before continuing onto other things.

The red head removing Minor Protection Ring and replacing it with the one he was given; directly afterwards removing his robes over his head as his now casual red jacket, white t-shirt and black jeans were made visible once again. Folding up the robes a little bit he made his way over to Shouko, just then hearing her words in regards to Kamui and himself. He bit his lip at this and let his head hang down just a bit, handing her the robes as she spoke again. "You did pretty well... is it a thing for guys to be so unfazed by life-threatening circumstances?"

"We do it to protect the people behind is..." he responded quickly though with a low tone of voice. Saying only that and turning around away from Shouko before making his way back to where he was once before. What he said could be considered true by some or even most young men but he knew he failed to do so today. Kamui wasn't dead...but would he actually be stuck in the same situation as the rest of the Gamer's now?

Colt sat down cross legged alone where his friend fell, facing away from the main group and began to cook himself some of the instant ramen he had brought which took about five minutes. Even in the end of things like that...he still made light of it. Placing his hands on his crossed knees and bowing his head slightly over the steam of the ramen with a smile on his face before eating. Hardly even remembering how critically wounded he was and probably looked.
 
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Artisia smirked as the archer was felled, not by Xenon, but by Alexander's flame elemental. Well... Seems as if his powers did finally come in handy. If he could only do that a little faster next time. She laughed to herself a little as she had that thought. Artisia observed the group, who seemed to be trying to get themselves together, but she was little annoyed that none of them had even acknowledged her... At all. Tian seemed obsessed with something he had found in the Purchase Chest. In fact, he sent an odd number of Mana Bolts toward the thing he found.

Upon moving closer to him, she noticed that it was a note. She didn't move close enough to see what the message had said, but apparently it was something to make Tian-Gui extremely angry. In fact, the way he acted seemed very abnormal for him, so she was quite concerned about what the note seemed to say. But for the time being, she ignored that and meditated until her HP and MP were back up to full. As soon as that happened, she'd walk over to Shouko.

"Hey Shouko! I've got a few things for ya that I picked up from a few Snakes." Artisia would grab the bow, the arrow quiver, the iron barbed arrows, and the shield out of her inventory and give them to Shouko. "Now, the bow has some pretty high requirements, so you might not be able to wield that for a little while, but it seemed good, so I thought you should have it. The shield is also pretty good, so that's yours if you want it too. Also, an extra arrow quiver might come in handy. And, of course, the arrows are always helpful. They seem like some pretty nasty things too, so I hope you can use them to help us take down some troubling enemies."

When she finished with Shouko, she'd nod to her and walk away to move toward Colt. "HEY! YOU!" As soon as she'd arrive next to Colt, she'd stand in front of him. "Get yourself some damn armor. Can't have another person dying." She sat down in front of him and opened her inventory, which seemed to switch her mood into that of something more cheery. "Now. All you need is a good weapon." Artisia brought out the Feather Steel Greatsword and placed it on Colt's lap. "Stop using those shitty blades and use this. You're strong, I can tell. And you might be an asshole who rushes into battle like a fool with no damn armor..." Artisia took a breath and seemed to calm herself a little. "...but you have strength to you." Artisia noticed that Colt seemed a bit solemn in this instance. Since he was Blade before, it seemed that losing the wind mage took a small toll on him. She punched him on the shoulder lightly. "C'mon. Your friend's not dead, so there's no need to mope. Celebrate that." Artisia stood and took a deep breath as she rolled her shoulders back to stretch herself out a little. Artisia kept the cheery nature in her tone while saying, "We also need to make sure we survive. 'Cause if we die here, we're done."

On that note, Artisia walked away from the seemingly sad swordsman and observed some of the group. They were definitely stronger from the last time she saw them and all better equipped. They also had new armor, new powers, and more sharpness to them than before. Artisia felt a little behind in the curve actually. Now's not the time to mope about your weakness. If you're weak, all you need to do is strengthen yourself and become strong. Train. You're with friends now, so you won't have issues with hiding some of your identity. You won't have issues of being stuck with people you don't know how to collaborate with. You won't be alone.

As the thought crossed her mind, Artisia saw Xenon. She smiled slightly and moved toward her red-haired magician-turned-rogue friend. "Nice to see you again," Artisia stated in a joking way. They had seen each other a little less than a few hours ago, so it wasn't really a new reunion for them. "Unfortunately, looks like my cover's blown for the whole 'spy' thing, but seems as if I'll be able to join your team and help win this game." Artisia paused for a moment because a notification popped in front of her face. A new quest was offered to her called, "Attack Snake Gekkoukan!" She accepted the quest and realized that the time limit on the quest was now about 25 minutes.

"DEAR GOD! EVERYBODY WE NEED TO GET A MOVEON! WE ONLY HAVE THIS QUEST FOR THE NEXT 25 MINUTES!" Artisia started thinking about the defenses of each camp and how long it would take to get to each one. Thinking all of this at once was hard for Artisia, but she managed to remember something about the base camp. "Everyone. The base camp is the strongest camp defense-wise and it's probably where all of the Snake members are. But if we go there, we'll... We'll definitely die. There are a lot of team members on Team Snake and if the main group that went to attack the other camp didn't contain at least 2/3 of the members, then we... We're definitely dead."

Artisia rubbed her temples for a second, but then suddenly got an idea. "AH! I GOT IT! You all, head to the North camp, which you can do by heading North-East. I'm going to go to the South-West camp and get information on the members at the base camp, which is the north camp. The list that I can get at the South-West camp should tell me the levels of the people that are still in the team and their classes. Hopefully, I guess right about who's there and who's not. I'll send you all a message once I'm done, and I'll tell you guys the info, but don't attack the camp until I tell you who is probably there. Once you attack the camp, I'll be able to teleport in there like I did last time and help you guys out again, but I should be more help since the enemies should be right in my range when I get there. Beware of the guardian though, I've heard that it's strong. The tower is also dangerous, so if you can, try to stay out of its range. We've got a little more time before this needs to happen. Sorry to pop away from you guys again, but since you got this quest, we might as well wipe out the Snakes that are here, right?" She paused for only a fraction of a second for a quick breath. "Any questions?"​
 
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In the middle of enjoying his meal Colt jolts in surprise and tosses his ramen cup above is head, barely catching it as he sighs in relief afterwards. A familiar face of a certain young lady sitting down in in front of him. He nodded in thanks to the present given to him in regards to the greatsword, making sure he would equip it. Then as she seemed to lecture on at him Colt simply continued to eat with a more so blank expression. What is with this chick? She defended the scout and now she attacks her teammates and seems so chummy with this team? The same chick who seemed like she just wanted to punch my face and was furious with me not long ago? I know Kamui's ain't dead but he might be in more danger like me now and no shit we gotta survive but whether I have proper shit or not I'm still a front liner. Who the hell does she expect to go to the front lines, mages and archer? After she gets up Colt would smile at the act of the shoulder punch.

Then as she walked off to do other things he took around to see some people spamming skills, asking a question after swallowing some noodles. "What the hell is with the spamming of the skills?"

As Artisia spoke quickly with time being of the essence and her plan of action Colt quietly gets up from his sitting position and walks over to Artisia with the greatsword slung over his shoulder, stopping right next to her. "I think the plan is dumb." Starting off very bluntly about the whole thing. "Do you know if people are at this camp your going too? Are you not sure word will have already been spread among so many teammates? He took a pause after these questions. "If your cover is indeed blown the way it has then you'll be branded as a traitor and traitors are always dealt with harshly. If you teleporting in the back door and stabbing teammates in the back again they will be expecting that...and they'll crush you when you do." The fighter's expression becoming a tad more serious after that last line.

"I intend to keep that promise about owing you a fight and I can't hold up my end of the bargain if you we all don't survive right?" His smile returning after saying that.
 
"Don't worry too much about Art," Tian-Gui called out to Colt, finishing his armor repairs, "She basically did the same thing that you did, except she had no BR as well…and then she got oneshot by Rei. Just happened yesterday as well, so, you know, probably doesn't want to same to happen to you."

"And we spam skills to level up our skills. Same goes for Talents. Would explain more, but right now…"

Getting off, he patted the dust off himself and scratched his chin, before handing the half-fixed leather armor to Colt. Artisia was right, they only had a limited amount of time left, but he also agreed with Colt. It was tantamount to suicide for Artisia to once again appear in the enemy's backline. He saw how much damage players could do to each other, and considering their singular focus before on the members of team Peacock…

"You're not going to survive that, Artisia. Not to mention that they could just as easily kick you out of their Team, and then you'd be stranded. However, let's assume that ten of Team Snake headed off towards the Station. Then let's assume that the rest are all in their camps. We defeated three of them. That means there are seven left."

Seven who were on par or higher level than the Gamers were. So how could they bring everything to their advantage? What was the most effective way of fighting that would keep them all safe? His blue eyes closed, and he recalled the update. There was a 15 minute cooldown after teleportation, which prevented them from teleporting to or from whatever camp they came into. A Ferry Stone ONLY teleported you back to the Base Camp.

Right now, there were 25 minutes left before the quest ended. If they wanted to complete this, they could not split up the enemy. So, what was it that they were going to have to do?

"Shouko, how many bombs do you have? Because that's the one advantage we do have against them. The ability to do AOE damage as opposed to single target burst. They should have seven left. We know that one of them is a ranger. The maximum that they can teleport at once is five per camp, meaning that two is left behind. So it's fairly simple, isn't it?"

"When they teleport to a new base, they will all be around the flagpole. In that moment, we need to toss pretty much every explosive we have at them, simultaneously, because that's the only time they'll be bunched up. However, that would still leave two Snake members remaining. Which ALSO means that we need a separate team to take down those two remaining ones."

"Artisia, you pissed them off, right? How likely do you think it is that you'd be able to get them out of their base camp? Do you think you can take them if you had Xenon or Colt with you? Considering my own plan, you'll have to 2v2, because we won't be able to make it there in time to help you...actually, what if you sent a whole bunch of monsters at them using the Monster Bait? Soften them up with hordes of monsters BEFORE you attacked?"

Minimize casualties and maximum effectiveness. That's what Tian-Gui was going for now.
 
The final foe let out a cry of pain as he vanished. What are the chances that killing a foe with a skill beyond the parameters of the game actually may damage someone? He seemed to scream a bit more than the others...Or was it simply due to it being Flames? Alex was slightly disturbed by his thoughts as he casually put his weapons away.

We need defensive skills, a proper line, skills to protect as well as attack. Alex walked a bit away to try to develop such a skill. Come on, something like...something that could stop arrows from hitting us, stop a charging healer, stop an ally from hitting an ally, trigger faster than a foe can react, something that wont just def- He felt the mana in his body stop forming and simply returning to normal, he let out a sigh. I need to focus to make a skill, I'll try again later.

Standing off to the side, Alex knew it was in his best interest to not open his mouth at the moment. He was level headed, but he knew the words he wanted to say, and knew better than to say them at the moment. Watching his remaining teammates, He judged to see how they took the bitter victory. Tian is... clearly unhappy, and is taking out on a treasure chest? Well that's...huh... Alex's brow raised as he shook his head. Colt probably has a fair bit on his mind. Shouko seems fairly normal, as does Xenon I guess? Artisia is...spewing out a poor plan. Letting out a groan, Alex started walking towards the collective group, gladly others stated the obvious, stopping it from happening, hopefully.

"What do you know about thee other camps, terrain wise. If we can use the environment as well that could give us another edge. Do you know the classes of the remaining snakes?" In response to Artisia, Alex posed the questions, though anyone who knew the area well could give an answer just as well, "And We also have the advantage of being Gamers. We have access to skills and items they wont have, my summon seemed to catch them off guard." Though had I realized it would, I would of brought it out sooner, Alex bit his lip, "They also don't have the Gamers mind, We can utilze emotions such as fear, rage, and doubt." He added to Tian's points and ideas, He looked at Colten, "And maybe one of us should give him a crash course on mana skill, and help him to unlock his first one, or teach him some of ours." No point in holding back anything at this point I suppose.
 
With his armor in Tian Gui's hands, Xenon paused to pick at his katars. The weapons had treated him well in his time as a gamer so far, but it seemed that their iron edges were beginning to lose their touch. That last battle certainly proved that, he thought with a pinched look. It seemed like it was nigh time to replace them and move on to the weapon he'd originally had in mind. Deer antler horn blades.

In the mean time, however, the red haired teen decided to do some brief work on his mana skills before it was time to go. Xenon set himself to practicing mana channel and mana film at the same time without much worry on how much mana he was spending, on account of the feast bonuses. Maybe Gaia is saying we should all eat out more, he thought bemusedly.

Xenon looked up up from his practice when a familiar voice filtered in. He smiled warmly. "Nice to see you too Artsie," he replied. Though they had seen each other just a handful of hours ago, the red haired teen felt that their reunion had been too brief. When Artisia commented about the end of her espionage days, he simply shrugged lightly. "You would have come back to us sooner or later. It just happened to be sooner," he said.

Xenon wanted to catch up a little more with his close friend (he never did find out why she was even late for the meet up), but now was not the time it seemed with all the battle planning to be done. Oh well, maybe later, he thought.

Artisia quickly laid out her plan of attack, which involved going undercover again while everyone else focused the main camp. Even before she finished speaking, a protest was growing in his throat - he didn't like the idea of her going back undercover one bit. Especially after their last battle, as Colt had pointed out, where her ruse was blown.

Tian Gui took the torch next with a different plan. Since the battle had ended, Xenon, like everyone else, had noticed a mild shift in the dark haired gamer. Despite usually being so enthused, he seemed almost angry just minutes before. Alex spoke next, pointing out some key elements, and re-addressing the presence of their newest member. "If there's time, I can probably teach Colt mana bolt, since it's easy to learn. Or someone else could teach him mana burst. It might be more useful since he is melee," Xenon piped in. "Up to you, I guess," he said to the new gamer.

"As for the plan, I'm in support of Tian Gui ge's," Xenon iterated firmly, "It's too risky to go back undercover since that one ranger escaped." He directed his gaze obstinately at Artisia as he spoke before turning back to the rest of the gamers. "I also think that if we do deal with the remaining 2 snakes separately, I should be part of that group," he continued, "Even if overpowered, I think I should be able to either retreat or stall long enough to get back up.

"As for using monsters... I'd say that's debatable. While they could soften up the enemies, we can't exactly control them. The auxiliary would be finished for sure if they got double teamed by monsters and the snakes," Xenon finished pointedly.
 
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"If we're going to have to teach him on the run, teaching him Movement would be better," Tian-Gui said, "Colt doesn't even have experience with creating Pseudospaces, and we won't have time for peaceful meditation either. With only 25 minutes left, the best thing to do would be to get him something he can easily get."

Xenon's own additions to his plan made the raven-haired grappler nod in agreement. Indeed, they did have that advantage as well, that of massively boosted regeneration and recovery scores. "If it comes down to it, Xenon, remember that you don't have to finish a fight in less than half a minute. You can rush in, deal a burst of damage, escape, and then come in a few minutes later. Their regeneration should be inferior to your own, and there's a limit to how many potions they will have. A protracted battle should work in your favour, especially because of the constantly spawning monsters."

Tian-Gui finally cracked a smile, snapping two finger guns in the direction of the Gamer in the black cloak.

"After all, who has the Stealth talent? You do! The focus of the quest is to defeat all members of Team Snake, not to capture their camps. Attack inbetween waves of monsters, and retreat if you see a wave coming and you aren't close to defeating them."
 
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Artisia looked over the entire group as all of them seemed to dislike her plan. She was a bit... Taken aback by this. She thought it was a good plan that would work. She'd get information about the Snakes and then help the team fight the members at the base camp. She thought it was simple enough, but it seemed that others thought it was so simple that it wouldn't work. They also seemed to think that it would put her in danger, especially considering that she was now branded a traitor.

Artisia listened as everyone made comments about her plan, then about a new plan that was hatched by Tian-Gui. He seemed to think that it was a better idea to, instead of having just Artisia go by herself, to have someone else go with her. There was one thing that Tian seemed to have wrong concerning the number of Snakes that were left.

"Uh... Tian. I, uh, killed 3 Snakes too, so that should bring the total down to 4 members. If we're going by your count. That's why I want to confirm the number of members left. 10 seems like very few, although it's probably accurate enough. But now your plan can't work because all of them can just teleport to another camp. We don't have time to capture all of the camps though. Unless we wanted to separate into teams and take out the three camps that aren't the Base camp. If we did that, I think we'd have enough time. It takes about 5 or 10 minutes to get to any of the camps. And when we go to face the other Snakes after capturing the camps, they can't teleport anywhere because they'll be stuck. We might be cutting it close with the time if we did it, but I think we could. I mean, even if we just knocked out two of the three camps, we'd be able to complete the mission."

Artisia sighed, hoping that the team wouldn't think this idea was as stupid as her last one. "If we want to only take two camps, then we'll need to make two teams. Unless you don't want to use this plan, but I think this would be good to do. The other Snakes most likely took the equipment to the base camp because that's where the highest defenses are, but let's hope I'm not wrong." Artisia stood straight and faced the group, making them choose whether this plan was better than Tian-Gui's. ​
 
In the end, there was a bit more discussion but it was ultimately decided to head straight to the base camp. After all, going to all of the three remaining Camps and the base Camp would not only wear down their remaining time to complete the Quest, but it would also wear down on their available resources and exhaustion. All of them have been up for quite the while now, excluding Colten, and would be needing some rest soon. None of the Gamers could leave, so this means that they would need to sleep in the Tent.

How that would work is something they would have to determine later.

For now, they had Snakes to finish off.

And luckily no Gremlins seemed to interrupt their travels this time around. Perhaps they didn't spawn around here? Either that, or the Gamers just got lucky.

Regardless, soon enough they would come along to the base camp... or what seemed to be a base camp anyway. To Artisia... it would be way different than before. No structures, no tent, no table. Instead there were two Level 16 Gremlin Rangers atop the north and south wooden platforms, each with ropes on the four sides of these sturdy wooden platforms that allowed one to climb atop them. The platforms themselves seemed to be about five or so yards up.

There are five of them in total, south, north, east, and west. Each with a bridge between them all and another bridge on all of them leading to the center where the fifth platform is, this being where the sturdy looking flag pole is present.

On the western platform was the last Snake Ranger and in the center platform was their Guardian, an Orc Shaman, a foe who was definitely tougher than an Orc Axman thanks to both his sturdy sword and his magic attack.

"I sold everything in all of our camps for all of this you know! Even all of the Items and Capture Flag that I asked Arcadia to steal from you guys" called the Snake from atop his platform to the approaching Gamers as he could see them as they approached with relative ease thanks to his vantage point.

"So if you Evil Injustice Monsters want to kill me... then you're gonna have to come up here and get me. Otherwise you may as well turn the hell around and leave this Camp alone!"

It seems like this man is playing for keeps, giving what seems to be a pretty hard challenge to the Gamers. They would have to climb up those rope ladders in order to even get to the Snake, all while under the potential attack of Archers and a Lightning Wielding Shaman.

Sure they had the numbers... but it seems like this guy had the home field advantage and even somehow acquired two Monsters to help him out. Plus he had prepared this elevated battle field. Who knows what else he had managed to prepare.

Would the Gamers risk this fight? Or would they turn around and leave as the man wants them to.​
 
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Everyone seemed to dislike her plan again and she wondered why. Then, Tian pointed out, the enemy can't run away when you end up attacking them. That was something very vital that Artisia forgot was even in play when a camp was being attacked. However, a new plan was formulated, which was incredibly simple. Rush the base camp and worry about nothing else until all the Snakes were taken care of.

As they rushed there, they encountered no enemies and it seemed that they were having a little luck. Unfortunately, as they arrived at the camp, the setup seemed to be... Highly different from what Artisia remembered. This camp was changed into something that was, most certainly, a strategic form of absolute destruction. Artisia looked over the layout of the camp, but before she could observe absolutely everything, the Snake ranger from before started shouting out toward them.

It seemed that the Snake ranger had sold everything from the Snake camps and one of the Justice camps in order to built this monstrosity. Also, it seemed he had gotten monsters to help guard the place.

The Snake member droned on for a few moments about how, if the 'Evil Injustice Monsters' wanted to kill him, they'd have to come get him. This pissed Artisia off in more ways than one and she just let her words fly at this point. If anyone tried to stop her, she would just push them off and move a little closer to the Snake.

"HEY! YOU UNORIGINAL PIECE OF SNAKE SHIT! YOU WANNA CALL US MONSTERS WHEN YOU HAVE THREE OF THEM HANGING RIGHT OUT OF YOUR ASS?! HUH?! AND INJUSTICE?! THAT'S NOT EVEN A WORD!! MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY PREPPING FOR YOUR LITTLE SHIT SHOW BEFOREHAND! AND IF YOU DID, TRY USING SOME BETTER INSULTS YOU ASSWIPE!" Artisia quite a few steps forward as she let these insults fly, and she wasn't done. "ALSO, THIS IS WHY I DECIDED TO BETRAY THIS GODDAM TEAM. YOU ARE ALL PRICKS WHO THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA TO BLOW ALL OF YOUR GODDAM MONEY ON ONE FUCKING MASTERPIECE AND SLYLY PRESENT IT BEFORE PEOPLE..." Artisia got ready to act out the part of an arrogant Snake player, "...SAYING, 'Oh, look at this beautiful fortress! You can't royally screw us over because we blew all of our money on this gigantic piece of absolute horse shit!'..." Artisia went back into her normal, screaming self. "YOU ALL ARE PIECES OF ABSOLUTE SHIT! AND, IF I HAD KNOWN BETTER BEFORE, I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO KILL SO MANY OF YOU TO GET YOU TO SHUT UP AND REALIZE THAT YOU'RE ALL PIECES OF COMPLETE AND UTTER GARBAGE!" As Artisia finished, she muttered a few things under her breath while still staring at the Snake who was more than a few yards away. "Insolent, arrogant son-of-a-bitch. I can't wait to see my fist get stuck right in his goddam face, crying for goddam mercy."​
 
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