SAO: Summon Arc Online

"Sshi-" words stopped themselves.

A blast had just went off, a near miss for Jankano and his group of players. The Guild members running with the swordsman were all actively looking for the source of the blast. Another went off, this time severely injuring a player who cried out in pain. The black and white haired greatswordsman turned to the non-party member. With quick work off his tongue, Jankano chanted a healing spell to the injured player, rejuvenating the player's health bar to nearly full green. The party and player gave their thanks while he just merely went on his way with the active party that was his.

"We have to find who or what is firing those cannons!" Jankano shouted loud, not only for his party to hear but for everyone on the field as well. "Or else we're going to have a REALLY hard time with this boss!"

His current party split into groups of 2, settling for 4 people each. They dispersed to go about doing their jobs. Jankano's small group had gone off to help keep the minions off the players who were engaging the boss, while the other half had gone off to help the other guild members search for the source of said cannon fire. If everyone wanted to come out of this fight alive, they would all need to work together, and not just together, but in sync. Summons had been called out by nearly every player, all of them going big on the boss. Since Jankano did not have a summon just yet, he had to rely on his teammates to back him up. With a great swing of his Giant sword, the swordsman knocked a Goblin out of the way, immediately bringing up its health bar and name.

Goblin Elite. Level 4. Yellow Health.

For a level four, it's sure got some health...

No kidding. Perhaps it had to do with it being a boss minion and not just a regular spawn. It was an Elite after all. Jankano quickly knocked the goblin's scimitar aside, and brought the blade down on the monster. It's health had dropped to red. It seemed fairly simple, except there was obviously more than one of these one the field. A spear wielding Elite lunged at Jankano, fairly missing it's intended target in the swordsman's reaction. A quick counter brought that Elite to yellow health. Players rushed in with their summon's to finish his work.

"Here it comes!" a player shouted.

Jankano wasted no time in honing in on the person. It was a female player looking at the boss, to which eyes darted from the player to the Boss just in time to see the Guild Leader, Alpha, avoid a near close call. The Goblin King had swung two large blades down on the leader, and had missed by inches. The Boss was in a recovery animation, obvious because of the time it took for the Boss to get back into normal stance. Players rushed the boss with <<sword skills>>, giving it their all to whittle the monster's HP. It was taking a while for it to get back into stance. Normally, a bosses recovery animation took no longer than 2 seconds; 2.5 tops before its recovery animation ended. And that was conditional to certain attacks. Desperation moves or really powerful attacks took longer. The swordsman only knew this much because of other games. Despite differences and whatnot, every game always had that one thing similar to it. That's just how things worked. Frames per second. So, it was odd when the monster took it's sweet time. Only 2.5 seconds had gone by, and nothing changed before Jankano's eyes widened with horrifying realization.

"EVERYONE PULL BACK!" he shouted, eyes widening in horror. "HE"S NOT DONE!!"

It was too late. The Goblin King feigned sluggish movements as it spun it's body 360 degrees, letting blades hang back to feed off of the momentum it was building. It took a giant step, Blades cutting through the area, and hit box ranging 270 degrees of it's body when the blades had first started to spin.

A powerful gust of wind blew into the crowd of players that were lucky enough to be patient or to have pulled back. Anyone caught 3 feet beside him or in its path were tossed aside and left on the brink of death; and those that had already lost health prior....

Jankano's eyes stared in horror, time dilating for a moment as mind registered the event. Summons died before them, and unsuspecting players suddenly felt their virtual bodies become corrupted Data. Without a word, they merely vanished alongside other players whos HP had reached 0. It was so fast, but just like that Shards of player data drifted in the air, and two names were removed from the swordsmans party. Only the creator knew how many other players had fallen from this attack. In the UI, it read, "JackNicholson was removed from the party. BallzDeep69 was removed from the party."

The Goblin King gave a loud war cry, reminding everyone that this IS a no extra lives game. You die here, You're gone forever.

 

Cassandra kicked the goblin to the floor and opened fire, reducing its head to a bloody pulp while Joan ran a second through with the banner-lance. The corpses quickly dissipated as corpses did in the game and they stopped for a moment in the brief lull in enemy spawning. These regular grunts weren't too hard to kill and she was having a reasonably easy time of racking up kills. Of course, being level 7 helped, making her considerably higher level than many of the mobs. She felt a small surge of pride at that. She was outlevelling this area and would soon be able to move on. She reloaded her machine gun and turned to Joan.
"Injuries?" She asked, which promoted a small smile from her summon.
"Look at my health bar. <<Summon's Promise>> updates the UI remember?" She pointed out. Cassandra nodded and checked. Both of them were at 100% having recovered from their bout earlier. As it turned out, there were advantages to be had from not allowing the enemy to get close. She saw Joan moving towards her and she felt an armoured hand on her shoulder. "You're doing very well Cassandra, I'm proud of you. Most players would shut down faced with a situation like this, but no. You've kept going." The woman offered her a warm smile which she gladly returned. She hugged Joan.
"I'm glad you're my summon." She spoke softly. The knight didn't know how to react for a moment, but placed her free arm around her as well. Alpha437 disengaged and looked at her friend. "I promise I won't let you down." Joan nodded and they stepped apart.
"Right, let's get on wi-" Cassandra stopped, eyes wide in surprise as the walls rose around the encampment sealing them in. Mist came rolling in down the edge of the camp where they were. She gripped her weapon tightly and cocked it. "Joan, what's happening?"
"It's a boss fight Cassandra. This way. Bring your sniper rifle, we'll need its power. If you use that-"
"Then you'll cover me and make sure none of the guards will come kill me right?" They nodded at each other. She slung the machine gun on to her shoulder again and grabbed her sniper rifle. They ran a short distance, weaving between tents before coming out in the centre where the battle was happening.

The spectacle was unlike any other. A huge array of players and goblins were amassed in the field and already fighting. She watched many go to attack the Goblin King, but her eyes widened in horror as the Goblin King's swipe annihilated a group of the attacking players. Sparkling blue, fast fading player data drifted on the wind as she watched a handful of people die. The realisation was not lost on her. They were gone... Forever. Those people had just died. How many? Half a dozen? A dozen? There were only a thousand of them, and if these fights always went like this...
"Cassandra!" The sharp voice of Joan of Arc evicted her from her reverie. She put a hand on the player's shoulder and her grey eyes gazed intently into her own. "Now is not the time. We can mourn them later but for now... We avenge them." Cassandra nodded, her lips a hard line. She hefted the Sniper Rifle and Joan of Arc sank to her knees with her hands pressed together to pray.
"Mon Dieu, écoutez-moi dans mes temps de besoin..." She began. "The wicked have slain the innocent and we ask Your help to chastise them. Grant Cassandra the strength she needs to destroy those that would trespass against us and lend her Your comforting arms to hold her in her time of sorrow. Dans le nom de notre pére et Jesus Chirst, Amen." An icon appeared on Cassandra's screen just underneath her healthbar. A small crucifix with a fire behind it. <<Battle Prayer>> - Attack Damage increased by 50%. She smiled at the woman who granted her the buff. she was going to need it if she were going to avenge the fallen and defeat the boss. That all reminded her. It was time to try something new. She held her hand out over her Sniper Rifle.
"En Glace!" The power of ice was infused into each of her shots now, She hoped that it would have the desired effect of granting a slow or freeze effect. She held the weapon up to her shoulder and braced it. Looking down the scope, she lined up the head of the Goblin King in her crosshairs. Accounting for movement, element of surprise, weapon recoil and power. Coriolis effect accounted for. All conditions are clear. She squeezed the trigger. The gun roared in her hands and an icy round sped towards the Goblin King's head faster than the eye could ever see. The round slammed in with great force prompting a gout of blood and she grinned at the impact.
"You might be Level 7 monster... But so am I!" Before the first round even got halfway, the bolt on the sniper rifle clicked as she racked it back, loading a second round and firing it in rapid succession. The bullets would fly until the Goblin King was dead. Joan's attack bonus, the effects of En Glace and her being almost certainly higher level than everyone else there combined with the potent base damage of her weapon meant that she was the greatest threat they had. So long as she kept firing, they could defeat the Goblin King quickly. Meanwhile, Joan activated her ability << La Madamoiselle de le Champ de Bataille>> to scan the Goblin King's statistics, abilities and weapons. That should give her an idea of what they were going to be up against as the fight progressed and hopefully some weak points. They'd need as much information as possible to give them the best chance. (Myst if you could PM me or something saying if I see anything that would be great).





Julius remained eerily calm as the walls rose up and the boss fight began. He twirled his halberd and grinned, calling forth his summon. He appeared next to Julius, leaning casually on his spear and whistling a tune. He looked over at the player nonchalantly.
"Need a hand then?" Julius rolled his eyes and looked at the summon.
"I thought it would be polite to invite you. After all, this is probably going to be a good fight." He answered levelly. Cú Chulainn nodded and twirled Gae Bolg with a cocky grin taking precedence upon his face.
"Well in that case, I suppose we'd best get stuck in!" The pair of them ran towards the large battle. The Goblin King wasn't taking much damage for now, but it was early stages. Of course, targeting just the King at this stage was ridiculous. They needed to clear everything out first. Once they had isolated him, he would be much easier to fight instead of having to deal with him and his minions. With that in mind, Julius led the spearman around the flank past a couple of Goblin tents. He saw the artillery firing. We can't deal with anything as easily with those ranged attackers going. They round the corner and sure enough there they were, the Goblin artillerymen. They weren't expecting them. However, before he could charge in he saw the slaughter in his peripheral vision. He gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes at the Goblin King. Just like that, he had killed a handful of people. He looked back at the artillerymen. If they were allowed to continue firing more would join the slaughter. However, even with that in mind... He wanted to destroy the Goblin King. It was at that moment that a sizeable chunk was removed from the HP bar of the Goblin King and a gout of blood spurted from his head. What, no, who could have done that much damage? It would have to be a ranged weapon of some sort, a sniper perhaps. Still... That's impressive. Julius turned back to his prey and charged in although Cú Chulainn was already there. He evidently had no reservations about murdering the Goblins and he didn't seem overly put off by the deaths of Julius' fellow players. Three goblin artillerymen lay dead in a circle around him.
"Come on, these bastards won't die by themselves!" He ran towards the next group and Julius followed, Halberd at the ready. ​

 

As their small party of three approached the Goblin encampment, Tessa sighed with relief. After such a stressful start, perhaps now they could just kill some monsters, level up, and get moving through this game. She looked down at the ring that glinted on her finger, turning it to catch the sunlight as they walked into the town. In the near area she could hear the sounds of battle. Probably other players leveling up. Hopefully this wouldn't be a huge competition. She hated fighting for the right to level up.

The mist that sprouted in front of them stopped her cold, her hand going out to grab Bryce's shoulder. They stilled, listening, and watching. The skin prickled on the back of her neck, and the hair on her arm stood on end. In any other situation she would have appreciated the realistic tone to the VRMMO, but not today, not now. Right now she was concerned by the dark shadowy figures she could see emerging from the gloom. Mashtyr, Goblin King. Her heart nearly stopped as she read the name above the creature's head. No, no no! We're not ready! This is way too soon!

Nevertheless, he stepped forward. She could see other players moving around him to attack, no doubt with their summons by their side. They would not be able to help with this foe. Not directly, at least. Dropping to her knees, Bryce towered above her as she quickly balanced her rifle on her knee and looked through the scope. On the towers, she could just barely see the forms of other, lower level enemies. They were shooting down at the players below. She took aim and shot, cursing as the bullet connected with less force then she had hoped. The goblin's HP dropped down to little more then halfway as she quickly ejected the empty cartridge from the magazine and inhaled, taking aim again.

The second shot connected with it's head, inducing a critical hit, and the goblin disappeared in a cloud of pixels. She felt a little rush as she gained EXP, and turned to Bryce.
"Go for the ones in the towers! They're only level 2! She shouted as she stood. "Lancelot, I need you!" The golden haired knight appeared, bowing to her with his hand on the handle of his sword, shield strapped to his back.

"My Lady." He answered her, rising from the bow with a smile that could charm the pants off the straightest player. Tessa did her best to ignore his charm and pointed to the tower just recently vacated by her first goblin victim. "I need to get up there. Can you help me?" She slung her rifle over her shoulder and pulled her pistol out of the holster at her hip, carefully checking to make sure the safety was off as she pointed it at the ground, holding the smaller weapon with both hands.

"Of course. I will defend you with my life." He turned, drawing his sword with a slight hissing sound, and pulling the shield from his back, strapping it onto his left arm with elegant ease.
Tess glanced back at Bryce. "You two, stay together." She directed towards Bryce and Emma, her face contorted in a slight frown. "Don't take on the boss, and don't take on any of the level fours. I don't want to come back to you scattered into a million pixels." She waved and took off, running after Lancelot as she kept a wary eye on the enemies. Perhaps because of her lower level, they didn't pay too much attention to her. She wasn't as much of a threat as the level fives and sixes that were around her.

Somehow, they made it to the tower unscathed, and Tessa bolted up the stairs two at a time, Lancelot only a few seconds in front of her. There was a second goblin at the top, snarling as it jumped at her. Lancelot blocked the monster with his shield as she dropped to her knees, shooting underneath his armpit through the small space created by his shield and hitting the creature in the chest. A slash from Lancelot's sword and a head shot, and she had defeated her second goblin.

A message popped up in the corner of her screen that she had reached level two. Finally. With a grim smile, she took the goblin's position at the tower, holstering her pistol and pulling her sniper rifle in front of her, balancing it on the wall as she looked through the scope. She would have to take her time with the level fours, but with patience, they would go down. She could still help, even if she wasn't directly on the battlefield. She found her target, took aim, and fired. The bullet didn't do much damage, but it knocked the goblin back long enough that the player could escape a critical hit. She squeezed the trigger again, the recoil hitting her shoulder with a familiar jutting movement.

"Lancelot, watch my back. And yell if you can't handle whatever comes up that stairs." She would risk a few broken legs over being killed.



No sooner had Tessa left then Bryce was locking blades with a level four. This is bad bad bad bad. The goblin sneered at him, confident in its ability to overtake him. I don't think so. "Boudica!" He shouted as his muscles struggled to keep the enemy sword from slicing his skin, "Help!" An arrow slicing through the air over his shoulder was his reply as Boudica took aim. A second soon joined its fellow, the feathered shafts sprouting from the Goblin's chest plate. It screeched at Bryce and unlocked their blades, swiping desperately as it clutched the arrows, trying to pull them out. Bryce pressed the attack, cutting through the strange colored skin and releasing the flow of blood from its body.

Half afraid that the cries of his victim would call its fellows to help, he pushed on, Boudica supporting him with her arrows and Celtic curses. On any other occasion, he would have found the dirty phrases spoken in her Irish brogue to be amusing. With sweat, blood, and a dozen more curses, the goblin went down. Bryce felt the familiar rush of the first time of receiving EXP, and fell to his knees, unashamed of his exhaustion. Boudica stood next to him, another arrow knocked as she looked over her summoner. He wondered vaguely if Emma was still with him, somewhere behind him. If she was, he would need her help. They needed to make it to a safe corner, where their backs would be covered and Tessa could cover them. If she wasn't still there, Tessa was going to murder him. But only if the goblins didn't get to him first. A heavy sigh escaped his lips as another goblin, a second level four, spotted them and screeched, running towards them with his weapon raised.

"Emma?" He asked grudgingly. If she wasn't there, no harm in saying words that no one else would hear. "Emma, I need your help with this one."
Boudica raised her bow, sighting the arrow towards the enemy. As the last words fell from his lips, she let the feathered missile fly, hitting the goblin in the shoulder, slowing it down for a second and giving Bryce time to get to his feet, giving Emma time to come to his aide if she still remained.

 

So Sora was about to leave the starting area when someone had called out his username name. He turned towards the direction that he heard the voice come from and saw a player with the username < Il Matto>. He was trying to I guess buy his assistance with the <<Weapon Evolution Potion>> that they all were given. Well no one said that have two of them would hurt. "That depends on the wager." He simply said.

Okay so Chrono was one of the many people who had gone to the Goblin Camp for some early game grinding. At about level three he decided to summon the summon that he was given *insert summon chant and epic Mordred battle here*. He'd defeated his summon and as per the rules Mordred would follow him as a servant. Huzzah. Now back to level grinding. Now level 5 it was time to fight the boss and servant that had appeared. There were already some other players were already fighting. So with his experience in various other game in mind, Chrono turned his attention the the smaller enemies and started to fight them first. He'd taken out four as per the maximum about that can be taken down in a post.

 

<H̦̦̩ͬa̖̜̦͔͖̙̍̂ḑ̠e̺̘͂̔̃͂ś̮̰̮̫̎̊>

As Sylar watched <SilentBlade> gain his summon, he'd almost forgotten about his summon during all the events. He grinned back at his colleague and then turned to another pack of Orcs, coming from the far right. He fired off some more shots, emptying his clip, then reloading. Out of a pack of five, only two were killed. Sylar clicked his teeth together, quickly unequipping his pistol, and equipping an odd looking blade. He spun the blade in his finger's holding it in a back hand grip, charging in to the group of now rather pissed-off Orcs.
One of the Orcs that had a Morning Star, barely missed the hair on Sylar's head as he dropped to the ground, sliding right between the legs. Sylar knifed the Orc right where the sun doesn't shine, causing the Orc to keel over, as Sylar stood, he felt a large blow to the back as an Orc with a Battle Shield knocked him on his side, his HP dropping rather quickly. As he groaned in pain, the Orc then stood over Sylar while he was on the ground, ready to stomp, but Sylar quickly rolled, and sliced the Orc's foot. Sylar used the momentum in his legs to get up, and sliced the throat of the Orc who's foot he originally cut off, digitizing it. He then looked and walked over to the Orc that he caught in the groin. It was actually muttering and still groaning in pain. Sylar tilted his head, as if thinking to let it live or not, then he stuck the blade in the Orc's head, it's body immediately exploding to pixels. He was about to drop his guard when an Orc's Battleaxe swung-and-miss at Sylar's arm from behind. Sylar quickly dodged and faced the Orc, it's mouth snarling with saliva, enraged from the death of his comrades. Sylar only leered right back. As the Orc charged, Sylar break-rolled, and sliced the midriff. All enemies defeated.
Sylar stood, brushing himself off confidently, letting the digital dust off of him from the tussle as a popup screen shown him his EXP gain and that he had leveled up. Twice. He was at half his HP, and the last Restore he gave to <SilentBlade> had already drained a quarter of his total Mana. Aside from that, he was perfectly fine. He heard a woosh of an arrow behind him as he noticed that <Seth's Angel> had actually hit an Orc on the arm.
"Bravo!" Sylar cheered, but his smile turned immediately to danger. An Orc had seen <Seth's Angel> take a shot at it's friend, and immediately was sneaking over, a large dagger in hand. Sylar flipped his sword, grabbing it by the blade, then threw it with his might. The blade barely missed <Seth's Angel>'s shoulder and hit straight for the head, dropping like a large teabag. Sylar closed his fist slowly, bringing it down in a gloat of victory.
"I am so good." Sylar whispered fiercely to himself. When he finished, he called to the girl, "Nice aim. but you gotta watch your back there!"​

 

Level 4

Masaru watched as his field of vision was clouded and he tested to see if he could see his hand, he couldn't. "That's very dense..." Masaru thought before ti cleared and the encampment was blocked in and the Players trapped, it was now a test to fight the Boss, if it would be called that and Masaru took a moment to get his bearings and Star's words.

"Right! We'll use the same tactics as in the tournament!" Masaru called out and ran forward. "Guan Yu!" Masaru called out as Guan Yu ran alongside him in mid step. "What is our goal today?" Guan Yu asked and Masaru spoke. "Take the commander down! I trust you'll watch my back." Masaru said and Guan Yu readied his pole-arm. "Consider it done!" The two males came at the Goblin King, machetes swung down and Guan Yu move din, his weapon blocking one of the weapons while Masaru hung back a bit for the large machetes to miss him and he jumped, running on the blunt edge of the blade and up the forearm to deliver a slash at the Goblin King but the Goblin King reacted to that and was about to bit down about his mid-air form but Masaru didn't need to worry because an arrow ack shooting past and straight into it's eye, he knew that had to be Hikari a steh goblin King staggered back from the projectile and Guan Yu used this moment to slash at it, sending the Goblin King reeling back.

"An excellent shot!" Guan Yu said without any hesitation and Masaru crouched down when he landed, it seemed the Elites and Artillery Goblins were being distracted by other players. "Good, at least won't have to worry about mobs crowding." Masaru muttered and looked to Star. "Hikari, I need another Sword to strike faster!" Masaru called out, thought he doubted the system had any Dual Wielding skills, he still remembered the moves.

 

Level unknown, haven't figured it out yet
No sooner had Bryce called out then Emma was there, shotgun in hand. She'd been trying to deal with the boss, but she hadn't been able to get a clear shot in. The boss was heavily surrounded by melee fighters, so without risking hitting the wrong target it'd be difficult for any ranged class to actually get any hits in. "You damned idiots! Get out of the way!" she remembered yelling, but she hadn't noticed anybody moving. And so she'd begun looking for Tessa and Bryce, and the moment Bryce had called out she'd gone to his aid. "I've got your back" she said, firing a full round at the goblin. The goblin staggered backwards, and Emma took the opportunity to fire a shot at the creature at point blank range, causing the goblin to vanish into pixelly death. It was odd, but it felt good. "Next one's coming, let's take it down quickly and group up with your sister again, alright?" she asked, before turning and beginning to fire at the oncoming goblin.


Level 5
Samuel had gone to help <Seth's Angel>, but apparently <Hades> had it covered. That was good, it meant his awareness was at least good enough that Samuel could rely on him, maybe. However, apparently while he was gloating and warning <Seth's Angel>, <Hades> failed to notice the orc behind him that was charging him down. Their numbers were going down, but the orcs were starting to group up and swarm them which would mean trouble for them. Leaping over, Samuel struck first with his katana in his left hand, and then with the sword in his right. He was at their level now, meaning they were nowhere near as much of a struggle, indicated by the loss of half the hp. He didn't stop there though, repeating the motion swiftly and dispatching it almost instantly. "Looks like somebody needs to take their own advice" he said. It wasn't in a friendly tone, because it wasn't meant as a joke. It was more of a warning, really.

Turning around, he saw three orcs coming towards him. "Angel, Hades, be careful. They're banding together, pretty soon we're going to have way too many to deal with" he shouted out. But not if we have extra people helping us, he thought to himself. "Open, Gates of the heavens. Release Alexander!" he ordered, just as one of the three orcs dove forward. A moment later, it was impaled by the spear of Alexander the Great, who came flying down from the sky to land directly on top of the orc that had dared to attack his summoner. Alexander then turned and faced the two orcs. Now it was two on two; Alexander the Great and Samuel Agnès against two orcs. It was hardly a fair fight. With a grin, the swordsman and his tactical comrade charged forward and began their assault.
​

 

Bryce: Level 2​

"Fine by me. She went to one of the western towers." Bryce got to his feet, bracing himself as the goblin approached. He cut up and then to the side in a series of quick, short slashes that caused the goblin to stumble back, critically injured. He finished it with a thrust through the chest before forcing himself to run towards the tower that Tessa had disappeared in. Boudica ran at his side, Emma behind him as they navigated the foggy battleground. He heard shots ringing through the air, and grinned to himself, knowing that Tessa had found her nesting spot, as she called it, and was doing what she did best.

Another Level 4 approached him, and Boudica unleashed an arrow with a yell, striking the creature in the face. It was a rather gruesome sight as the goblin carried on towards them, the shaft sticking out of his eye. Bryce tried to ignore it and cleaved the monster in two. A message popped up on his screen, informing him that he had reached another level. About dam[italics]n[/italics] time. As they reached the tower, he could hear the sounds of fighting. The shots still rang out above them, so Tessa must have Lancelot at her back. A small wave of jealousy washed over Bryce, but he pushed it away as Boudica turned and fired a second arrow into an oncoming goblin.

"We have to get inside!" He yelled to Emma, making sure the goblin was far enough that she had time to make it inside the tower before entering it himself. He ran up the stairs two at a time, nearly crashing into the goblin that was keeping Lancelot busy. Not taking the time to question it, he grabbed the goblin and threw it down the stairs before following, hacking and slashing as it rolled until the HP bar reached zero and it vanished in a cloud of pixels. He turned back to see Boudica eyeing Lancelot, who merely readjusted his grip on his shield and stood at attention. "Tessa!"

Tessa: Level 3​

Tessa heard her name and spun around, waving quickly to Bryce before turning back and aiming, finding another target. She decided to take one out that had been attacking a girl, critically injuring it before moving on, allowing the girl to collect the experience. After all, if they didn't help each other then they would never make it out of this game in one piece. She was glad to see her brother was unharmed, and assumed that it meant Emma was safe as well. Bryce knew what Tessa would do to him if he let their party member die. She firmly followed the age old saying, "Never leave a person behind."

Tessa took out a Level 2 Artillery Goblin in an opposite tower before turning her attention to the boss. She managed to squeeze off one shot, barely doing any damage before a Level 4 entered her view. A handful of shots and he was a cloud of pixels. She took a moment to rub her shoulder, her muscles beginning to cramp from remaining in one position for so long. This was too good a spot to pass up, and so she massaged the sore spot before continuing, taking out another Level 2 and gaining another level herself. She could only hope that Emma was able to garner as much experience as they were, and that she had many more bullets. Trying to shoot with a pistol from this high off the ground wouldn't work nearly as well as her rifle.

Taking another second, she swung her gaze back to the boss, trying to gauge how much HP was left. A handful of players were attacking him, and out of sheer need to help, she squeezed off another shot, the bullet hitting his armor. Whether or not it actually helped, she couldn't say.

 

<H̦̦̩ͬa̖̜̦͔͖̙̍̂ḑ̠e̺̘͂̔̃͂ś̮̰̮̫̎̊>
| Level 5 |

<SilentBlade>'s warning did not go unnoticed. "Hmph." Sylar grunted, equipping his pistol again, "Lost my sword. Will need to get it back after this." He looked back at <SilentBlade> "Maybe we should give you all the loot after this since you're saving everyone's life." Sylar joked to him, who'd already summoned back Alexander the Great. In the event that either of them failed, he would provide cover fire to pick off the Orcs, since a majority of their weapons are short-ranged. He strafed over to <Seth's Angel> making sure she was within proximity, saying,
"Since you proved that you can shoot, lets see how good you can protect <SilentBlade> if things go south."​

 

​

After having defeated the goblins and saying her goodbyes to Lucas, Jackyl decided to check the loot that she had acquired from the goblins. As she opened her inventory, she saw that there was a weapon evolution potion, just sitting there. Well, that seemed important, and was probably worth using. So, she'd go and use it right now- wait a second. There was something that she had definitely not seen earlier right underneath it. Looking at the item, it seemed to be called <<Summon's Promise>> and was an accessory of some sort. Pulling it out of her inventory, Jackyl put that ring right on her finger, and looked as it seemed to slip right on her finger. Man was this an awesome new accessory. Realizing she still had her menu open, she was wondering why it was still open, since she couldn't think of anything that she needed to take of, and thus closed it.

It was at that point that the entire feel of the area that she was in seemed to change. Mist covered the skies and walls seemed to rise, creating a barricade that barred all entrance and exit from the encampment. Looking forward, she saw that there was a large goblin who seemed to spawn out of nowhere, and was most notably labeled as a king. Which could only mean that he was the boss of this area. Well damn, if she knew anything about MMOs, then it was very likely that this was a field boss, and boy, were field bosses tough customers to deal with. However, given that this was basically the only place people could feasibly train in right now, it was very likely that there was a large assortment of players already here fighting the creature. So, Jackyl had nothing to fear in fighting it, other than not actually getting to fight it, as she was such a large distance from it currently. Gah, thinking on her own wouldn't solve this problem, and so she needed the aid of someone who knew just how to handle battles.

​

With a flash of light, the knight had appeared before his master once again, he had readied his spear at once, only to notice that there were no enemies in the immediate area. With a curious look on his face and relaxing his grip on the spear, he turned to his master and said, "m'lady, with the seemingly purged goblin encampment, to what end have I been summoned again."

Jackyl directed his attention towards the large goblin a ways away from them. As Astolfo seemed to recognize the threat it posed, Jackyl went on to explain what she needed. "I need your help to fight that boss. Like, you're a super awesome knight, right? So what kind of knightly plans do you have to fight it?"

Astolfo had seemed to be pensive for a short before gaining a stern gaze in the direction of the goblin king. With a snap of his fingers, from essentially nowhere, a half bird half horse thing just sort of appeared and flew down to land softly on the ground next to Astolfo. Pointing the the now summoned mount, he said, "m'lady, we will use my trusty steed, the hippogriff to approach the repulsive creature," keeping a serious tone of voice and an equally resolute expression on his face, he said, "we charge the monster with reckless abandon and strike it with all the strength and fury we have, putting the fear of God in it and delivering a might and just blow purging it from this very plain of existence!"

As Jackyl listened to this plan, her expression became shocked as she reeled back in response to her knight's daring plan of attack. Stammering a bit in trying to form a coherent statement against the plan. "Bu-but Astolfo! A careless plan like this, how do you know it'll work?"

Astolfo closed his eyes as he gave a smug "hmph," noise as it to notify her that she was not putting the faith in him that he clearly warranted. Opening his eyes with an intense look directed at Jackyl, in a tone that was of absolute fact rather than optimistic opinion, he had simply said, "because it will."

Jackyl reeled back in shock once more, before closing her eyes and clenching her fist in raw disappointment at no one other than herself as tears formed in her eyes. Looking back up to her glorious knight in shining armor, with a tone that was begging for the grace of his forgiveness she said, "I'm sorry Astolfo! It wasn't right of me to doubt your flawless plan, and so, I feel unworthy of being your master."

In response to this, Astolfo had put a reassuring hand on the shoulder of the distraught Jackyl. As she looked him in the face, it was not one of disdain nor anger, but rather one that was bright and cheery. "It is fine young Master Jackal, for you see very few can match the sheer wit and cunning when it comes to military strategy that I, the great Astolfo, have." As if to further reassure her he said, "and even fewer have the ability to match such grace and wonder that I posses; but you, the growing youth of tomorrow, have been able to see it with such clarity that I believe you are a partner worthy of my use as your summon. Now then, let us ride onward to battle." And so they did, mounting upon the legendary hippogriff and taking to the skies towards the boss. Whilst in the air, the rider of the duo had turned to his passenger and asked, "now, I do not recall seeing you use it whilst dealing with the lesser gremlins, but you are aware that you are able to use magic?"

Thinking on it for a moment, Jackyl had remembered such a thing existing during character creation. If what she thought was correct then it had something to do with race, and she had almost completely forgot race was a thing as it was. Looking in her menu, she went to go check out what she had, only to see that they were pretty underwhelming spells as things stood. "Lame," she grumbled to herself. Well, at least it was better than nothing. So, loosening her grip on the flying mount, Jackyl drew out both of her longsword. Directing to one of them she said, "en flare," causing it to gain a redish hue in it as it burst into flames. Following this up she directed towards another saying, "en vapor," causing the other blade to take on a blueish hue as it was soaked in water. As the hippogriff closed in on the boss monster, Jackyl stood up and said, "alright, I'm going in!"

As she jumped off of the back of Astolfo's mount, the summon saluted his master yelling out to her, "bonne chance mon maitre!" As Jackyl closed in on the beast, she struck out both of her element imbued blades at once, striking with a good deal of force behind them as they raked across the armor and flesh of the goblin king. As she landed, with a slight jolt in her legs from the height of the fall, she looked around and saw a familiar face. "Oh hey Edge," she called out, "cool to see you're still around." Being none too pleased at the attack, the Goblin King turned to face Jackyl, raising its blade in defiance towards her. While she had time to dodge, it wouldn't be a complete one and the attack would hurt. However, as she started to leap backwards, the hippogriff rider had flown to the backside of the goblin king, doing a fly by with his spear, striking once within range. The mere touch of the spear caused the beast to be temporarily staggered, thus cancelling its attack. As Jackyl was now in relative safety, she looked around and saw that there was a good deal of people still here and still willing to fight it, and thus, the creature would fall in no time.

 

Level: 4
Location: Goblin Camp

Star was assisting some of the others in taking out the Artillery as well as Elites with her bow. It was all coming back to her. The sniper skills she had obtained in Sword Art Online were all there and striking in critical spots. After she was done assisting with the 5 or so enemies, her attention was brought back towards the Boss. She looked over to Robin Hood and smiled. "Let's aim for his head, Robin." She commanded. "Very well. I shall activate a skill then." Hood pulled an arrow from his quiver and locked on to the Goblin King. Star activated her magic for wind to enchant her arrows and they both fired, hitting the critical spot of the Goblin causing a stun effect.

Level: 5
Location: Goblin Camp

Alpha and Gilgamesh continued to tank the King while others were able to sneak in and deal some damage. All the players were working well together which gave Alpha a wide smile. "We're getting closer everyone! Let's give it our all!" The boss was already 3 bars down now so his words were true. Gilgamesh didn't seem to really care however, just using normal attacks unless Alpha commanded a skill. Perhaps it was just the personality from the real Gilgamesh clashing with the game. It was scarce data, but the personality of all the summons was meant to be as close as possible to the original.

 

Cassandra saw the other players pitching in to help with the boss fight. She continued opening fire on the Goblin King, meanwhile a couple of Elites had branched off and were coming for her. However, Joan of Arc was waiting. As the pair of Goblins moved in to strike Cassandra, she swept in. The first Goblin was taken in the throat by her banner-lance. Then, she swept La Pucelle around and hacked the head off the second. She sliced her sword through the air, sending the Goblin blood spraying over the ground. Meanwhile, Cassandra looked down at the Sniper Rifle. She could do more with what she had, she was sure. There was a second spell she could use with this.
"En Jolt!" Cassandra cast the spell, empowering her Sniper Rifle with both Lightning and Ice. Surely this would be enough to cause great harm to the enemy. She continued to open fire, slamming shot after shot into the head of the Goblin King. She would get the Most Damage Dealt reward if there was one, and hopefully the Last Hit reward if there was one too. She needed to have the best if she was going to survive out here.





Julius and Cú Chulainn swept through the Goblin Artillery lines, running across bridges that connected some of the towers to kill the Goblins waiting in there. However, Julius noticed that there were far, far more valuable opponents below and that others were dealing with the artillery now, With that done, there was more useful things that Julius and his Summon could do.
"Better fighting this way!" Julius shouted, leaping off the tower and spearing one of the Goblin Elites in the process. Cú Chulainn followed soon after, running two through with Gae Bolg. Unwilling to be outmatched by his summon, Julius twisted and hacked the head off a second Elite with his blade. Plenty of progress was being made. For that, he was glad. This fight would be over relatively soon. Hopefully he could find some willing recruits for the Legio Julius here. He wanted to find some relatively high levelled people to form a basis. Curse that Alpha. If he hadn't gone off and formed his own Summoned Knights then this would have been so much easier. To think that he would go for such a petty power play!

​

 

Level 5
With the two orcs defeated, Samuel shot a quick glance at <Seth's Angel> and saw that things weren't going as smoothly as they could've been going for his young comrade. She seemed to be learning how to use her attacks to an extent, but her accuracy...well, calling her accurate might be a bit of stretch. "Alexander, hold them off for a little. If you need help, I'll come over and do it" he instructed. He then hurried over to her side and peered over her shoulder. "Hmmm, I think I see what your issue is. For starts you want to read the incantation quickly, not slowly. The more you think about it, the more complex it seems. Just take a glance and read it out. The bottom one you've got there is a pretty interesting skill, you could always give that a try. Other than that, try aiming your bow a little higher. Arrows have drop on them, so as they fly further they'll slowly drop down and make your shots a little less accurate. Aside from that...maybe try taking your time a little more with the shots. Go on and give it a try" Samuel instructed, watching carefully to make sure she didn't screw it up.

Level 2...and a half
Once Bryce and Emma had gotten to Tessa, Emma noticed the goblins trying to get up to the top of the tower. Ascending the stairs that I'm assuming were there, she stopped by her side and reloaded her shotgun. "I bet I can take out more of these things than you" she said, setting a friendly challenge as determination set in her eyes. She turned and simply dove out of the tower window, tumbling as she landed on the ground. "Bryce, was it? How long have you been playing VRMMOs for?" she asked, making casual conversation as she shot a full blast into one of the goblins in front of her, turning it into pixels with a second shot shortly after.

There was one.​

 

Level 4 ​

Tessa changed her aim from the boss to the remaining Level 2 and 4 goblins that still perforated the area. She tried to support other players as best she could, feeling her stomach since whenever one of them took an injury or a blow. She didn't like to watch other people get hurt, and while she had pulled the gun on Emma earlier, it had been in defense of her brother. She wasn't sure she could have actually pulled the trigger, if it came down to it. She let her mind focus on the task and pulled the trigger, watching through the scope as another of the monsters turned to pixelated dust. Her arms trembled, and she felt as though she had run miles at full speed. Perhaps it wasn't so good to level up so quickly, but she needed to catch up to the others. She needed to make sure she was a high enough level that she could take care of herself, and Bryce, and Emma.
Another Elite Goblin went down, and she sighed, pressing her head against the butt of the rifle for a moment as a wave of exhaustion washed over her. The message in the corner popped up that she had reached level five. She raised her head and tiredly aimed once more.

Level 4​

Bryce blocked an uppercut before slicing through a goblin's middle, watching it dissolve before turning to the next. "One!" he called out before turning his thoughts to her question as his body reacted instinctively to the enemies' movements. "A couple years." Every day for a couple years. "What about you?" He felt tired, but not overly so. As he glanced up at the tower before parrying a blow, he realized that Tessa's gunshots were slowing. Was something wrong? Or was she just running out of bullets? He glanced at Boudica beside him as she aimed, her cheek pressed against her hand before she released the arrow, red hair a fiery mess that accented the paleness of her skin and the green of her eyes.

"Boudica, could you?..." She glanced at him and sighed, letting the bowstring relax as she reached for another arrow. "I'm sorry, but I cannot leave your side. I haven't heard any commotion from behind us, and I believe they are still alive and well."

Bryce nodded, cutting the second goblin down. "Two." He said, much quieter. Should he go back to check on Tessa? If she was fine, she wouldn't appreciate the interruption, but if she wasn't, she might need help....

 

The Boss's HP had dwindled down to its final bar. There wasn't much left for them to do but to take him out. All the other Goblin's that were summoned had been dealt with and now it just had come down to the final few blows. However, there was a shift in the air. The Goblin King looked up towards the sky and a flash of light came falling down before him. This event was exactly the same as it was for the summons that the players had been using. A figure appeared before them with a single HP bar similar to the last one on the Goblin King. His name could be seen as Gwyn ap Nudd.

(Gwyn ap Nudd is a ruler of the Goblin Tribe in welsh folklore for those who don't know)


Level: 5
Location: Goblin Camp

This was... strange. Alpha had originally programmed the bosses to gain a power up in the form of a new weapon and increase buffs, however the system that he used was supposed to increase difficulty in scale with the amount of players in level and combat ability. It was a complex formula but it seemed it had changed the coding of the game to allow bosses to summon as well. It was more humorous to see the King of Goblins summon the ruler of the tribe, a mythical being who once aided Arthur of ancient Briton.

This entire battle was going to be new to him so he steeled himself and became much more careful and aware of the surroundings. He suppressed the shock on his face and glared down at the summon. "Gilgamesh, take out the summon. I'm going to take care of the King."
"Very well. I don't really have much of a choice." Gilgamesh huffed at the idea.

The two went their separate ways and began to attack.

Level: 4
Location: Goblin Camp

Star watched in shock as the Goblin King summoned his own partner. That wasn't going to be a part of this game too was it? This would make the matches that much more difficult. What was worse about this was now there were two powerful targets and she could already see the numbers of players becoming less. The two were killing actual people, real humans right in front of her. This battle was going to have a large death total. It hurt her to see this happen. She needed to win, create a shop, and sell armor to protect the players of SAO2. She looked over to Robin Hood and nodded as they continued to snipe from a distance.

 

Spoiler

Level 5 ​

Tessa swore when the goblin king's summon appeared, causing Lancelot to look over his shoulder and raise an eyebrow. "I never claimed to be a lady." She retorted to his silent commentation in her choice of words as she turned back and aimed. She fired another round into the goblin king's partner, choosing to focus on the enemy with the fuller health bar. She noticed someone running across the battlefield with a figure that looked vaguely familiar. Cu....Cu something? Damn[plained]n[/plained] if she could remember. She covered them with some sniper fire, critically injuring a goblin elite before turning her gaze back to the goblin king. And freezing. Was that...magic? She took that moment to squeeze off another shot at the goblin king's partner, her mind racing. She needed to get that person's attention somehow.
After. She told herself as she refocused her sights on the boss. I'll have a chance after. Another wave of exhaustion washed over her. After.

Spoiler

Level 6 ​

Bryce continued to hack and slash. He hoped Emma was still alive. She hadn't spoken in a while. The flash to the side alerted him to the goblin king's summon being called into battle. The boss has a summon. Of course. Just when it started to look like the battle was over, they were introduced to fresh hell. Another flash caught his eye, that of magic. "Hey!" He yelled at the guy who had seemingly loosed a bolt of lightning at the boss. "Hey you! How did you do that?"

He lacked the tact that Tessa had, and began to wave his arm wildly while fighting off another Elite. "Help a dude out!" If he could at least learn how to do that, he could cover Tessa's position much better. Plus you know, it was magic. Who didn't want to use that?

 

Level 5 baybeee

Alright, time for a semi-legit post, let's do this. <Chrono> had continued to deal with the lesser Goblins up until the King Goblin summoned a summon of his own. It was surprising, but bosses do then to have tricks up their sleeves. Fortunately in this case they could fight fire with fire. After quickly taking care of another lessen goblin, <Chrono> took out the item that he'd gotten as a result of defeating his summon. "Descend from the heavens, Knight of Treachery Mordred!" Not sure if this is the accurate chant or not, but screw it. It sounds cool thus I'm using it.

Spoiler: 100% Male

The virtual clouds in the sky opened up and a silver sword fell from the heavens and landed in front of <Chrono> The sword was followed by a knight wearing armor of a similar color scheme to the blade materializing before it. The knight said nothing to <Chrono>, but instead turned his attention towards the Goblin King's summon and started to attack it with fierce attacks.

So with that being done, Chrono joined in and went back to attacking the Goblin King.

@Calxiyn You are being waited on so yeah, only you know how to solve that probelm

 

​

As Jackly was getting ready to go and do more of her fighting things, it seemed that Edgemeister had taken note of her greeting. Also, apparently his name wasn't Edgemeister and was actually Lucas. Well it was nice of him to introduce himself again, but she had no idea why he'd just go by the name of Edgemeister when he had a perfectly normal one to begin with. Some people were all kinds of weird sometimes. Regardless, the goblin king seemed to be taking quite the beating here as it seemed that he only had one health bar left. However, it then totally cheated. Like, what game monster uses player mechanics? Late game ones, that's what. And this was a first boss. She'd definitely have to complain to management about this.

Wondering just who management was, Jackyl then decided that it wasn't no thang at the end of the day, and that the only thing that really changed here was that there was another thing for the entire group to kill. Looking towards Astolfo, she said, "yo Astolfo, go make sure that guy's summon has a bad day. Like the kind you get when you realize you overslept and had a test that day so you run in as fast as you can only to realize that you have 10 minutes left to take your final exam on things you totally knew but you have no time to do any of it so you just end up bombing it and then your entire final grade suffers a lot because of it!" With a slightly confused nod, Astolfo went off to go and strike at the goblin king's summon with his lance.

Jackyl spun her still magically charged blades as she turned around to Lucas. "Alright Lu, let's go kill us a boss!" With that, Jackyl sprinted forwards at the boss and leaped into the air. With both of her blades by her side, she struck them out, having them slice along anything they touched as the momentum kept her going forward.