Goldenflame27

Far From Home

Jason barely suppressed the massive grin that threatened to split his face at Kimi’s sudden flash of anger at him. Sure his unorthodox ‘Fastball Special’ was risky, but where was the fun in always playing it safe? Anyway, the real danger hadn’t really come from him, he hadn’t so much struck Kimi as he had shoved her. The real danger came from her landing. If it had been just a little off perfect, she might have taken some serious injuries. After seeing her amazing acrobatic leaps and tumbles while fighting the <Dark Reflections>, Jason had been pretty sure that Kimi could handle such an improvisation flawlessly though. He tried to look properly chastened as Kimi berated him, even going so far as to apologize for his recklessness. But when Kimi herself admitted to the rush the Fastball Special had given her, Jason simply couldn’t let it go. “Don’t do that again without warning, eh? So if I warn you first, it’s completely fair game?” At the girl’s scowl, Jason let rip with a deep laugh, “Tiny gods below, woman, but you’re going to make a fantastic addition to our team!”

His look took a more serious turn then. “Alphard and I are going to head out to meet up with the other possible addition to our little group and then go train for a while. If you still intend on joining us, I can come and get you when we’re ready to leave?” At her nod, Jason smiled and headed over to give the news to his teammate.

On his way, Jason checked his inventory and found, along with a sizable chunk of cash, he had obtained an item called an <Air Crystal>. He brought the crystal out and grunted in surprise when it turned out to be a perfectly cut, fist sized, blue and white gem. Equally surprising, however was the fact that it had almost no weight. Indeed, the gem actually floated several centimeters above his palm as he held it. Jason grunted again and shrugged: he’d figure out what the strange crystal did later. He reached Alphard just in time to see her swap out her usual one-handed scythe for the slower, more common two-handed style. She nodded in greeting and slung the weapon across her back. “Is Kimi ready to head out to meet up with Kazuma? For some reason, I’m suddenly itching to see how he measures up for teaming up with us.”

Jason grinned and responded, “I’m feeling the same. It’s kinda exciting getting a party together. Well, in any event, Kimi is indeed ready and will be joining us whenever you are. I have no further business to attend to before we go meet up with Crona and this Kazuma guy.” Alphard gave the go-ahead and they gathered Kimi and moved back out across the desert. After only about an hour’s walk, the party reentered this floor’s main town. They moved swiftly to a small, adobe house on the outskirts where Alphard knocked once. The door swung open, revealing the tall blond known as Crona. “Come in, come in, I’m glad you came. Please meet Kazuma, he’s right inside.”

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Meanwhile, at the same oasis that had seen Fitch’s first kill, a short, thin man dressed in a long black duster crouched and studied the tracks and scuffs left over from the encounter there. On the opposite side of the oasis, two heavily armored warriors stopped momentarily under a tree for some shade. The short man paid them no heed, focused instead on what the tracks told him of the battle that had transpired here. After a moment, he found what he had been looking for, the long drag made by the trailing foot of a one-handed sword user as they made a straight lunge. Judging by this track’s length, breadth, and depth, the cloaked man could tell it was made by none other than Doku, the notorious (in some circles) murderer. Finding a point where one of Doku’s targets had perished, the man made a disgusted sound deep in his throat. Not at the notion of murder, the man was well versed in that art himself. No, he was sickened by Doku’s sloppy thrust. Any half competent fighter could have blocked a thrust like that and Doku was only further weakening his skills by fighting those that could be caught by such an attack.

The black-clad fighter’s path eventually took him over to where the two adventurers were lounging. The man growled when he noticed that they had completely destroyed all of the tracks in this area, robbing the man of important information regarding the mysterious sword-and-shield user that Doku had brought with him. One of the lounging fighters stood and clapped the cloaked stranger on the back, grinning like an idiot. “Hello, friend, lose something?”

The cloaked man’s response was chilling when it came, “First, I am not your friend. I am Kote the Hunter. Secondly, I did indeed lose something: my piece of mind. You and your ruffian friend have obscured a path I was tracking and you will pay dearly for it. I rarely kill without pay, but I am willing to make an exception for you two since you have potentially robbed me of an important opportunity.”

The first speaker backed away swiftly, attempting to draw his sword in the process. Kote was on him before more than three inches of steel had left the scabbard. He drew a long knife and slipped it across the man’s throat in one smooth motion, following up the motion with a short stab to the ribs. As that man dissolved into shining powder, Kote pounced towards the other man. The terrified man lunged with his spear, which was easily parried. He let out a small cry as Kote’s knife slid into his leg, releasing a paralyzing toxin into his system. Kote followed the man down, ending up on top of him while pulling out another knife. “Now my boy, let’s see how long I can keep you alive.”

Far From Home

As Jason launched himself back into the fight, he glanced to the side and happened to catch a glimpse of Suto and Kimi’s ... predicament. He grinned and let out a deep belly laugh. Damn if he couldn’t see those two becoming a couple. Then again, Kimi always got strangely flustered whenever dealing with Nero. Ah well, he was probably looking too deep into it. He let out another deep laugh at his own stupidity and at the pure joy of combat. Charging the worm’s flank, next to Alphard, Jason lowered his shoulder and activated the Art <Bull Rush>. Impacting heavily, he actually managed to flinch the beast before flipping head over heels over it. Landing on its other side, Jason drove his feet into the worm and rocketed away.

He hit the ground running and, while passing hooked his fingers in Kimi’s armor, yanking her to her feet and skidding to a stop with her in his arms. “You alright, Kimi? Looks like you and Suto landed pretty hard there.”

At her nod, Jason smiled wolfishly and handed her a heath potion. “Here, take this, you might need it after what I’m planning is done. Think of this as a preliminary test to get onto Alphard’s team.” He winked slyly, “Have you ever heard of the Fastball Special?”

Alphard was standing directly in front of the worm, hacking away at its face and dragging its aggro back to her. As she landed the final hit of her Art, she had the satisfaction of seeing the Boss’ health finally drop into the red. Suddenly, it lunged forward and clamped its gaping maw down around her midsection. “Oh we’ll have none of that now, you slimy bastard!” she yelled, and brought her scythe down hard into its left eye. The beast screeched in pain and Alphard managed to wriggle free. Just as she regained her feet, Alphard saw a brilliant golden comet streak past her and imbed into the worm’s head. The comet resolved itself to be none other than an extremely shaken Kimi, coming off the cooldown from her Sword Art <Flashing Penetrator>. Kimi retreated back to Alphard and took a health potion, muttering under her breath the whole while. It seemed to Alphard that she was repeating the same sentence over and over again, “Never again, Jason, never again.” Alphard grinned, sure that Jason had just launched her off the head of his hammer with a devastating Sword Art. Possibly even <Gravity Crush>. She turned back to the Boss just in time to see Nero run in and cleanly bisect the worm with his crimson glowing blade. Finally, the fight was over, time to reap the rewards. Alphard waited for the victory screen and checked her loot to find a strange black gem labelled <Shadow Crystal>.

Far From Home

Alphard covered herself with her chitin shield and braced for impact. Instead of eating her, the worm reared up and sought to crush her under its enormous girth. The monster’s body crashed down on Alphard and she felt her shield let loose an ominous groan. Without warning, the shield’s durability gave out and shattered into billions of shining shards. In the split second between the shield giving away and the Boss crushing Alphard, Kimi sprang in and sunk her rapier into the beast repeatedly. The worm reared back in an attempt to shake the girl loose and Alphard rolled out from under it. Escaping backwards, Alphard quickly drank a health potion, her last one.

As Alphard recovered from her ordeal, Jason sprang in to assist Kimi. He leapt far into the air and unleashed a special Sword Art uniquely designed to be used during a jump. <Defiler> began to glow with a shining blue light as <Orbital Drop> activated. The blow smashed deeply onto the crown of the worm’s head. Jason was rewarded with watching a full eighth of its health drop. The second step of the art was a short leap backwards. Jason’s enhanced mobility turned this hop into a great leap that ate up distance like a hungry teen. The unfortunate side effect of this Sword Art was that it had an obscenely long cooldown time. Jason was frozen in place and would be for fifteen more seconds.

Alphard then took her turn in covering her teammate. She charged the Boss’ flank, sinking her scythe deep into the monster’s side. She then ran up towards its maw, drawing the blade along with her. The resulting gash was wide, but it seemed to barely do any damage. In light of this, Alphard brought out her javelin and used a recently acquired Art, <Greater Thrown Weapon> the lance flew true and buried itself completely into the wound she had just made. well, that’s one javelin I won’t be getting back she thought. At precisely that moment, Suto and Nero arrived to offer their support. “Hey boys, welcome to the fight! Took you long enough, though!”

Kin of the 72nd Expansion Battalion - Shingeki no Kyojin

“‘Three… two… Druiker!’” Tinker heard his leader’s voice and snapped his head sideways to find her. He caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye and threw his arm out to catch the ball being thrown to him. The ball described a gentle arc through the air as it passed directly into his path. There was only one problem… A tree stood between the young inventor and the ball. The tree was rather small, and only the topmost branches were in his way, but it was enough that access to the ball was blocked off. well, looks like I get to test two new devices today.

As he sped towards the tree, Tinker let a small burst of steam out of the nozzle on his left side. This changed his path so he would pass to the right of the tree instead. The problem with this course of action, however, was that it would take him out of the ball’s arc. That’s where the second invention came into play. Tinker flicked his left arm out sharply and a steel hook slid out of his sleeve. He grasped a loop forged into the end and rammed the hook into the tree. The idea behind the hook was to provide a way to change direction even more sharply than originally provided by the omni-directional gear. The hook did not perform as planned, however. First, it dug too deep, jerking Tinker’s arm sharply and painfully. Then, the hook simply snapped. It seems that the speed granted by the steam gear was simply too much for the hook to handle. This had the effect of throwing Tinker bodily into a nearby tree. The impact jarred his whole body and the rough bark scraped at his back and arms. He was, however, able to sweep a leg out in his uncontrollable tumble and send the ball flying in Zero’s direction.

After the impact, Tinker had to stay seated for a moment. He had several scrapes on his arms, bruises on his back, and possibly a fractured rib. Damn. Tinker sighed and realized there was nothing for it. He reached into his belt pouch and popped out a small flare which he then lit and tossed up into the air. Apparently the hunting practice would have to turn into a rescue and field stabilization practice……

Kin of the 72nd Expansion Battalion - Shingeki no Kyojin

I apologize for the triple post, the internet was acting up when I was trying to get it submitted. for me (until just now) it read as not having posted at all

Kin of the 72nd Expansion Battalion - Shingeki no Kyojin

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Kin of the 72nd Expansion Battalion - Shingeki no Kyojin

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Kin of the 72nd Expansion Battalion - Shingeki no Kyojin

Tinker grabbed his sword hilts and attached the first set of blades. Then, pulling the triggers, he shot after Ava, kicking the ball into a long, slow lob in the process. Passing the anchor point of his cable, Tinker twisted 360 degrees and shot out his other piton-tipped cable at a tree in the distance. There was a sharp jerk as his omnidirectional equipment hauled him forward at incredible speed. Even as he hurtled forward, Tinker’s eyes were scanning the trees for the next grapple point. That wasn’t the only thing occupying his thoughts, though, Tinker also had to keep a lookout for the Titan dummies. Those were the main targets.

Moments later, Zero swung past Tinker and passed him the ball. Tinker decided he was feeling gutsy and, upon catching it, Tinker executed a clean front flip and spiked the ball backwards to Alois. He completed his flip and landed heavily on a tree branch. Yeah, this was the life. Pure exhilaration. Adrenaline coursing through his veins, Tinker leapt off the branch and shot his cables out once more to propel himself to the next anchor point at breakneck speed. The other members of the team kept relatively close to Tinker and he to them. Suddenly, Tinker saw a flash of tan flesh as he sped through the trees. “Titan sighted left. Repeat Titan left.”

Tinker torqued his hips, changing his forward motion into a smooth arc heading left. Sure enough, it was a Titan dummy. This particular stand-in stood at approximately 12 meters tall- on the smaller side when it came to Titans. Tinker arced past the Titan’s face and, as he did, pulled out his new flachette pistol. Moment of truth, Tink. Hope it doesn’t blow up. A slow, constant trigger pull and the gun bucked in his hands. A tight, silver cloud of metal shards flew from the gun and imbedded themselves in the analog’s face, just below its left eye. Well at least the gun works. I’ll just have to work on my aim now And just like that, Tinker was past the Titan, trusting that his team could finish it off.

Far From Home

This was it. The moment of truth. They were on the precipice, staring into the abyss. Quite literally, perhaps. The small party stood just outside the door that would lead them to the Boss’ chamber. The double doors were comprised of two massive blocks of sandstone, each easily weighing in at several tonnes. Scrawled across the doors were more pictographs like those found on the walls in each of the passages leading here. The carvings depicted some sort of massive worm in a barren landscape. Laying around the worm and under its astounding girth were the scattered corpses of armored, weapon-bearing men and women. The human figures lay broken, limbs twisted into grotesque positions. In the flickering lights of four torches flanking the doors, the images seemed to crawl and move across the rough sandstone into which they were carved.

Jason ran his fingers over the carvings and let a grim grin split his face. Glancing at Alphard, he rapped the doors lightly with his hammer, “They’re gonna hafta change the decorations here after we’re through with this place. I wonder if we can find someone with a high enough Masonry Skill to put our pictures up here with chopped up worm in the background.” No one laughed. Even Jason knew it was a weak joke, but he had to try to alleviate the dark mood in the room. The Tower of Lingering Regrets had been getting to them all. Surveying the somber looks of his teammates, Jason sighed and checked his inventory, making sure that his two health crystals and his multitudinal health potions were still prepped and ready within easy access. Then, without looking back to his team, he set the top of his hammer against the massive sandstone doors and pushed.

The doors led to what must have been the roof of the Tower. The area was vast and open to the sky, allowing the dark desert sun to beat down on what appeared to be a coliseum. In the center of the coliseum lay a stretch of sand nearly one hundred meters in diameter. Spaced evenly about the sand were tall stone pillars dangling blackened and rusted chains. Ringing the sand was five or six tiers of rough-cut stone seating. Alphard charged out onto the sand shield first, blade raised high. Jason bounded out behind her, using his superior speed and agility to spring up one of the pillars. He clung to the chains hanging from the pillar and drew his hammer. The two warriors glanced around, searching for the Boss and found… nothing. Jason slowly made his way down the chains, landing softly beside his Lady and she lowered her guard for just a moment. In just that moment, a ripple ran through the sand and three meters of Boss rose up in a geyser of silicon, throwing Jason and Alphard into the air. The monster was indeed the sand worm from the hieroglyphs on the doors. The worm was colored a sandy dun and what was visible aboveground seemed to be approximately one fifth of the overall beast. Alphard had time only to wonder how the worm had stayed concealed before she crashed hard to earth. The worm towered above her, preparing to devour her whole and Alphard thought, is this the end?. She prayed that her teammates would reach her before it was too late.

Kin of the 72nd Expansion Battalion - Shingeki no Kyojin

Tinker sat in the corner of the room, on his bed and- as always- fiddled with one of his many devices currently in progress. This one in particular was a modified long-barreled pistol. The idea for this one was to fix it up so that it would fire a cloud of flechettes in a concentrated burst. Ideally, one could use the flechette pistol to blind a Titan on the way past so as to distract it from the rest of the team. The gun had real promise, not like the last blinding tool; Tinker and Kiryuu still carried the flash burns from that one and Tinker’s eyebrows had just now grown back. Tinker reached under his bed- he had the bottom bunk-, brought his tool kit out, and removed a small screwdriver. As he used it to begin removing the wooden grips from the pistol, Tinker responded to Ava’s question.

“Well ma’am, it seems to me that if we had some burning need to say anything about this placement or about our position in the 72nd as a whole, we wouldn’t have waited until now to say it. I, personally am firmly aware that we haven’t graduated yet and will continue to put 110% effort into my training as befits a member of the Expansion Battalion. The 72nd is probably the only battalion that will take someone with my… quirks…” as he said this last bit, Tinker removed the pistol’s grip and slotted a tiny compressed-steam tank into a specially fitted nozzle in its hollowed out handle. He then began screwing the grips back on and continued speaking, “… so I have every intention of graduating from training with the rest of you.” He glanced around, “And if I may be so bold, I may not be the only one here who may only fit into a battalion as… unique as the 72nd.”

Tinker stood up, spun his newly completed pistol around his finger once, and jammed it into a customized sidesaddle holster with a flourish. Next, he put his tool kit back under his bed and checked to make sure his belt knife was still firmly in its place at the small of his back. Satisfied, he turned back to his teammates and grinned, “Anyway, I like working with you guys. You’re all almost as crazy as I am!” At the collective stares he got in response to that comment, Tinker’s grin spread even wider. “Hey, I did say almost as crazy. So, no, Fearless Leader, I personally don’t have anything particular to say before we go out for another grueling training session. Well, I do have one question: Who’s going to help me test this gun?”