OwO

Snobby Students Are Summoned As Heroes?

It was better to not go back after all. Rather cruel, but cowardice was better an option than death. The plains were bizarre. This world was bizarre. First, a massive lizard noise. Interrupted by a massive explosion, then forced to walk the long path to not horribly dying alone from dehydration, starvation, or giant lizards. This world was bizarre as shit. Each step made her feet tingle. Not out of exhaustion, no. This was something different. It was grass. Her thin boots did little to stop the grass from glancing her ankles. In fact, wasn't this grass getting longer for no reason? It was the same land and nobody would fertilize grass. Fertilizing grass was bizarre. The grass had rapidly increased in length compared to the grass behind. Not an absurd amount, but enough so that anyone actually paying attention to the grass (which Jyu-ni was doing for some bizarre, lonely reason) would notice. It doing this probably had something to do with the explosion, but what?

Magic, the only way that Jyu-ni could categorize the tinglings, was fuckin' weird.

An explosion. Complete baby shit compared to the nuke that proceeded to blow the shit up out of the digger group. In the distance, a small figure floated above it. Then, a voice. It was similar to Jyu-in's. That sort of indeterminate drunk speech that was hella bizarre. The small man was a distance away. Wait, small? Using the precise calculations known as "guesstimation", Jyu-in confirmed that at that range, the man wasn't ordinary. No, he was a very large man. Big, if you would. That was pretty much the only word to describe that giant. In awe at the size of that absolute unit, Jyu-ni's vision seemingly locked onto him. If her eyes had a zoom function, it would have actually done something besides gather the bare basics of his appearance and the floating boxes. Wait, floating and drunk speech?

Motherfucker, her gimmick was stolen.

The giant had asked about what was going on back there. Irene had awkwardly asked the big man how he was after giving an awkward non-answer. Albrecht, their semi-functional and FEARLESS leader, had actually given an answer. He deadass ratted out the digging team while simultaneously denying all responsibility. Truly the work of an amazing CEO.

"Tha lizerd," she added to the explanations, "and 'ere was a lizerd's roar. Me ears are still ringin'. Real loud, it was."

Altera: Of Departures and Deliverance

She had succeeded. At that range, that was the only result. Ettamri's hype of the incident was awkward for Ash. Difficult for her to deal with. The knight's shift in emotion filled Ash with a feeling of disdain. It was one thing for someone to be brutally cold like her or brutally nice like their healer. For someone to be unpredictable, Ash didn't like that. She would have preferred the emblazoned knight to be more consistent. She didn't raise any objections or display this, however. When you're a bottom feeder, you take anything that life offers you. Despite the team's success, the frog entered stage 2 of the bossfight.

More attentive than Ettamri, Ash had noticed the spray of acid colliding with Muu's face and the resulting airborne launch. With her bow and arrow serving little purpose unless she could get a solid hit to the other eye, especially compared to the cannon that was Ettamri's arm.

"Muu's wounded!" She yelled. "Matteo! Healer! Scatter!" Fear was a terrible paralytic. Even if her shouts were obvious, they would help with any freeze. As long as they didn't continue to run in a straight line, the frog probably wouldn't be able to turn on a dime. Especially because of the javelin that Ettamri just launched.

She nocked another arrow in preparation of blinding the beast in case it stopped.

Neo Sorairo

With two strikers hammering the barrier and the explosions of Falk, Yui's job was to protect her nerd. Now with the nerd collapsing on the ground in pain, she extended her hand out in order for her to not be demolished by a random bullet or straggling trash mob. An offer of a temporary piggy back ride in order to protect her. With the shield-bearing Mavis landing near her, a dumbass plan began to form in her mind. One that was so extra and dangerous to her it was a bad idea. A shield was nothing more than the perfect platform to jump off of. Well, it was a solid wall that could block damaging blows, but that was beside the point.

With Raphael suggesting a strong strike to demolish the beast, Yui knew what she had to offer. Hiro had offered the idea of luring it into a building and collapsing it, but that was an immense risk. The set up time and the unreliability. People survive building collapses all the time. If they left the beast alive, it could probably cause chaos later or send a distress message to rescue it. She turned on her global comms to deliver her brutal plan.

“I have an idea if our little nerd has enough HP to cast without dying,” she said with a distressed smile. “And it's the most extra thing we can do. If I get boosted with everything we got and Doctor Nerd... Hiro heals me, I can do it all. If I use Mavis over here as a trampoline, I can probably get double speed. Combine that with my double doubling and whatever juice everyone else can feed into me, I'd become a flying guillotine. The second that shield drops, I'll destroy el biggo.” Her offer was certainly not a lie. Without any doubt, she was the strongest out of all of the strikers while she was under the effect of Ignition Engine. If she entered stage two while being healed, she would probably not almost die. Probably. It was going to suck, but it was wild. Wild enough to work.

Altera: Of Departures and Deliverance

It wasn't enough. Ash needed more. More power. More accuracy. Another deep breath as she stabilized herself on the horse. It's true, it was a failure. The soft skin and large body of the toad proved that her arrow was nothing more than a splinter. If they had some rope, they could have used that to restrain the beast. If the arrows were barbed, they could tear out flesh with the rope. But she didn't have any money for that. No, all she had was the insults of the knight. They didn't phase her. She was used to it. Nothing that the knight could say would scare her. Compared to being mauled by a bear, it was nothing. Compared to being stabbed by a goblin, it was nothing. Words were meaningless.

Matteo was now in danger. Constantly at risk, the young thief was once again at death's door. This time was less being knocked unconscious and more instantly dying. If Ash failed... No. Don't think about it. That's all that was on her mind. Worrying would do nothing. She would do her job, the priest and Muu would do theirs, and Matteo would do his. That's all they needed to do. Their own job.

Now that they were in full stride, archery was much more difficult. Ignore the difficulty. She drew the bowstring back and nocked another arrow. Deep breath. Don't think of anything. Think of even less. Only feel. She didn't have to control the horse. The range was practically nothing. She barely had to lead the shot. The vibrations were adjusted to. Move perfectly still, like a robot. Adjust. Think less. At this range, all she had to do was do it. At one lance length, she could hit it. She knew she could. Luck be damned. Thinking was useless. An empty mind was all she needed.

Twang.

Neo Sorairo

The invaders had ignored Yui and instead went for the gang. Falk, now named the Brainless Bomber could handle himself. He could run with his stupid stinky wires. Her hot self-destructing support was getting rushed down by the very foes that ignored her. Combine that with the gargantuan threat that fired a massive blast somewhere in their general vicinity, Yui would have to act fast. And act fast she did.

“I'm coming babe!” She yelled at Rin-Rin. Without any hesitation, she turned heel and pushed forwards. Her leg dug deep into the ground, indenting the hard soil even further. An explosion of force drove from every fiber of muscle to the soles of her feet. She blasted forwards, running faster than the quadrupedal kill bots. No, run was a misnomer. She flew only to land and blast off again. Her body twisted around once more, her feet dragging holes into the ground as the rubber burnt off of her sweet kicks. Stopping just shy of colliding with Rin-Rin, her feet planted. Without an ounce of hesitation, she grasped her sword by the opposite ends of the grip, her ring finger moving an invisible switch. A quick crack of static and her arms tensed as they braced the change in weight.

Deceptively fast was the best way to put it. The sheer length of the blade made the disparity between the grip and the tip all the more noticeable. If it had been a normal sword, it would have been an obvious swing. Slow, heavy, horizontal. However, it wasn't an ordinary sword. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The unwieldy nature of a heavy ultra long sword had been negated by raw power and simple motions. The blade slashed horzontally at the charging quadrupeds as it ignored any impediments.

Snobby Students Are Summoned As Heroes?

The walk up the hill was an incredibly arduous task. Despite her gait being significantly less than the other two, her stamina was surprisingly good. She was tired, but was considerably less exhausted than the paladin dudebro. She did wear cloth instead of Albrecht's plate. That helped, for sure. Her tiny legs couldn't beat out the smelly hobo in terms of energy consumption, though. Still though, six hours of walking. A thought crossed her mind. What if she rode her fist? By flexing it forwards, she could essentially accelerate infinitely. Wait, wouldn't that be a bad idea? If she could just accelerate, she'd probably get thrown off and get horribly injured. She barely had proper control over the fists despite her massive brain. If she just did things haphazardly, she would probably die horribly. It was probably good to just wait. Yea, maybe experiment with it later.

Behind them was a village. Before Albrecht could even finish his sentence, a flash of light came from behind. Then came the rumblings. Knowing what was about to happen (possibly from an ASMR video), Jyu-in plugged her ears with her fingers. The metal arms, naturally, formed a shield that protected her from the wave that pushed them all back. A distant earth shattering roar of energy. The tingling all over her body confirmed that it was mana. The same mana that she had compressed into a marble. The marble of destruction. Was that why the goddess told them to go south? Probably was. Most importantly, were the other students okay? There was the lizard noises, then this massive beam of destructive light.

Albrecht gave the advice to just keep calm. Irene pushed her forwards. Could Jyu-ni simply ignore her comrades and push onwards? She even said that she'd run back in case of danger, could she just so easily break the promise?

Yea. She could. Rather easily, in fact. The left-behind gang probably didn't even know what hook it meant.

A certain feeling known as 'self-preservation' overcame any heroics that Jyu-ni had in her body. It was better to be alive with two friends than a corpse with four. Plus, six hours out. By the time they went back, something would be dead, making the trip back kind of worthless.

"... 'ea. Hook it opp'site that." Her tone was rather serious, despite her drunk-speech. She didn't want to die horribly. That would have sucked big time. Her pace quickened away from whatever the fuck was happening behind them. Despite a brief gap, she still dragged the long groove behind her.

Just in case.

Snobby Students Are Summoned As Heroes?

Albrecht's plan made sense. Something about the 3/3/3/3 rule or whatever it was actually called. 3 minutes without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food, and 3 years without entertainment. Wait, was it actually a thing? Jyu-in may have just made up that rule based on some survival documentary she watched years ago. Or was it 'Surviving In A Frozen Tundra With Your Best Friend ASMR'?

"Aye, I'll do just that Azumgi," she replied before freezing. Azumgi? What did that even mean? What had she become? She shook it out of her head, "I'll hook it o'er 'ere if a lassie screams."

Observing the gang, Jyu-in noticed something very peculiar. The group that decided to mess around at the statues managed to say something particularly interesting. The goffick girl had mentioned something about mana and the glade. Was that the tingling feeling? If she wasn't mistaken (she wasn't, she was a lonely nerd), mana was used for spells. Magic, even. Did magic even exist? Judging by the massive fists that floated behind her, yes. Yes it did. If they found themselves in a fantasy world, the first thing Jyu-in would want to do was (of course) become a mage. Mages shot spells everywhere! They constantly blew their magic load! What wasn't to love?

How to cast spells, for starters. Turns out, getting thrown into a different world didn't come with an instruction manual. Still though, magic was important. Importantly cool! How did fantasy mages do it in those Japanese picture books she often read? They would chant stuff, draw magic circles, and just cast by thinking. She didn't know what to draw or chant, though. The best option was, by COMPLEX DEDUCTION, just thinking about it. Simple enough, actually.

Feel the tingling. Understand it. Absorb it. Move it. Collect it into the palm. Breath. Every bodily function being controlled manually. Wait, not that last part. Just move it from the earth to the palm. The tingling began to move up her feet. It took a direct path to her left hand, the magic resounding within her. A neon green light began to form above her palm. First, nothing more than a single spark. The light intensified. It was a barely audible crackle at first, but now it was a discernible hum. The light grew and grew, swirling as ethereal turned to corporeal. A single clear sphere was given form, hardening as the hum retreated within its new form. The light swirled within and green softly tinted the orb.

In other words, she made a marble. A really fancy marble.

"Well gander that..."

Shoving the marble into her pocket, she began her adventures opposite of the distant forest. While she didn't quite have a strict sense of urgency, she really didn't want to shirk her work. After all, she didn't want to encounter whatever was making that noise. It appears there would be no lassies to protect, but she could at least make a path to the nearest road. She left the large group to gallivant towards any sort of objective, a large finger dragging the earth behind her. Her big brain could make more important discoveries later. For now, the dreaded road. Actually, did they even have roads? What if they had awoken in some apocalypse zone with all civilization gone? That would suck.

What do you want out of the PW?

Freindly suggestion.

You been active 3 weeks and not even got off the starting blocks.

Strike while iron is hot not needing reheating in the forge.

If your gonna do, do it.

@PrinceAlexus

Local man forgets the definition of refinement.

Murder for Fun and Profit: Mercenaries in London

The good ol' CDA facility. At this point, Elias was used to it. It was his workplace away from his workplace, after all. All the noise was a sure-as-hell better alternative to walking the streets. All of the hellspawn known as "children" would saunter over to his cool ass robot and kick it, throw rocks at it, and run away. It probably would have helped stopped it if Elias open carried. He didn't, though. He had a cool ass robot that carried his guns for him. Why would he carry his own guns? He ended up waiting at the gate until the lady with the clipboard popped up and asked him about the job.

"Yea," Elias replied in his not-famous-at-all cool tone before unloading two finger-guns directly at the woman's heart, "and your next line is 'Wear that on your persons whenever you’re in this facility.'"

The woman didn't even pause. "Security is going to have a problem with you if you don't wear that at all times while you're in this facility. Wait here for the other mercenaries, briefing will start when you're all in the helicopter."

"Cool cool cool coolcoolcool..."

He noticed his compatriots for this mission. A woman with a machine gun (boring!), another nerd (judging by actually using a P90), and two (TWO!) snipers. His face instantly distorted into one of displeasure. The last time he worked closely with a sniper, the fucker friendly fired his best friend!

"What's up, what's up?" He greeted the others, pulling his gear off of Laelaps for a quick field strip.

Altera: Of Departures and Deliverance

With the casting of protection from the gang's priest, Ash's body felt nominally better. It wasn't much, but every bit counted. When you were as weak as they were, anything was an improvement. Tracking the beast had been fruitful and Ash's efforts were commended. She was validated for her choice as a hunter, so to speak. Such a toad wasn't scary. They'd already been stabbed, beaten, and thrown into rivers. Mauled by a bear, even. A toad was easy. What did the toad have? Poison, if the bright colors were any indication. If it was poison, that meant that all Ash needed to do was fire arrows at it. If they didn't sink far in, wouldn't that mean it was a free poison arrow? And it wasn't like a meal. She didn't have to be super accurate with a bow on this one. As long as the toad's body was completely demolished, they would get money from it.

Careful now. Like a machine, she raised her bow. She'd get used to the movement of the horse first. It shook a bit, so she had to get used to firing while moving on a horse. An arrow nocked and she carefully aligned it. Not a full pull, but still enough pressure to become accustomed to horseback archery. The eyes, though? A bit of a rough shot from a shaking field. Rather than that, she aimed dead-on to the beast's face. On a frog, that was center of mass. Even if the wind knocked it a bit off path, she could still hit. She accounted for the wind, the drop, everything she could. She emptied her mind. No sense trying to think too hard about. She pulled arrow back as far as she could while remaining accurate. Ettamri's harsh language did nothing to throw the young hunter off her game. She was used to it.

Easy. Just like the deer; just like a tree stump.