Fandom [Closed] Tower of God: Alpha Perspective

[Azure Sky]

Lin and Nimbus- 22nd Floor

"Nimbus..." Lin finally woke up from her battle. She was feeling rather cold and confused.

"Lin-sunbae, are you ok?" Nimbus was concerned.

"I am fine." She had a sad expression on her face. There was silence for a good minute. "Did I...lose?"

"No, it was a draw."

"I... see." She was again silent for a minute. She looked up to the screen that was broadcasting the soon to be Volk vs Haewon Zahard fight. Her eyes widdened. She got out of the bed of the shabby nursing office and ran towards the Arena. Nimbus followed after her and sighed.

Meanwhile, on the 20th Floor Test...

Von Hare

"Hey, rodent."

Von Hare turned around. He heard noise priorly and saw the extra recharge on the ground.

"Don't make any mistakes. The munchkin over there picking you doesn't make you even a little trustworthy. You really think I'm gonna do what you say after all the crap you've been pulling? Huh?"

His nose twitched twice.

"I don't know what you were thinking, but in my experience, guys like him are usually more of a liability than they are any help. I wouldn't get your hopes up for him, regardless of how strong he is."

"[..] I expect you guys to do the heavy work. I'm not going to lose this test just because floppy ears over there wants to play with his food again."

He slightly lifted his eyebrows, looking at Areum with amusement. He took the extra recharge from the ground and tossed it to Ji-Hyeon.

"I love you too." Was all that he said in reply. He then continued walking.

"I am well aware of the dangers of choosing him." Minerva said, as she ignored Von Hare's last statement, the same way she decided to ignore his green wig that resembled the hair of Sasha. "Whether he is helpful to us or not is not important. I chose him as the others were likely easier to deal with. He gives off a mysterious vibe and pressure. I was not going to find out what he could do as an enemy."

"She's right you know." Von Hare interjected from a distance.

Minerva sighed. "Do not worry. With his help or not, I intend to win this gam-"

Announcement: TEAM MINERVA>> 10 points gained from Von Hare.

"Eh?"

Meanwhile, on Naseon's side...

The back of Drake head was covered by green paint. Von Hare had divided his gun in two and launched two shots at the same time. He tried to get Len as well but he dodged and his intended paint shot was taken by Drake.

"That bloody rabbit! I'll f****** kill you Hare!"

>>John Wu score: -10

Len was trying hard not to laugh.

Drake tried to look at his Azalea figure to calm down, but watched in horror as some of the paint got on its face. Shinsoo became incredibly volatile around him and the area was soon covered in mushrooms and smoke. He gradually calmed down and opened a path for Len to safely pass through. If Naseon was quick on the uptake he could use it too.

Message to Von Hare from John Wu: "You are dead meat rabit. I'll ********** and ********, not to mention **************. Cooked with red wine."

The rabbit was uncharacteristically serious as he read the message. With his facial expression unchanged, a dark energy filled him. He became more muscular, and suffered a surreal metamorphosis as he took his true form.


Minerva felt a strong chill throughout her body as Von Hare changed.

Who are you?

simj26 OverconfidentMagi Rantos The One Eyed Bandit

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Ellia Aris Khun
Floor 20, Outer Tower Residential Area - Ophidian

“It’s finished.”

“Excellent~" The voice sounded from Ellia's basic E-grade pocket, which hung in visible mode beside her. "I’ll have the points transferred to your pocket as soon as I take a look at her. Though, I don’t I don’t expect to be dissatisfied with the work of Gregor’s best student.”

“Your praise is too much, Mr. Wicker. I’ve only been following your guide.”

That was probably the reason her Teacher sent the job to her instead of doing it himself. He had better things to do than take on a task even a brainless monkey in the Workshop could do. Therefore, when the ranker Evelyn Wicker commissioned the creation of a security bot for his shop, sending along specific instructions on how to make it, Gregor Maddoi had sent the details to her - even though she'd been temporarily expelled from the Workshop. Ellia didn’t mind. The more points she made on her own, the less she had to rely on her family’s money to take tests. Besides, she still felt like she owed ranker for introducing her to Gregor Maddoi in the first place.

A small part of her had been hoping to see Ajax as well.

“Nonsense. Gregor wouldn’t have sent it to you if he didn’t think you could do it.”

Ellia sighed, tucking light blue locks behind her ear, and carefully put away all her tools. Evelyn had made it easy by supplying all the materials, but, even then, her climb had been somewhat slowed by the complexity of the project.

Missing the 24th floor test would set her back another year. Not that Ellia minded too much. She wasn’t exactly in a hurry to climb the tower. She didn’t care what rank she ended up getting. Though…the sooner she made it to the top, the sooner she could return to the Workshop. Becoming a Regular was what her mother wanted. Gregor told her there was much she could learn by making it to the top. Two people whose opinion she valued enough to listen to. But, truth be told, from what she’d seen thus far, being a regular was more an inconvenience than anything else.

As a Disciple, she’d been allowed access to any floor as long as it was for a job.

As a Regular taking the tests, she was limited, by law, to only the floors that she already passed.

Though…if she were to be a Ranker, she would probably be strong enough to protect the Workshop. Her position in the Khun family would rise and she would probably be better able to protect her mother as well…so it wasn’t as if she was completely against the idea of becoming a Ranker…hassle though it was. Was that why Ajax wanted to climb the tower so badly? Did he also have something to protect?

Closing her toolbox with a decisive click, Ellia Aris Khun double checked the security android, wiping it free of any residual stains, before tucking the handkerchief back into the pocket of her blazer . “Well, then. Unless you need anything else, Mr. Wicker, I’ll be off to continue climbing.”

“Are you going so soon?” The Ophidian Employee wearing a sling around his arm approached her, his curious eyes occasionally flickering to the android. “Why don’t you stay for some tea as a thank you for your hard work?”

“Good idea, Derrick~” Evelyn’s voice from Ellia’s pocket praised. “Though it’s entirely your fault that we even need a security android in the first place.”

“B-But Boss!” Ophidian’s cashier whined to the pocket. “The thief was b-big…and there’s nothing I can do against a R-Ranker.”

Even your average E-ranked regular was probably too much for the boy who’d given up on climbing the tower. Considering the value of some of the items in Evelyn’s store, Ellia was surprised the High ranker hired someone as weak as Derrick to man the shop, though she imagined the guide had his reasons. Even amongst Rankers, those who knew Ophidian’s owner knew better than to try and rob from the Galleon – even while he was away. Ellia had little doubt that the thief would be dead…if they weren’t dead already. Not only was he a high-ranker, but he had high-ranking friends in high places.

“Quiet. Any loss incurred will be deducted from your pay. As for you, Ellia,” The tone changed. “if you stay and have some tea with Derrick I’ll answer any questions you have, Dear.”

“Questions?”

“You want to know where Ajax is, right? I can show you how to meet him.”


Selicity Fars + Ajax Cruise
Floor 22 - Outpray Underground Arena
"Ooooooh. Shy, huh?" Selcity grinned, her muddy brown orbs shining back to gold. If she'd done something to upset Yeong-Su Xia, then she ought work towards fixing it so both parties could be happy. That was what the village chief, and Ajax, had taught her about making friends. About getting along with others...as scouts should learn to do. Truthfully, Selicity still wasn't the best at it, but one couldn't fault her for not trying. "There's nothing to be shy about, Yeong-Su. I don't bite~"

Selicity nodded when Mun requested a private conversation with her partner, sharing a glance with Ajax who shrugged. If it had been whispered, Sel would've been able to hear the contents regardless...though they didn't seem to be speaking? Just exchanging visible words through their pockets. Either way, since Mun requested nicely, it would've been rude to eavesdrop. Her eyes wandered away to where a red-haired girl seemed to be fighting the Mad Dog, Volk. Selicity tugged Ajax's sleeve excitedly, not looking away from the stage. "Look, look! Someone challenged the Mad Dog! Our bet's on!"

"I am aware, Miss Selicity. Don't worry. I'm recording all the fights so we'll know which of us wins."

Even when Mun Minseo turned her attention back towards them, Sel was entirely distracted by the battle before her eyes. Ajax sighed. The Cat Sidhe had a low attention span. Evelyn told him that Sel's mind was younger than her body suggested, but he wondered if it was, in part, due to her excitable personality. Either way, it looked like it was up to him to finish what Sel started. No surprise, really. Ajax looked to Mun Minseo's emotionless face, his own fairly unreadable behind the mask, though his tone was earnest enough.

"Exactly what my partner said, Miss Mun. We're looking to find friends to climb the tower with. Or, at least, find teammates strong enough to make it to the 30th floor in time. Are you aware of the Workshop Battle held every 5 years for E-rank regulars?"

The one that promised rare prizes to the victors. Though...even accessing the item shop on the Archimedes, with all of its new products, was enough of a reason to attempt the challenge...assuming one had the points to purchase them, of course. But then, given who their guide was, points had never really been an issue for them. In fact, it was Evelyn who told them to go there. To gather items that would assist them on their climb.

Rantos Brendanfp Azure Sky

 

[Rantos]

Illiam Herlaa
Tags: OverconfidentMagi Azure Sky
No, no. That was wrong. This whole event left a stinging sensation running up and down Illiam's spine. Each running shock sent rejection through his brain. Something was wrong, something was deeply wrong. His head moved, rolling to face Exnor as his eyes identified the problem his body had felt. The words his ears rejected. Because what Exnor has said to her, and what Illiam saw, seemed to run in paradox with one another. How exciting it was, to witness a deathly reminder of who Nyra was. Indeed, he had forgotten, this one commanded the very devil serpents that inhabited this tower. Fearsome Indeed.

"Run ahead of the projection. If you wanna play vanguard then stick to the shadows in front of it. Should be able to get a back shot in or two when the Regulars take the bait. Or don't, really I don't give a damn about commanding, it seems Nyra wants to take that role." Illiam would be sticking with her, the last to leave out of all his teammates. Watching Exnor rush into the distance, he walked alongside Nyra. That smile that stretched ear to ear, threaten to rip the skin of his mouth, was a strong indication of excitement.

"I'm excited to see your pets in action." Will they rip, will they rend, will they leave anything for Illiam? An overactive imagination played with all the ways her fish could flay. And goodness, it had Illiam shivering. Who would be the next to disappoint. If Illiam had to put money on it, he wouldn't bet against Nyra.

A single black orb observer flashed into existence. Floating at shoulder length beside Illiam, it's mechanical lens focused behind the two. A variable eye in the back of Illiam's head.

Yeong-Su Xia
Tags: Brendanfp QuirkyAngel
If ever the ideal of love was entertained within his mind, it was by her grace, her touch. Stagnate kindness that restores Yeong-Su to that which he should be. Literally speaking, more than figuratively. By her side, in one piece. The combined efforts of Mun and the man in the mask made short work of healing Yeong-Su's arm. The nerve endings once burning, now stitched, were restored. By her hand, and his assistance, he returned to perfect. And what task greater to test his newly healed arm, than with sending a secret message to his partner. Eyes scanning across the orb, as he read his expression didn't change, but his body relaxed. The cold that surrounded his person faded, so to speak.

"You're perfect. Never change." Was the first message he sent back to Mun. Coupled with a face that still scowled.

"I lost. Or rather, we drew. No money from that fight and you're not the only one disappointed. Just point me in the direction of the next." Private communication mode off.

Yeong-Su listened to what the other Regulars had to say, doing so the best way he knew how. Such a scowl as the one he wore today was in top form. Yeong-Su's eyes seemed to look past the masked Regular as he talked, but his ears worked hard to translate the mechanical noise into words. Parce through the difference between his tone of voice and that of the garble of the crowd. Though it was hard, he got the gist of it.

"I follow behind Mun." He spoke as he placed a hand on Mun's shoulder. Such a declaration was less of allegiance and more of protection. He wouldn't object, as that wasn't his role. Though he hated the idea of placing themselves into more danger than needed. Though maybe hate was too kind a word. Surely, Mun would have far kinder words to say on the matter.

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

Ha Naseon​

Naseon had tried. He'd gone out of his way to let people he thought might be smarter than himself come up with a plan to win this test. That had been a waste of time. John was just another idiot, and Len might actually be smart, but that was wasted with him acting as John's yes man. With the two of them acting like that, they'd lose to Minerva's team. "So stupid," he admonished his own teammates. Being stupid was fine if you were strong, but if you were weak you had to at least be smart. Being weak and stupid meant you were completely hopeless. "I guess I'll just have to win this game on my own."

Naseon left his safe room, looked to the left and right, and cracked the floor as he pushed off to rush towards the nearby stairs. No stairs down, only up. The safe room had been on the bottom floor. There was a good chance the other team's safe rooms would also be on the bottom floor. That floor would become a battlefield as soon as the teams encountered each other.

Naseon ran up the stairs, ignoring the second and next floors, only stopping when the stairs no longer went further up. His stop: the fifth floor. It looked like no one had bothered coming up here. Good, he smirked.

[Doldrums]

The air on the entire floor seemed to freeze and harden as the shinsoo flow slowed to a halt. Now all he had to do was wait. Using brute strength to force his body to move through the solidified shinsoo around him, Naseon slowly began to tear apart each and every room of this floor. If he was going to win this game all on his own, he'd need to stock up on more bullets. Considering how bad he expected John and Len to be destroyed by Minerva and her team, he'd need a lot more bullets.

Nyra Carciphi​

"I don't know what you think you know," Nyra said softly, being careful with what she said in front of Illiam. "I don't care about fighting either you or Illiam. I don't care about that at all. I just won't rely on you to pass this test. That's something I absolutely won't do." Her golden eyes glared at Exnor. "I'm not smart enough to claim I have a plan, but I'm not stupid enough to put trust into one who's already disappointed me." She turned and walked in the opposite direction as Exnor.

Exnor's assessment that it was unlikely anyone would attack her if she was so heavily armed was accurate, and so her shinheuh dispersed one by one. The jellyfish had gone off with Exnor chasing the fake Nyra on the lighthouse, the skate had already hidden itself somewhere, and the cat, Ullyr, was stalking the halls invisible. That left Nyra standing in the hall holding only a single bowl in her arms, with the thin-bodied needlefish swimming around her head. Not defenseless, since that would raise more red flags than slightly defended, but not armed enough to deter someone wanting to attack.

The only problem was Illiam, the freak standing right behind her making her skin crawl even beneath all her bandages. It seemed he would be following her for now. Fine then, follow me. If Illiam was backing her up, Nyra had no reason to hesitate in attacking even the strongest foes. Best case scenario, she didn't need Illiam's help and he could simply shoot them for free points. Worse case, she'd need to rely on Illiam to win. Absolute worst case, she found someone too strong and would have to sacrifice Illiam to get them disqualified from the test. No, that would be the best case. She would just have to be careful to make sure Illiam didn't blame her if it came to that. Exnor had been right to worry, but as she'd said, Nyra had no plans to ever fight Illiam.

"Illiam, if possible I'd like you to trail behind me a ways. If you have any skill at stealth that would be good, but if not just staying back should be fine. I'll draw the enemy into a fight so you can find an opportunity to catch them by surprise. I can defend myself, so just worry about taking the enemy out without killing them. That rule means I can't rely on my shinheuh to disable the enemy. A slight bite or cut too deep and I'd be out. Not all of my shinheuh are so well behaved to hold back one they get prey between their teeth."


Nyra stood in the hallway ahead of two enemies: Len Lumiere and John Wu. As far as two versus one situations, this was one Nyra was reasonably confident in. Neither of them seemed unreasonably strong. No shiny family names, no king's favor. Just regulars unlucky enough to cross her path during this test. The missing member of their team was a small concern. Nyra could only hope that the Ha boy was busy dealing with the green team. He seemed like the type to hold a grudge for his performance in the arena yesterday. Still, not knowing for sure where he was meant Nyra would have to fight assuming he could appear at any moment.

"Arms inventory, visible mode." She took two bowls from her inventory and set them on the floor behind her, her golden eyes not moving away from the approaching pair. "If you want to pass unharmed, stop and remove the charges from your guns. Any other actions will make you prey." The long-bodied shinheuh with the pointed face circled up over her small shoulder, the only weapon she was using to threaten the pair apparently. The fish swam slowly, not even looking at the two regulars it was meant to attack.

 

[Azure Sky]

Drake Unleashed- Len and "John" vs Nyra and Illiam

"Illiam Herlaa is in the shadows, somewhere behind the anima." Len calmly pointed out.

"It's always nice to have a guide around." Drake thought outloud. He looked Nyra in the eye and laughed in a sinister manner. "If you wanna pass unharmed, bla bla bla. Seriously, E-ranks and their hot-shit discourses these days."

"You better stay behind Len."
"As you wish sir."

[Gloom Shroom]

As dark smoke filled the entire area between Nyra and Drake, purple spotted mushrooms would start to grow on her and her Shinheuh.The mushrooms would gradually steal the vitallity of all living creatures that they feasted upon, while also releasing a poisonous miasma, that would kill their prey slowly. First symptoms: shortness of breath and continuous coughing.

[Green Grin]

A baang formed in drake's hand, expanding and taking a circular shape. From it burst out a big mass of mold, hurled at Nyra and her pets. Mold that once attached to something it would eat its flesh while releasing a neurotoxin in the body. Whether she dodged or survived it, Drake couldn't care less.

[Bloom Doom]

Dark red volatile Shinsoo danced around Drake's body. It was highly toxic. A defensive technique. Just in case.

"Mister Herlaalala..." Drake called out, with faux politeness, singing. "I need to ask you some questions about Ran-nim and Helios-nim. Would you mind? I even brought green tea and ginger biscuits for the occasion" He chuckled and smiled sadistically.

"Does this creepy moron think he sounds cool?" Len thought to himself as he cringed internally.

OverconfidentMagi Rantos

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

Collab post with Azure Sky & Rantos

"John" & LenvsIlliam & Nyra​

Nyra jumped backwards away from John's dangerous aura and released the bowl held between her hands. The mass of something unpleasant struck the clear orb and stuck to it. Nyra jumped back to the extra bowls she'd set on the floor as a slight cracking sound could be heard from the bowl she'd tossed. It exploded, flooding the hallway with a tsunami of highly compressed shinsoo. The wave wiped out the aura John had filled the hall with, but that was more of an accident than Nyra's intent.

John had called Len a guide. Even Nyra, who paid next to zero attention to positions, knew that having a guide around would be a massive headache. She needed to deal with Len first. Attacking someone that could supposedly see the future was easier said than done, but knowing what was happening would be useless if his body couldn't move fast enough.

The Fire-tongued Needlefish, already by far the fastest of Nyra's shinheuh, was pushed along even faster within the wave of rapidly expanding shinsoo. It ignored the obvious target of John and flew like a guided arrow towards Len, the shinsoo around its needle-like nose already beginning to ignite into flames.

Thank goodness stealth wasn't needed anymore. A certain part of Illiam was grateful that the two before him created a situation for a rushdown approach. To Nyra's credit, she had the right idea filling the hall with Shinsoo. Summoning all three observers, Illiam jumped, balancing a foot on two of them as they floated him up. Bent over, the observers carried him above the wave, or at least as far above as it could. The explosion was enough to drown the hall.

[A Graceful Storm] One that arced towards the ignited fish, electrified Shinsoo that would do little more than tickle the slippery skin of the fish. And as the fish passed John, the lightning would arc onto him, the full force shock that would serve to tell the man, "I'm here, you face me."

And if that didn't communicate it then Illiam's smiling face, falling closer, would. "Wanna talk?" He yelled, a voice that roared as hard as the waves that carried him closer and closer. Three Baangs sparked to life, floating right behind Illiam, volatile and violent, ready to discharge as soon as he got within range to hit. His intent was to talk things out once he couldn't move.

The fish blitzed past Drake's impeccable defense (truly what one would expect, his defense was for himself only; selfish bastard) and was about to reach Len. The electricity from the anima's team mate unfortunately didn't help it in its task. Regardless, the fish would phase through. The Len in front of them was a hologram. Mister Lumiere had a few tricks of his own. For one he could blend in the shadows and become invisible because of his Scout skills, which was a useful skill. On the other hand, why use it when he had a device that made him invisible and shoes that absorbed the sound he made while walking and running (essentially making him almost soundless)?

Len left a small observer specialized in holograms running at the same time he turned invisible and ran away. His training, in the 10 years since he left the 2nd Floor was mostly dedicated towards speed. He was currently one of the top 3 fastest E-rank Regulars (by comparison, Exnor was top 5 if he used his maximum output on speed alone). In everything else? Apart from his Guide power, 6th sense, and Shinsoo-based radar sense, his speed and reflexes were the only particularly exceptional things. Everything else? Quite average. He liked to think he had some wit in him though. More importantly, his skill-set made him quite efficient for this sort of test. What he saw in Drake's path, whatever path he chose, was a bad end. He didn't want to be around when it happened.

Message from Len: I'd only get in your way, sir Drake. So I took the liberty of running away.

"Ah, poor guy. Must be hard being a weakling." Drake thought as he enhanced his body with Shinsoo. As the son of a Tu Perie, his body was already supernaturally strong. With the addition of the Shinsoo skills and intense training he underwent at FUG, he was quite sturdy. But what was this? This electricity really packed a punch. He felt it. Not enough to bring him down, however. He was a top C-Rank Regular. No way he'd let himself lose to an E-rank.

[Alchemical Mycelium]

A small mushroom materialized in his hand. He ate it, causing a chemical reaction in his body. His skin became purple, his physical prowes where enhanced in the top B-Regular realm, and his skin became poisonous (the caustic type). If, in any way, he failed to defeat people with that, he had a secret weapon prepared by one of his FUG aquaintances, who was concidentally also one of Azalea Crimson's associates. Not that she'd remember him anyway.

"You wanna dance, green boy? I am happy to oblige!" Six purple bangs formed around Drake, releasing smoke. Again, it was [Gloom Shroom].

The needlefish stabbed through the hologram of Len, a round observer impaled on its sharp nose, which ignited and exploded. The fish turned and shot off rapidly afters its prey once more, the ripples in the shinsoo covering the floor giving it a clear path to follow. With the needlefish's speed, it would catch up to the fleeing Len in a matter of seconds.

With the wave of compressed shinsoo passed, the massive black eel that filled the hallway where Nyra had been standing opened its mouth, revealing the bandaged girl shielded within. Nyra stepped back out of Siri's jaws, once again holding a bowl in her arms despite seeming to have lost the one she'd had. No, the second bowl she'd placed on the floor was gone. That would be the one she held now.

"Your guide has fled," she said. "Stand down." The massive black eel behind her let out a low rumble that caused the air and shinsoo to vibrate. "On your own you cannot win this. You are not weak, but you will not win. Give up before you get hurt."

"Shut up, E-rank trash." Drake dismissed Nyra. He was interested in Illiam only. He was once E-rank too, though...


"Hmm... Sasha, did John say anything peculiar?"
"No, sir."
"I see, carry on then."

Meanwhile, somewhere else, Weiss was thinking that John was unusually strong for an E-rank. Then again, so were Von Hare and Illiam. He dismissed the idea and returned to his bonsai trees. The John Wu that disappeared for a while on the 19th floor wasn't that strong though. Did Weiss care? Not really. Did Deltron care? He did. Either way, he trusted Sasha's thoroughness (not). He'd analyse the files latter. He had bigger fish to deal with... Reading a raport of on the battle that happened 10 years ago on the 2nd floor.

"Akasha Zahard and Helios Prime, huh?"

Len on the other hand...


"This thing is persistent." The fish was still following him. Despite being a speedster, and despite Illiam's apparent attack, the fish was following him so persistently. He fired a few concentrated Shinsoo blasts at it to slow it down somehow. At least until he found other people that would only see the fish and not him.

The needlefish turned again. An invisible thing using shinsoo. That would be its target. The shinsoo gave away its prey's location. The fish's fins fell flat against its body and it shot towards the invisible Len, the shinsoo attacks hitting it directly in the face and burning away without so much as slowing the fish. In fact, the fiery explosions of each impact seemed to spur the dogged predator along even faster.

Len returned to his plan of running away, but his legs hit something and he stumbled. There was nothing there for him to bump into. The needlefish stabbed into his back, and a burning sensation spread through his body, followed by excruciating pain as the shinsoo ignited. Though Len wouldn't have felt it over the pain of the needlefish's flames, the invisible creature he'd tripped over had bit down on his leg with a mouth of sharp fangs. Slowly it began to drag Len back down the hall the way he'd fled from.

"Remember kids. Don't try this at home." A voice could be heard from the shadows. The person, who'd be unknown to Len even if he were awake (fainted from the pain), had 3 pairs of eyes, an athletic frame and bunny ears. He simply walked behind the cat dragging Len. And shot the guy in the head 2 times along the way.

>>Message: TEAM MINERVA score increased, 20 by Von Hare.
>>Message: Len score is now -10. Team Naseon score is now -20.

Von Hare would follow the Shinheuh with the maimed, unconscious Len to where "John" likely was. He also took Len's gun which fell on the ground. Ah yes, recharges changed color to those of the team once in the gun. Sad.


Shinsoo enhancement, area control, five Baangs for variable attacks. In the moments before their collision, these were the immediate threats to Illiam. With each identified threat, that was another beat his heart skipped. Danger, danger, instincts ringing wild, telling Illiam to go wild.

Falling closer and closer, [A Graceful Body] covered with electric Shinsoo descends. Illiam kept the Baang's in parallel with Drake's. If he sought to launch an attack with them, Illiam would do the same. The last three that couldn't be accounted for would have to be taken directly. Though the idea of taking hits like that wasn't too exciting once Illiam made the realization that the gas was eating away at him. A nipping burning feeling as if the gas itself desired to consume him in a flaming maw. Another Shinsoo wave could take of it, and hopefully Nyra pulls something similar out to help.

"You said you wanted to talk? Do it between hits!" Illiam throws a punch with his right, while his left-hand holds his gun firmly. Block, dodge, counter, regardless of how Drake responds Illiam plans to catch him with a paintball in the movement.

"You are awfully co-operative." Drake smiled as mushrooms formed everywhere. He caught Illiam's punch and let some mold form on it slowly. Since Illiam had such tough skin, it would have taken a while for the mold to reach his raw flesh. "You know what happened to Mad Dog Ran and Helios Prime, ten years ago, do you not?" Drake didn't bother to shoot at Illiam. He didn't care about the test itself anyway.

>>Message: Team Illiam gets 5 points, by Illiam
>>Message: Team Naseon -25 points, -15 John Wu, -10 Len Lumiere

Gas that burns, mold that does doubly so. This man before him was a patient player. Wearing down the enemy slowly. He seemed to not care for the test, any Regular worth their rank would have noticed Illiam's plan enough to avoid it. So, he doesn't care. Which means...

"How about this. I'll answer your questions if you let me get as many hits in as I want." If there was any chance of taking the lead here and now, Illiam would take it.

"They're both gone. That's all I know on the matter." Illiam answered Drake, keeping a careful eye on his response, emotional and physical.

"Okay. I will let you shoot. I don't care about this game." With that said, Drake still held Illiam's fist in his palm. "How did they disappear? Why? Who else was there? Describe them."


Meanwhile Exnor was exploring the opposite side of the block. He thought Nyra was awfully quiet. Her jellyfish intrigued him. It was so big and ...glowy? Made him hungry for seafood. But more importantly...

"Hey Nyra, do you even have a plan?"

No answer.


"But not the face. It's annoying. And I will kill you." Drake added.

"Well..." Splat. "My memory is hazy but..." Splat. "The Ranker was alone." Splat, splat, splat. Illiam takes his sweet time answering. Making sure to punctuate every word with a shot to the chest. "You looking for them? Because I might know where the Ranker is."


Exnor jumped and took out his A-grade dagger, with a swift motion he slashed at the jellyfish's head, right in the middle axis, to cut the head symmetrically.

"I don't have time for games, oh great ruler of Shinheuh."
...
"Ah, she is not here."
...


5 points...
5 points...
5 points...
3 points...
3 points...

The points Illiam got for the chest area gradually started to decline because of too many consecutive shots to the same target.

>>Message: Team Illiam 26 points total, by Illiam
>>Message: Team Naseon -51 points, -41 John Wu, -10 Len Lumiere

"Really now. You said the first time that you only knew they were both gone, not knowing where." Drake was going slightly impatient. The poison was spreading faster.

Nyra's arms inventory flashed out of existence, another new glass bowl removed from its stores. She didn't expect Illiam to lose, but the cloud that John had reformed after she'd blown it away the first time was still concerning. She could use another empty bowl to clear that. If it happened to take out Illiam too, well that was just lucky. The miasma had spread down the hall, forcing her to back up. She wouldn't be able to throw the bowl far enough, so she'd have to roll it.

While the invisible cat dragged Len and led a terrifying person away from Nyra and Illiam, the needlefish had swam off in the other direction, its speed still getting it back to its master quickly. Nyra's golden eyes widened as she saw the fish at the end of the hall. That meant the guide had been taken out.

"Illiam!" She yelled as she flung the sphere like a bowling ball towards her unwanted teammate. "Hit it! Attack!" Only the first command was meant for Illiam.

"Yes, Illiam. Hit it." Drake encouraged faux enthusiastically.

Illiam pointed the mouth of the gun upwards, he smiled as she spoke. "Probably up there, somewhere, for sure. Don't make sense to be looking on lower floors." The pain was getting greater as the poison degraded his skin, melting away layers of skin. It was time to make a move, and he would do so by Nyra's command.

Drake didn't seem like the type to let go, but that was fine, because the attack wouldn't come from him. An observer made visible threw itself at the rolling bowl. Crushing it between the floor and itself. All the while, Illiam opened his fist, interlocking his fingers with Drake's. Whatever Nyra had in mind, Illiam felt keen on making sure Drake had a hard time escaping.

"HERLAA SHIELD!" Drake happily shouted as he used Reverse Flow Control to stop Illiam and literally use his body as a shield as he jumped many tenths of meters backwards.

The bowl of highly compressed shinsoo cracked and exploded, causing another tsunami of rapidly decompressing shinsoo to flood the hallway. John had jumped far enough to escape getting caught up in the initial blast, but that only reduced the distance the needlefish had needed to close as it followed Nyra's second command and shot down the hall right towards John's exposed back. So while Illiam was hit by the full force of the shinsoo wave, wiping away the mushrooms and fungus that had begun to spread over his body, John was instead hit by the business end of an attacking shinheuh. For a second time, the needlefish's nose pierced into its prey and ignited the shinsoo within. Unfortunately, unlike Len, John had been diligent and covered his entire body with his poisonous shinsoo, so when the needlefish ignited his shinsoo, his entire body erupted into flames.

"Raghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" John cried out in pain. It was unbearable. What attacked him? From where? How? He was confused. He was about to faint, he took a look at his beautiful Azalea figurine for one last ti-... It was burnt.

Burnt...
Who was...?
Azalea-nuna?
Why?

Who was it?
Herlaa? Nay, he was a shield. Shields don't make you blow up. They don't have the brains to devise such a plan.

Then wh-...

"You..." Drake took a look at Nyra, his burnt face displaying sheer rage and madness.

"No matter where you go, no matter where you hide, no matter how high you climb, I will make sure to keep you alive while I slowly torture each of your f****** Shineheuh slowly. By nothing and nobody else, everything that you love will die by my hands Nyra Carchipi!" Of course Drake knew her name. Her file was one of the ones retrieved from the 2nd Floor incident. He wheezed and with every ounce of rage and bloodlust that remained he released one last deadly wave of poison before fainting.

...
"Yazi, move him," Nyra's voice was slow to come and underscored by a tremble. A long yellow tail emerged from the depths of the bowl held between her hands. With the same speed that had seemed like lightning within the safe room, the tail cracked out and slapped John's prone body out of his poisonous cloud and right into the wall. Seeing how he'd remained standing after taking a hit from a flame-tongued needlefish, Nyra didn't think getting tossed around a little would seriously harm this person.

"Arms inventory, visible mode." Her voice had regained some of its strength as her hand found the gun she'd placed in her inventory. "Arms inventory, invisible mode." She walked up to John and shot him in the head until her gun ran out, and then, seeing the statue he'd managed to hold onto even after being lit on fire and losing consciousness, she put a recharge into the gun and shot that thing too.

"If you don't have any more points to get from this guy, we should hurry up and find Len," she said to Illiam. "My shinheuh took him out while you were talking here. He should still be somewhere close. Ullyr is guarding him now." She took John's gun, and seeing the color change to match her team, shot him one more time just to make sure. Seeing her points increase, she shot him a few more times, accidentally getting some paint on the area between his legs. She couldn't force herself to feel bad about her aim. "Like I said, we're winning this test."

>>Message: Team Illiam 69 points total, 26 by Illiam, 43 by Nyra
>>Message: Team Naseon -84.0 points, -74.0 John Wu, -10 Len Lumiere

"Oh yeah, sure, lemme just move my body." Oh wait. Even after getting hit by a massive poison cloud Illiam wound up rather unharmed by the poison itself. Partly due to the fact that it was washed away by Nyra's wave. Such a sudden combination attack by enemy and ally alike left Illiam awash and out of energy. His limbs felt heavy, with some mixed success he was able to move them. With some mixed Shinsoo he was able to move at normal speed.

Following behind Nyra, splashing footsteps that waded through the aftermath of the battle. Throwing away an empty charge, he took a new one out, loaded his gun, and shot Drake a few times as he passed. Not for points, but for pleasure. And after taking a few more steps he shot Drake for points.

"Think we should go find Exnor first? Kid's been alone for a while. Probably misses us." Illiam knocks some water from his ears as he follows close behind Nyra.

>>Message: Team Illiam 74 points total, 31 by Illiam, 43 by Nyra
>>Message: Team Naseon -89.0 points, -79.0 John Wu, -10 Len Lumiere

"If he's still following the lighthouse, he should be..."


Somewhere else Von Hare was strangling an aquatic cat while eating away Len's wounds and pain.

"Gaaah! Oh, I thought I died."
"Don't be such a pansy."
"V-Von Hare?"
"In the flesh."

"Why did you heal me?"
"Because this cat was slow."
"Eh?"
"It was slow in bringing me to my target. John Wu."
"I don't want to burst your bubble but... We are in the opposite direction."
...
...
"Really?"
"Really."
"You are a guide, correct?"
"How did you know?"
"You just told me." Hare grinned. It was sinister in his true form. But Len could only see his body outline.
"Ah..."
...
"You want me to show you the way?"
"You are a smart man." Von Hare tossed the cat in the nearby wall, with great force. "Let's go."

[To Be Continued]

 

[simj26]

Han Ji-hyeonShe fiddled with the gun in her hands. The fact that Minerva had won against the Ha boy was one thing. The fact that she chose to pick the rabbit, however, was both the best and the worst move that she could make. That said, however, this was probably all in her head. She thumbed the release on the side of the gun, and pulled the gun apart into two, The secondary trigger unfolded immediately from the second half, snapping into her palm. Almost out of instinct, her hand closed around it immediately, catching it easily. Interesting gun. She twirled it around her finger, watching her teammates’ antics. How odd. Perhaps she was just thinking too much about it. Perhaps no one else around here was as poisonous as she was. They didn’t understand the rabbit’s true worth, which was proven almost immediately true as he stole his ex-teammates’s without even moving out of their safe room.

“Hm,” was all she expressed as she reattached the guns together, folding in the secondary trigger. Interesting. It seemed as if it acted like a lock too, to secure the secondary gun to the primary one. How the ammunition worked was out of her expertise. Probably some meddling from its origins. She attached the gun to where her shield usually stayed, and, with a flick of her hand, brought up her Pocket, opening up her notes. They were going in essentially blind. She caught the reloads that the rabbit threw her way, and stuffed them into her pockets. What was the best approach? The fact that they were engaged in relatively close quarters combat meant that she ought to have the upper hand. The more cramped halls made for less space to aim at, and her shield could cover up a majority of those halls.

“Eurasia, come with me. Minerva and the rabbit can handle their stuff.” She got up from where she was hunched over. “Stick behind me, take potshots at anyone who crosses our path while I take point with my shield.” Not too much to strategise over, considering that they were practically made for this sort of combat. She reached behind her and fumbled for a second, then detached the front half of the gun. Without so much as a look of effort, she twisted the grip of her shield, and lifted it up from the ground. “We’ll sweep the top floor first, and then make our way downwards. With any luck, we should be able to clean up whatever messes Po Bidau and the rabbit left behind.”

She paused, then reached into her pocket and extricated one of her reloads. She handed it over to the Eurasia girl. “Take it. The more shots you have, the more room for error. Pride won’t pay the bills, as they say.” By chipping away any percentage of error, only then can one truly be sure that they were successful. She paused again, then spoke. "I suggest we move in twos due to the nature of this fight anyway. Moving in twos expands our vantage points, while also keeping our team relatively small enough that a barrage won't score too much from us. I would have much preferred if we moved as four, but..." she trailed off into a grumble. "Let's just go, alright? I want to be done with this test as quickly as possible." She shook the reloads in front of Areum aggressively, almost pushing them onto her.

The One Eyed Bandit

 

[Azure Sky]

22nd Floor, Outpray Underground Arena - Volk vs Haewon Zahard
collab with Brendanfp
​

"Ah, a feisty one. Finally!" Volk was getting bored of the small fry. The money wasn't even that important. What mattered was having a satisfying fight. Taking a closer look, his eyes lit up in delight. "A Princess of Zahard even! I am lucky today." Volk grinned.

Haewon glared up at the looming Mad Dog. A tooth grin adorned his face as he relished in the idea of fighting a Princess. He was looking down on her in more ways than one and it pissed her off.

The Mad Dog's Angel peaked from behind him, looking at Haewon with an unusually cold expression. It was as if she was looking at competition, yet the idea disgusted her and it showed on her face. The fact that FUG and the Zahard Empire were enemies played a role in that as well... probably.

The Princess met the angel's glare with a malicious grin and looked back up at Volk. "So, do you accept my challenge big guy?"

"Let's do this Zahard Princess!"

"I'll see you in the ring." Haewon responded as she bit into her last dango and began to walk towards the arena.

>>Next Fight: Volk vs Haewon Zahard

Haewon made her way onto the large circular platform followed by Volk both stopping in the centre of the stage merely a meter between them. The atmosphere was electric as the audience was more alive than ever. Then a loud voice rang out through the arena.

"Both fighters...BEGIN!"

A wave of force could be felt through the air as Volk strengthened his body and club to the max with Shinsoo. He was excited and started his assault with a simple yet fast club swing towards Haewon's left shoulder.

Haewon felt the sudden intense shift in the Shinsoo as the Mad Dog raised his club to strike her. She grinned madly as the fight began. Still unarmed she raised her left arm defensively and reinforced it with Shinsoo. The Shinsoo around her left side ignited as it wreathed around her arm. As the club struck her, she felt the force throughout her body. The impact was far more intense than she had anticipated but it was nothing she couldn't handle.

"Coming out of the gates swinging at full power? What's the rush mutt?" she taunted.

With her left arm still raised in defense she began to reinforce her right with Shinsoo igniting and reinforcing it. She took a step forward with her left leg and swung her entire body into a heavy punch aimed at his midriff.

Volk's special skill as a Mad Dog was the ability to unleash shockwaves, simple yet efficient. Volk could generate Shinsoo-based shockwaves against his opponent, from anywhere on his body. As soon as the Zahard Princess punched him in the abdomen he was pushed back a couple of meters, yet maintained his feet on the ground. He really felt the hit, but smiled at her regardless. At the same time, he was punched however, he made sure to release a powerful shockwave from his core, towards his opponent, more specifically, her arm would be especially affected.

Haewon felt the thrill of battle as the force of her fist collided with the Mad Dog's body. She watched as Volk slide across the arena from the force of her punch. The Princess was so caught up in the fight that she hadn't immediately noticed that second impact right after her punch had landed. A dull wave of pain spread throughout her arm. Haewon looked down to see that the arm sleeve on her right arm was torn to shreds, likly by the mysterious force she had felt a moment ago. She had yet to see an attack like this and it put her slightly on edge. Perhaps it was time to change her tactics. Haewon saw that Volk too couldn’t stop grinning. He too was enjoying himself, perhaps a bit too much. The Princess raised both her hands and formed three fiery baang above her. Slowly the baang began to spin rapidly, elongating and becoming sharp on both ends until they resembled three flaming javelins.

[Haewon Style Flame Javelin Technique]

With a point of her finger the three javelins shot through the air in Volk's direction.

Deadly. The Zahard Princess was deadly. He liked that. Struggle was good on the road to power. Three purple Baangs formed around Volk, but instead of countering Haewon's javelins, he attacked her directly with blasts. He then threw his club in the air and clapped his hands releasing a stronger shockwave which dispersed some of the power of the Princess's attack. A weaker version of her javelins still hit him, but only left light wounds. The point was clear. She was the stronger Shinsoo user. She was powerful physically as well. But stronger was good. Great even! If he were to grow during this fight and win, he'd be unbeatable as an E-rank... and maybe even beyond. He caught the club he previously threw in the air.

How could one man be so reckless the Princess thought as her eyes tracked the three blasts of Shinsoo racing towards her. She needed to move quickly. Bright red flames flick off her body as she reinforced herself with Shinsoo, before quickly jumping backwards. The first blast slammed itself straight into the ground in front of her leaving behind a small crater and a cloud of dust. Before Haewon was prepared to dodge the next blast, the remaining two Shinsoo streams peirced through the cloud of dust arriving faster than she had anticipated. She raised both arms in front of her and braced herself.

"Shit." She cursed as the pair of purple blast slammed into her forearms. The impact was unbefitting of an E-Rank regular. This man was the real deal. A monster in his own right. But Haewon was a Princess of Zahard and she would make sure by the end of this fight Volk would understand what it meant to fight a Princess.

Haewon dropped her guard as Volk caught his club. Blood trickled down her bruised forearms. She stared across the stage at the Mad Dog and then revealed her pipe inventory. Within the small pipe there were a single spear.

"Volk!" she called to the Mad Dog, "Sorry I underestimated you dude, you're actaully really strong." Haewon grinned all the while. Hands behind her head. "Let me make it up to you!"

The red-headed Princess pulled her spear, Naga, from its pipe. She made the pipe invisible once more as she stood in stance. She couldn't get the wide toothy grin off her face. Excitement filled her every cell with energy and drowned out the pain. With a single hand gesture, she beaconed Volk forward.

"Fresh!" Volk shouted in a joyous manner as he unleashed a purple torrent-like shinsoo blast from his right fist towards the Princess. He then jumped high in the air. As the Shinsoo torrent approached Haewon, Volk was going to attack her from above, with an airborne strike, using his club.

"Ignite."

As he commanded, purple Shinsoo engulfed his club, which took the form of a gigantic energy hammer. He used both hands as he attacked with it.

"This is it." Haewon said under her breath. She was gonna bet everything on these next attacks.

As the massive torrent of purple Shinsoo rushed in her direction her spear began to break apart into smaller sections connected by silver chains the glistened. Haewon held onto sections of the chain-spear with either hand as the rest of the sections floated around her body as if suspended in water. Her body tensed up for a moment before she forcefully tugged on either spear section and began manuevering the chain with great speed. The chain-spear moved like a whip thrashing all around her creating an almost sphere shape as it moved back and forth. The purple torrent of Shinsoo was now only moments from impact with Haewon. The chains ignited as she strengthened them with her Shinsoo.

[Haewon Style Chain Spear Skill - Hellfire Cage]

Volk's Shinsoo blast collided with her chains in spectatcular fashion. Wisps of purple light and flame flew out into the arena as the two attacks wore agasint one another. And then both lights dimmed as Haewon's chain-spear slowed to a stop. She stood there in the middle of the arena unscathed, she had succuessfully defended agaist the attack. In a battle of Shinsoo it was clear that she was superior, but that attack was mearly a distraction. She watched as Volk hung high in the sky with a wild grin on his face and an ignited club in his hand. He was obviously enjoying every moment of this battle.

"Volk you Mad Dog." Haewon said to herself as all the sections of her spear snapped back together into their original form.

The Princess was ready to end this for better or worse. As Volk was coming down with his Club, she pointed her spear towards the sky, towards the Mad Dog. Three fiery baang flickered around her. Then the three baang began to break down as their Shinsoo was focused onto the head of Naga. The spearhead began to glow red-hot. She left no Shinsoo behind, nothing to defend herself with. This attack was going to end the fight one way or another. She doubted that she would be able to tank the Mad Dog's attack without Shinsoo. Haewon smiled. Her attack was ready.

[Haewon Style Special Spear Skill]

Flames on Naga's spearhead began to flicker wildly as they grew brighter. And then all at once a powerful jet of flames and force erupted from the tip of her spear sending a compressed beam of fire hurling towards Volk as he came down baring his club.

[Demon Piercer]

Boom! The impact send a wave of destructive force throughout the arena, cracking the ground in the process. Volk's club flew in the air and eventually landed near one of the spectators, leaving a hole in the ground and leak in the man's pants. The Angel picked it up and flew to the middle of the arena, where Volk was laying on the ground covered in dust, smoke, and burns. "Are you all right Volk-nim?" The Angel asked concerned. Volk was still smiling and seemingly conscious, but he took a minute to respond.

"Heh, I... lost."

>>Winner: Haewon Zahard, transfering 125000 points form Volk.

The Angel had an ominous aura as she pierced Haewon with her cold stare. "It's fine." Volk got up. "She won because she was stronger. No need to be upset."

"Eh, but Volk-nim..."
"No buts. Ok. I guess we're done here. Time for training! Ouch."
"No, it's time for you to rest. Training can come later."
"Eh, but Angel..."
"No buts."
"I walked right into that one..."

Nimbus and Lin​

"That was an amazing fight."
"Indeed, it was sunbae."
"I guess I wouldn't have won regardless."
"But we did win."
"Huh?"
"I betted on the Princess. Won a very generous amount."
"I see. Good job Nimbus... I..."

...

"... wish I could have been useful."
"Sunbae. Lin-sunbae."
"Yes?"
"You are a person. Not an object. I didn't team up with you because of usefulness. I just liked this stuborn, reckless, ambitious, pure-hearted person known as Lin Gong."
"Nimbus..."
"If you are dissatisfied, sunbae, why not do what you always do?"
"What I always do?"

...

"You are right, Nimbus. Then let's go. It's time for training."
"It's actually late, how about tomorrow?"
"No."
"Ok."

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

Nyra Carciphi​

"How bad is the damage from whatever that guy was doing to the shinsoo back there?" Nyra only glanced at Illiam for a second before returning to facing forward. She wasn't used to caring about if others got hurt or not, but Illiam had been useful taking down John. More importantly, if she needed to fight the green team too, having Illiam there would be convenient. Nyra reached inside her hood and pulled out a small container, which she offered to Illiam if he wished to take it. It contained a roll of bandages soaked in some liquid. A spare for when Nyra needed to replace some of her bandages, she figured it would be better than nothing. She wouldn't mind if Illiam didn't take it.

She checked on where Exnor should be. Nyra frowned. She couldn't connect to the observer that was guiding her jellyfish. Had something happened? She connected to the lighthouse instead. As expected, it was in place floating near the top of the stairs. Her projection was also still there. She moved it from on top of the lighthouse to standing on the stairs and moved the lighthouse further back to be hidden in a corner while she tried to piece together what had happened.

"Something's wrong," Nyra said to Illiam. "My observer was taken out while we were fighting. I don't have eyes on Exnor or the shinheuh that was with him. I'll have to rewind the feed from the lighthouse to see what happened." She began rewinding what the lighthouse had seen and heard before she even said it.

Nothing happened for a while, and then the lighthouse started to retrace its initial path back down the stairs. She slowed the feed. Whatever had happened had been before the lighthouse even reached the stairs then? Exnor came into view, but he was walking backwards from a completely different direction than the stairs. So this was when Exnor had split from the lighthouse, but what had... Nyra saw her shinheuh in two pieces on the floor. Its halves rose from the floor and were reconnected as a knife held by Exnor's hand slashed through its body in reverse.

"First a disappointment, now a hypocrite. Traitor..." They came to the spot Exnor had attacked her shinheuh. The Ghost-hair Jellyfish Nyra had unlovingly named Nobody, a mean name but one she felt fitted a creature with no mind of its own, it was splayed out across the hallway. The two pieces of its body lay unmoving on the floor, but its long tentacles still reached out blindly as if trying to catch its long-gone attacker. This was Nyra's fault. She was angry at Exnor, of course, he'd hurt one of her family, even if this family member might not understand the concept of pain. But what hurt more was the anger she felt towards herself. This was her own fault. She hadn't wanted a team. She hated teams. She'd been stupid to let Exnor go anywhere with a member of her family. Teammates always betrayed each other. Exnor would pay.

"Don't touch it," Nyra warned Illiam as she walked up to her shinheuh, stepping carelessly over its stinging tentacles with bare feet only protected by a thin layer of bandages. She reached down and removed the destroyed pieces of her observer from the jellyfish's body. The bits would get in the way of it pulling itself back together. Nyra focused with all of her might and managed to gather a tiny trickle of shinsoo into what might have just barely passed for a baang had this been the testing floor. As soon as it felt the movement of shinsoo, the jelly's tentacles reached towards the sad baang. Ignoring the tentacles, Nyra placed the baang directly into the creature's stomach, probably, and squeezed the halves of its body back together. The clean cut closed as the creature devoured the shinsoo and used the energy to repair itself. Nyra let out a sigh as she got out a new observer and shoved it into the brainless creature. Sure, now that she was here she could just control the jellyfish herself, but taking control of something so far away from being a true living thing honestly made her skin crawl. Guiding it around with an observer was better. The tentacles that had wrapped around Nyra's body were pulled away as the creature was guided away. She hadn't been stung, not because the thing recognized her as its master or anything that intelligent, but because the oil soaked into her layers of bandages made it so the stingers failed to fire. Nyra had had plenty of time to learn how to deal with her family members, even the troublesome ones.

"It should be clear now," Nyra let Illiam know once the jellyfish had been dragged far enough that its tentacles weren't an immediate threat, her voice distant. She pointed down the hall where a second path intersected. "Exnor went that way, after he attacked my shinheuh. If we find him and he has a good reason for harming a member of my family, I will wait until the test ends to hurt him."

 

[The One Eyed Bandit]

Areum's eyes locked with Ji-Hyeon's. It was like these people weren't listening to a word she was saying. Her brow darkened, her eyes flitted to the package extended to her, and then she snatched it with a half-hearted huff. After Hare's sudden metamorphosis and flight, she'd have to take at least one of her team members actually wanted to work together as the best she'd get.

"If that's what it takes to get you moving..." She spoke in exasperation, but fastened the additional charges around her waist regardless. All things considered, she supposed this wasn't the worst possible outcome. She could've been stuck with the rabbit, after all.

"Should we move out, then?" She addressed the other woman, stepping out from the room in anticipation of a positive response. "Oh, and I don't need you to play fortress. Just focus on covering your own ass."

As she moved from the room, the sound of her heels clacking against the floors of the complex begun to fill the halls. In the distance, she could her the sounds of another battle taking place, but she turned her attention away from it. Logic dictated that it'd be best to prey on whichever team was the most weakened by the conflict, but she had something else on her mind. She knew well enough from experience that there was almost always some kind of lone wolf that'd break away from their team in tests like this, and...

She eyed the stairwell as they came to pass it. She imagined what she would have done in this situation, had she been confronted with it ten or so floors earlier.

"I'm going up." She spoke over her shoulder, and moved into the stairwell. As she scaled the building she released of spark of Shinsoo, sent it into her bracelet, and one of her Palisades burst into life. Growing to a size large enough to conceal a third of her body, she manipulated it to cover her head as it eventually peaked above the final step, and then re-positioned it to cover her body once she'd reached the final platform.

A sensation hit her as she stepped onto the floor. Something like she was a butter knife, and that she's just pierced the sticky, viscous outer later of an egg yolk, and yet it still wasn't running over her dinner plate. An anomaly in the flow of Shinsoo in the area. Her body tightened, and she prepared herself for combat. Somebody was definitely up to something on this floor.

simj26 OverconfidentMagi

 

[Andrita]

[Phantaminum'ed]

 

[Brendanfp]

Haewon Zahard

Victory had never been so painful...

The red-headed princess stood there in the center of the stage panting her spear, Naga, still pointed towards the sky where she had launched her final attack. Trails of warm blood ran down her arms slowly dripping on to the concrete beneath her feet. Tender welts formed beneath her skin on her forearms where she had brazenly blocked Volks club as well as the intense shinsoo shockwaves. Her pipe appeared before her and she stowed her weapon as her mind began to ponder.

Volk had been the most incredible regular she had met since starting her climb up the tower. She wondered how his ability worked. How long had he been climbing? Had he gone all out, or perhaps he had held back to keep his true abilities secret. And his weapon… what powers did it hold? Perhaps it was better that she never got to find out the answers to her questions.

Haewon tensed up as a chill went down her spine. The eyes of Volk’s winged partner conveyed a sea of intense emotion. She seemed to take his loss as her personal loss, and from the looks of it, she wasn’t one to forgive or forget. Despite the coldness, Haewon could only smile and wave after a fight so fulfilling. It was a shame. She wanted to ask Volk to climb the tower with her but unfortunately, he was with FUG, and there may come a day where they would be fighting for their lives rather than points and glory.

Haewon began to walk off the concrete stage, and into the crowd. She added the 125,000 points she had gained her total bounty was now, 320,700 points. It was time to cash out for the day as well as getting someone to tend to her wounds. The worst part of all of this is that she hadn’t even started the task that had brought her to the arena in the first place. With regulars like Volk out there she could no longer climb the tower solo, and unfortunately, that meant she would need a team.

Azure Sky

---

Mun Minseo

"You're perfect. Never change."

Upon reading this several objections popped up in her mind one after the other. Minseo was full of flaws. She was weak, unattractive, (at the moment) very poor. She had only gotten this far because of Yeong-Su’s frightening strength. Sometimes she wondered just what went through that head of his in moments like these. The two finished their conversation and Minseo decided she would fill him in on her plan when they got back to the living area.

The plain girl listened carefully as Selcity and the Masked Man made their proposal.

“We're looking to find friends to climb the tower with. Or, at least, find teammates strong enough to make it to the 30th floor in time. Are you aware of the Workshop Battle held every 5 years for E-rank regulars?"

Of course, she had heard of the famous Workshop Battle, but what was this about looking for friends? Minseo’s lip curled into a slight frown. She knew what was going on here, they had witnessed how talented Yeong-Su was and wanted to add him to their team. It was so obvious… but what did they make of her, Minseo thought as she folded her arms. This would be a great opportunity for Yeong-Su to join up with some better talent but friends had never worked well for her in the past.

“Alright I get him, but why would you want to be friends with me? What’s your real motive?” she asked skeptically.

Rantos QuirkyAngel

 

[Azure Sky]

25Th Floor- Jungle Test​

A rather simple test really. The Regulars where all thrown in a jungle-like environment and had two ways to pass: find the exit at the other end of the wide arena, or defeat the main Shinheuh that resided within. It was called the Horned Tyrant. A gigantic (6 meter tall) reptile that resembled a T-rex from the neck down.


The entire arena was its tank. Strong and sturdy, this creature trampled many Regulars beneath its feet and even ate a few. Ranker Fluff flew atop of the Arena, observing the onslaught, keeping his usual pokerface. "Like sheeps to the slaughter. Did some of these people really think they could survive the Inner Tower with such lack of skill? Beeh!"

Meanwhile, the Horned Tyrant released a strong energy attack. Its horns weren't as much for piercing as they were for gathering Shinsoo and releasing it in the form of a devastating blast. A crater was formed in the ground. A few Regulars died. The usual expectation was for all of the ones caught in the blast to die. But one survived. The ever-so-terrorized Yeon Jo. With his Phoenix-like Shinsoo that could heal and regenerate.

"I-I don't know how scared I should be. Th-that monster...is it male...o-or...f-female?" He pondered as the beast approached. "Gaaah!" he shouted as he run away as fast as he could. The Shinheuh followed, and it followed, but eventually lost trace. Jo was especially good at running away from things. The beast focused its attention on another group of Regulars. Jo took this opportunity to sneak away.

"I-...It's ok...a-as long as it doesn't violently devour me, it's ok." He told himself as he distanced himself slowly from it.

Andrita

 

[Andrita]

"Well, mother father, I.... guess I'm here now " . The young girl said, as she entered the jungle based arena. Well, the tower so far has been filled with wondrous challenges and some deadly ones that resulted in various mixed feelings from the young girl. Other than that, scaling the tower has been an enlightening experience that has matured her greatly so far, and she's nowhere near the top as of now. Still, she would've preferred to have even one friend, but was far too timid to attempt to do so now. As the Ranker above gave the word, a massive Shinheuh, easily dwarfing any she's seen so far, basically started mowing down other regulars. Using her Deer Shinheuh, she was able to help out as many as she could, using her Deer's ability to warp Shinsoo to assist in delivering attacks that could at least counter the massive beasts this behemoth could unleash.

She looked up at the individual talking such a way. She honestly didn't like this, not one bit. Testing was one thing, this wasn't a test to her. It was a true slaughter, which was why she was genuinely tempted to use her SHinsoo Commands, but refused on the condition onf only doing so unless absolute necessary, plus she wasn't 100% sure if this Shinheuh was a Ranker so she really didn't want to realize it was before it was too late. She knew she couldn't keep this up forever. Beats of sweat was pouring down her forehead, methodically thinking of a way to bring down this behemoth without it really being able to bring down anymore challengers. She waned them to go up to, and this challenge, whereas most don't, gave them an opportunity to do so. For this to work successfully though, she would need some help in this affair. Looking arodun, she realized she was thinking too much, as a massive attack then proceede to rain down on another group of regulars. Instinctively charging in, she saved as many as she could with the Shinheuh's help, but realized she let a few of them get roasted, which she cursed herself. But another survived, who was trying to get away. Perhaps he needed help ?

Motioning over tot he other individual, walkking towards him, she proceeded to talk to him "Umm... Hi. I'm so sorry to interrupt you, but could you help me with something ? With your help, we can perhaps defeat this behemoth of a Shinheuh, but only if you want to, of course. But uhmm, before I do so.. Uhmm… I'm Seo Young, it's nice to meet you, but may I ask your name so I.. uhmm… Don't have to call you mister " . She was doing her absolute best to be as polite and understandable despite people not being her best strong suit.

Azure Sky

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Ajax + Selicity
Ajax nodded, first acknowledging Yeong-Su Xia’s declaration, then returning his masked gaze to Mun’s doubtful face. The slight tilt of his head was the only sign that the living ignition weapon was silently assessing the regular before him. It was natural to doubt. He might’ve even thought a little less of her if she weren’t at least a little wary. “Friendships” in the tower were often measured by one’s relative use to another and discarded as soon as that use ended, after all. Companions climbed with each other for as long as they could, but in the end, it was it was ultimately up to every individual which of their baggage remained when they finished climbing. The term itself was different for every person.

For Ajax, it was simply a relationship of mutual assistance and benefits.

For someone like Selicity, it had a higher meaning.

“We have no ulterior motives, Miss Mun,” Ajax replied, even as the cheers of the crowd rose and waned with the excitement of the Mad Dog’s battle. “Our short term goal is to build a team strong enough win some rare items at the Workshop Battle. Our long term goal is to make it to the top of the tower. Mr. Yeong-Su doesn’t seem to want to leave you and we’ve no intention of breaking up such a close-knit relationship.”

It would be a lie to say that he wanted Mun Minseo more than he wanted Yeong Su Xia, so Ajax didn’t bother trying to butter her up. Judging by Mun’s skeptical expression, she wouldn’t believe it anyway. Self-awareness was both a positive and a handicap depending on how one wielded it. “While Yeong Su Xia is indeed our primary objective, it’d be useful to have someone around who is familiar with working with him, so the invitation of friendship extends to the both you. Having a second light bearer on the team isn’t by any means a bad decision. There are many formations that can be done with two light bearers as opposed to one. Information gathering speed can be doubled and tasks can be better divided as well.”

Efficiency was the whole reason for making teams after all. For now he was doing all the planning, strategizing, information-gathering/analysis, and pretty much every other task that required brainwork for their team (duo) since Selicity couldn’t really be counted on in that regard. Not yet anyway. Teaching her, coming up with daily training regimens, managing the monthly points sent to them, were all tasks Evelyn seemed to have left completely up to him since they’ve left the 20th floor. Even the menial tasks were left up to him because Sel couldn’t be bothered to open a cookbook and, while the Cat Sidhe was perfectly capable of consuming raw meats, she wasn’t the sort to watch her diet either. Tended to cause mischief when she was bored as well. Fortunately, the latter wouldn’t be a problem for a month, judging from her drooped ears, but the fact remained that dividing up the work would free up his processors so he could focus his attention on other tasks.

“I don’t look for the perfect candidate who can perform all roles in selecting a teammate. Nor am I looking for someone strong enough to carry the team by themselves.” Not much could be gained if the work of climbing wasn’t done by their own hands. Strictly speaking, while he acknowledged Yeong-Su’s skills as a wavecontroller, there wasn’t much he’d seen of the ice manipulator’s direct damage capabilities nor martial prowress. Holes still had to be filled for a well-oiled machine to function properly. “What I’m looking for are specialists that can do their job and do their job well. That, in my opinion, is what makes up the ideal team to climb the tower with. From the bits of information I’ve gathered, and what I’ve observed of you so far, you don’t seem incapable, Miss Mun.” The floating cube of cyan above Ajax’s head flashed, displaying a data page of E-ranked Regular Mun Minseo. “On the contrary, there appears to be things we can learn from each other as fellow Lighthouse bearers that will better improve our chances of reaching the top.” Healing being one of them. “There are other benefits in traveling with us of course. Though neither of us belong to the Great Families, we are being sponsored by a Ranker, so points and repeating tests isn’t really an issue on our team.”

“Not that he’s been very much help,” Sel snorted, her eyes a light shade of red. The Cat Sidhe’s irritation was likely due to the bet she’d just lost. Morphing into her cat form, the white feline leapt onto Ajax’s shoulders and curled, eyes closing. “Worst guide in the world. The only thing that thief’s good for is his deep pockets.”

“Don’t sulk,” Ajax scratched the cat behind her ears, eliciting a purr. “Anyway, you don’t have to decide right away. There’s still plenty of time before the workshop battle. I’ll send you our pocket numbers and information about our current residence to your lighthouse so you can call or visit any time, though we scheduled our test for next month so I don’t expect we’ll be staying there for very long afterwards.”

“Mm, yes, please do visit us. I want to see how I stack up against your ICE, Yeong Su. Not for points or anything. Just practice. That’s okay, right? If it’s just practice?” One golden orb peeked up at Ajax innocently.

“That’s fine,” Ajax relented. Not like physical training wasn’t part of their schedule anyway. It was only when Selicity had to hit the books that the Cat Sidhe found herself…bored. And throwing tantrums.

He’d have to find time to thank Haewon Zahard for winning her match later. “But the decision is ultimately up to Mr. Yeong Su and Miss Mun. I’d prefer it if neither of you were sent to the hospital.”

Healing techniques might have to take priority after all. Ajax hadn’t really brought it up with Selicity, but being dependant on the points supplied by their whimsical guide was probably a double-edged sword.

“Good,” The cat stretched. “You know that redhead that beat Volk? I kinda like her too. She smells a bit like Murin.”

“I imagine she would. They’re both princesses selected by the king and given the same blood after all.”

Slip.

Ajax caught the cat by the collar before she hit the floor. The cat, on the other hand, only gaped at Ajax. “P-PRINCESS!? She’s Murin’s sister?

“...Did you not read the display board?”

“I was too busy watching the fight,” Sel admitted. “No wonder she looked crazy strong! She blocked the Dog’s club like it was nothing!”

“The blood makes them strong, yes, though they had to have displayed amazing talent and gone through diligent training to have been selected in the first place. Even then, it’s a matter of chance as to whether their bodies are able to accept the irregular king’s blood. You’d know this if you’d finished the books I’d given you.” Ajax reviewed a footage of the battle briefly on his second lighthouse, gloved hand rubbing his chin. “The rumors surrounding her don’t seem to be exaggerated at least. Haewon Zahard of the Blitz family…she’s probably one of the strongest of the E-ranked regulars currently.”

Though the actual stackings were fairly subjective. He’d heard, just off some rumors, that there were some pretty powerful F-ranks making their way up as well. Who knew what sort of monsters they would encounter as they made their way to the Workshop Battle?

A Mad Dog.

A Princess.

An Arie…at least if the white hair, white eyes, and durable body were anything to go by. Yeong-Su had read the flow of Lin’s sword quite well for someone who had never learned. Enough to block what looked to be a blindingly fast strike with his arm at least. Then again, it was all just conjecture on his part. Ajax would have to do his research to make sure. And, even if he did, so what? If the boy wanted to be called Xia, Ajax didn’t have the place nor desire to intervene, especially if they weren’t teammates.

In the end, coming to the Underground Arena wasn’t a bad decision at all. He’d managed to collect a lot of data on potential competitors. Potential allies as well. But then, given who he trained with, weren’t they both one and the same? The luck of meeting someone was ultimately what allowed Ajax to continue climbing. As for Selicity, she’d learned the hard way that finding something that was left behind the first time isn’t as easy as it would appear. The tower wasn’t nearly so forgiving.

Keyboard appearing in the air, Ajax put Sel back on his shoulder as he quickly typed with the other hand. “It’s done.” Mun’s lighthouse should’ve alerted her with a message. “ I don’t intend to hold the two of you up for very much longer as I’m sure you have your own plans for the day. While I look forward to a positive response from you, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance nonetheless—both of you—and I hope to maintain a positive relationship between our teams regardless of your decision.”

“That’s it? Maybe I should get in the ring and show off my—,”

“No, Miss Selicity. We’ve spent enough time here today and I’ve gathered enough data. If anything, we’ll going through every individual battle and reviewing what you should do in each and every scenario.”

There was no need to reveal her skills and weaknesses to a shady audience. Who knew how many eyes were watching and the likelihood that one of them would be competitors in the upcoming test was high. Personally, Ajax was hoping not to see a princess there, but he would make sure they were prepared should they face her regardless. That was the job of a light bearer.

“But that’s so BO—,”

Ajax pointed to the display showing Haewon’s victory.

“ARGGGG! Damn you, Mad Dog! Why are you so weak!?” The cat whined to no one in particular.

Ajax didn’t smirk. His new body wouldn’t let him. However, the living ignition weapon couldn’t deny that he very much enjoyed winning.

Brendanfp Rantos (mentioned: Azure Sky )

 

[Azure Sky]

20th Floor Test, Paintball Mayhem, Part 1- Han Ji-Hyeon, Areum Eurasia, Ha Naseon, Lo Po Bia Exnor, Green Hair and Purple 'Shrooms
Collab with simj26 The One Eyed Bandit OverconfidentMagi ​

When Areum stiffened up in front of her, Ji-hyeon felt it too. Out of instinct, or some natural movement that forced her to put herself in danger first, Ji-hyeon lightly pushed past her companion, taking up a defensive position in front of Areum, her gun resting against the side of her shield.

"Hey." As the other woman sought to brush her aside, Areum's body immediately went rigid to bar her path. "Do your ears not work? Or are you just trying to be a pain in my ass? Let me put this in plain terms- Stay out of my way."

For a brief exchange of time, her eyes locked onto Ji-Hyeon's own and twisted into a scowl. An impulse surged through her arms, seeking to lash out at the horned woman, but she forced them to stay their course, nestling them at her sides. She clicked her tongue in frustration, and stomped her way into the room proper.

"That's not what I--" Ji-hyeon started, but cut herself off. She wasn't in the mood to fight. She sucked on her teeth, hoisting her displeasure on her shoulders, and moving up behind instead, turning to protect her exposed flanks.

Minerva lost Hare. She thought it'd be a good idea to follow him, but it bore no fruits. Disappointed with herself, she walked back the path that she took, to catch up with the other green-haired women.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the corridor, Exnor was hiding. He could pick up Areum and Ji-Hyeon's conversation due to his excellent hearing (and maybe Areum's loud voice). He was at a numerical disadvantage against powerful foes. No sight of the rabbit or Minerva. Did they split up? Were they hiding somewhere? Should he attack? Oh he was definetly going to attack. He just didn't know who to target first, or how to start. Shielders, pains in the ass. Should he ask for help? Nah, that's what weaklings do. He waited.

"Hm?" Naseon pulled his head of an emptied fridge. No spare charges in here. He hadn't found nearly enough yet, but it sounded like someone had come to this floor. Given how much shinsoo pressure he'd built up while searching the floor, whoever had approached despite his clear warning would be one of the dumb brutes. Stupid people didn't know how to take a hint.

Naseon stepped out into the hall and looked one way then the other. Two of the green girlies? Neither one was Minerva, so he didn't care about them. "Hey, I don't know who you are, but you should let me shoot you and then leave this floor. I'm not interested in you if your team leader isn't around."

Ah, he's here as well...

Exnor was actually quite relieved to have Naseon around. That way, everyone's attention would be divided. He still waited.

Ji-hyeon didn't wait a single second. The moment Naseon popped his head out, she pulled the trigger, once, twice, tracking Naseon. "Enemy," she warned Areum.

Areum's gaze skipped across the room the moment Naseon made his bumbling introduction. For a split second, her mind attempted to parse whatever it was that he was mumbling about, but it all went in one ear and out the other. One of her arms twitched, and then snapped to attention.

Trailing close behind Ji-hyeon, Areum's shots whistled through the air and towards the girl, her trigger finger instinctively responding to the other woman's barked warning.

"Nice." Exnor thought as he separated his gun in two smaller ones, shot once with each in Naseon, Ji-Hyeon, and Areum's direction, then swiftly went into hiding again.

Naseon's infuriating smirk was his only response to being shot at, the rest of him not bothering to move an inch. There was no need. "You really are are stupid as you look," he taunted. The bullets struggled to make headway through the thick stagnant shinsoo that had built up on this floor, veering wildly off course as they lost speed and finally being smashed against the floor, discharging their colorful contents across the floor.

The sound, Exnor listened to it well. He picked up the sound of paint splashing on the ground, not paying attention to whatever it was that Naseon said. What he said wasn't important. What was however, was that he had a method to keep the paint away. How could Exnor challenge that aspect? Hmmmm...

As if in demonstration, Naseon reached for the door of the room he'd just left and, with a surprising amount of difficulty, tore the handle off. He held it up and dropped it. The bent piece of metal seemed to jump instantly from his hand to the floor, its impact even louder than the guns. The shinsoo pressure around Naseon's body was crazy high, even more than the pressure filling the rest of the floor. "I hope you're confident in your bodies," Naseon said as if he expected anyone to hear or pay attention. "Failing this test because you can't take a punch without dying would be annoying."

"Hah." Areum scoffed. He was one of these types. Unflinching at the boy's display of strength, her body immediately jerked forward at his provocations. She marched forward, either indignant, or just wholly ignorant of the mounting pressure surrounding the small boy. Her reinforced body cut through the dense mire of Shinsoo like a hot knife would through butter.

"Ah yes!" Eureka, Exnor thought of something. A powerful surge of yellow shinsoo engulfed the pistols. He briefly got out from his hideout again, this time launching four random paint blasts empowered by his Shinsoo. That should deal with whatever defensive skill the Ha was using.

He grunted with exertion, forced to actually use his full strength, as his hands gripped the edges of the door next to him and violently ripped it from its hinges. Naseon had already been surprised earlier when his initial plan of destroying the walls on this floor had been met with resistance as whatever this building was made of resisted his fists with little more than a dent, but seriously, this place was made of strong stuff. Between the shinsoo pressure making every movement a chore and the durability of the door itself, he'd barely been able to break its hinges there. Just another glaring example of his continued weakness. To struggle with a door. How humiliating.

"Gotta say-" The young Eurasia spat at the boy as he showed off his mastery of brute force. "-It did take a minute. Figuring out this weakshit pressure skill of yours, I mean. Kinda like figuring out where a draft is coming from." As she spoke, Areum launched forward, dropping her gun to the floor.

Her shield went limp, and the Shinsoo held within arced back towards Areum; glimmering with a faint sheen, it wrapped itself around her right knee and dragged it up into the air. In tandem, another Baang bubbled to life around one of her fists, pulling it behind the boy's head in an effort to grip and jerk it down to meet her knee.

It was kind of what he'd expected, more from the horned green girl than the extra one, but it never stopped being a little surprising whenever someone decided that the best way to face a person with the Ha name in close combat. Naseon couldn't help but grin at that as the girl grabbed his head. Either way, she'd stopped being a threat the moment she'd let go of her gun.

Ji-hyeon quickly reattached her gun to its secondary body and rushed forwards, kicking Areum's dropped weapon into the air with a tiny puff of smoke from her boot, her expression muted. Pressing her body against her shield, she charged up to Naseon, following her partner. She let Areum meet Naseon in the middle, and leapt above and over them, her feet pushing across the wall to give herself momentum to spar above them, before she landed behind Naseon.

Shots slammed into her shield as she landed. Another? She'd deal with that later. She slammed the edge of her shield down on the ground, digging it deep into the floor, then spun around. Almost as if she had calculated the exact trajectory, she snatched the gun she had kicked into the air earlier, and fired it at Naseon's back, smoke swirling around her arm. Point blank, Shinsoo-charged shots blasted out of the gun, straight at Naseon.

From behind? Why? The second green girl had willingly moved between Naseon and the unknown third party. Sure that gave her a better chance of hitting Naseon, but she'd willingly pinned herself between two foes and put her in a bad position to actually shoot. Whether she didn't notice that or was simply careless, it didn't stop her. Brutes, so stupid.

Naseon couldn't move quickly in this shinsoo pressure, so he had to choose his movements carefully. Take the knee to the face, avoid getting shot, roll forward. That would work. But that knee was reinforced with shinsoo. Shit. This might sting. He fell with Areum's grab, giving him just barely enough freedom to turn the knee to the face into a glancing blow. His vision swam, but he was fine. Even that would have shaken his brain too much if he hadn't reinforced his head in time.

While falling, his foot kicked the now-free door, which slammed to the floor instantly under the pressure of the shinsoo, clearing the space between the two green girls. The second girl that shot Naseon from behind, now found her shots flying directly at her own teammate as Naseon's body dropped to the floor.

A prone Naseon, on his back on the floor of the hallway, gripped Areum's leg with a gloved hand. The end of his gun was pressed against her foot. "Stupid." A series of pops announced him pulling the trigger.

Slippery-slidey, like a damn eel. For a Ha, the kid certainly seemed afraid of tanking a hit.

Areum grimanced as her knee met open air, rather than the boy's waifish little jaw, but she still continued the movement. As her knee peaked, the Baang enclosing it ran down the length of her leg, and in one motion yanked it towards her now prone opponent. Between the pressure of the boy's Shinsoo and the acceleration of her own baang, her heel moved at a blinding speed, scything through the air and towards Naseon's ribcage. There was a noticeable cracking sound as her heel found much less resistance than one would have expected from the body of someone bearing the Ha name.

On its descent, the girl's shoe ate each and every one of his fired shots, and her torso did the same with Ji-Hyeon's stray shots too. Neither bothered her. It wasn't like she needed to avoid all of his hits, after all. She just needed to tag him more times than he did her.

Though he'd never admit to the fact regardless of any amount of evidence, Naseon threw up from the pain as Areum's foot smashed through his already shattered ribs. Fuck. His already swimming vision darkened. He couldn't pass out now, he needed to score more points. His worthless team was losing. He needed to... Naseon raised his gun to fire again, score more points, win this test, when he noticed that Areum was wearing a dress. From here on the floor, with her standing over him, he could see her underwear. He couldn't live with himself if he shot a girl like this. Damn it. He was so stupid. Naseon's arm, his gun, and his mind, all fell in the same moment.

With Naseon's crushing defeat and loss of consciousness, [Doldrums] was released, and all at once the crushing amount of shinsoo filling the floor rushed outward, blowing open every room's door on this floor and continuing its wild flow away down the stairs towards the lower floors. Naseon's trap meant for Minerva had ended up going unused and completely useless.

Exnor listened, and listened, making use of his enhanced hearing. He realised his blasts hit something metallic (?) like a shield. He also realised that a big object fell to the ground, like a shield, and people where engaged in battle. A while later he heard another thud. A body fell to the ground.

This was his chance!

He dashed from his hiding spot, sparks filling the air as he enhanced himself and his guns with Shinsoo. He was also trying to analyse the situation.

It took him a few seconds to process. Han Ji-Hyeon and Areum Eurasia with Ha Naseon on the ground. Looked like a fierce battle. A clear outcome.

"I should keep some distance." He thought, as he stopped in his tracks. He was preparing his guns before feeling a sudden chill up his spine. He turned around and something was hurled at him. The force of the impact sent him flying to where the other three where. It would have sent him further but he managed to anchor his feet to the ground and catch whatever was thrown at him, letting go of his guns in the process. He was holding...

"Po Bidau Minerva? Eh?" Exnor was confused. He was holding Minerva, in a rough state with some purple mushrooms on her body.

"Uguh!" The barely conscious Minerva exclaimed.

"Woah!" Exnor gently put her down. "What happened to you?" As he asked the question, Exnor again felt a chill. He looked up, in the direction from where he initially was standing, to see the answer.

"My, my, my. So much green, a bit of yellow, and Naseon." Drake keenly observed. His skin was yet again purple but, the Shinsoo around him was more volatile than before.

"That bloody rabbit had a green wig as well. Who the hell does that?"

[To Be Continued]

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Ellia + Derrick + Aris
Floor 20, Outer Tower Residential Area - Ophidian

The tea wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the high quality tea she was used to.

Not that Ellia would ever voice such rude thoughts. Proper behavior and etiquette had been instilled since young. A form of dignified humility? To hold one’s head high, but always remain courteous to others. To be gentle, yet unyielding. To not break no matter how many stones were thrown her way. That was how her mother raised her—to be proper daughter of the Khun family.

Though, whether it was her mother’s teachings or her own attempts at perfection it was hard to say. Ellia always strove to meet expectations. And Aris Khun nee Hernia had always been her model. Her motivation and only family since Gods didn’t really look back at their children.

Yet some paths couldn’t be walked if one weren’t chosen. No matter how good she got, no matter how much effort she put in, it wouldn’t be enough. That was why, even though she didn’t know why she trusted him, she still did as he requested and drank tea at his table. His words back then had saved her.

“If one path is blocked, why don’t you create another one?”​

Simple words, really.

Pure logic if you thought about it.

Yet, for some reason, it had never crossed Ellia’s mind to choose a different way. It was then that Ellia was struck with the truth. She didn’t want to climb the tower. She never had. She just wanted to please her mother. Perhaps Headon had been able to sense it as well…Ellia’s lack of desire. So she walked a different path to please and protect her mother. She became a disciple of the workshop.

Yet, in an ironic twist of fate, Ellia was now climbing the tower.

Was it irony though? Or had it been cleverly planned out from the start?

Evelyn had been the one that introduced her to Gregor Maddoi and Evelyn had been the one to send Ajax to her. In both cases, the guide been the one to indirectly cause shifts in Ellia’s life. Did he know meeting Ajax would change her? That she would become curious about the artificial living ignition weapon she created and his motivations? Was that what he meant when he said ‘create’ a different path? Create was the word he’d used back then, not choose. All the guides Ellia encountered, the ones her family hired, read the paths of the tower and led people down the best option.

Not even guides can change what is and will be.

So why was she, who wasn't meant to be climbing, climbing?

Did Evelyn ‘create’ a path for her from the impossible? If so, the guide clearly wasn’t normal. What was his purpose then? What did he hope to change in the tower? Why—?

“Are you thinking about Ajax?” Derrick refilled her cup of tea, which Ellia belatedly realized was empty. “You came all the way here to see him, right?”

“Your Boss, actually.”

“Ah,” Derrick set the kettle down and lifted his own cup to his lips. “He’ll be here soon. He usually keeps his promises…usually.”

Ellia fingered the rim of her own teacup thoughtfully as she stared down at her own reflection within the reddish brown liquid. “Why do you think he’s helping me?”

Derrick shrugged. “I worked with him for 300 years and I still don’t know why he hired me.”

“That’s…a long time,”

“Haha, yeah. I’ve got nothing better to do now that I’ve given up climbing. It pays the bills at least.”

“Mm,” Ellia drank her tea.

“Ajax and I were pretty similar, you know. Neither of us had that innate talent for shinsoo that would let us continue forward up the tower. But, unlike me, Ajax wouldn’t give up. I guess I admired that about him. I told him over and over again that he should just stop and settle somewhere, but he wouldn’t listen—came back to the shop every time, bruised and battered from failing the test.” Derrick laughed lightly. “He was quite hot-headed back then.”

“Really? I didn’t get that sense from him.”

“Haha, yeah. Ever since he came back he’s become…calmer? Smarter, I guess. Well, he’s always been smart, but when he got a completely different makeover it’s like he upped to a whole new level of genius.”

“…Does that make you unhappy?”

“Not really,” Derrick replied. “A little lonely I guess, but I think it’s better this way. He can finally chase after what he’s always wanted thanks to you.”

Ellia nodded, glancing around the rare item shop called Ophidian. Frankly, it resembled an antique store more than anything else. There was nothing consistent about the wares sold there, grades varying drastically. Items on display ranged from needles to armors to pretty little do-dats that…well, honestly, Ellia had no idea what they did…if they did anything at all. It had nothing on the Workshop which was always ready with new products of high quality. And yet Ellia had a feeling some of the items in the shop couldn’t be found in the workshop either.

They felt…older?

“If you’re interested why don’t you have a look around? Probably nothing as amazing as what you can find in the Workshop branches on every floor, but you might find something that catches your interest. I can give you a discounted price since you helped us out. Pretty sure Boss wouldn’t mind.”

“Is this store always so under-protected?”

Derrick rubbed the back of his head. “Ah, we usually have at least one or two ranker employees lazing around here with nothing to do…but I guess they’re all busy at the moment. Ajax left with Selicity about a month ago. As for our Boss…well…he’s usually wandering off somewhere doing his own thing. He’s a guide after all. Honestly, more people come here to get him to take them somewhere than to buy our wares. You know how treacherous the middle areas are.”

A dinging sound alerted the two of new arrivals to the shop.

Ellia barely had time to look before she found herself wrapped in tight—possibly too tight—embrace. A familiar floral scent gave away the identity of her attacker even before the voice did. “Oh, Ellia! My Sweet Ellia~!” sniffle. “I knew you could become a regular! I just knew it! How could that bumbling rabbit not pick my sweet, beautiful Ellia? Mommy is so proud of you!”

The blue haired girl didn’t respond. She just shot the dark-skinned man behind her mother an annoyed, betrayed look.

 

[Azure Sky]

25Th Floor- Jungle Test

"Gyaaah!" Jo jumped backwards as he was startled by the sudden voice that talked to him. After composing himself and taking a better look, it was just a small girl (?). "Ah, a child. I can handle children at least." Jo thought to himself, feeling relief. He still managed to retroactively register what she (?) wanted though. To defeat the reptilian Shinheuh. Why? He could have helped, but why do it? They were strangers, competitors, and probable future enemies. Not to mention that Jo couldn't handle betrayal well. What if the kid was trying to trick him? "M-my name is Jo. Yeon Jo. What is your plan?"

"Baah! Bonding between a grown man and a trap is nice and all... No, really it isn't. Hello, police?" Fluff pretended to make a call, thinking out loud. "Did these two forget their situation?"

"Reeeeeh!"

"Oh, the Shinheuh didn't forget. At least it's smart. Moreso than the Regulars..."

"Damn it." Jo cursed. The creature probably heard him when he screamed before. "I am a moron." With that thought in mind, he pushed Seo out of the way as the creature launched another Shinsoo blast. He empored his body with fire Shinsoo, holding his forearms up, preparing for impact.

Pow!

A shockwave could be felt in the area of impact. Yet Jo was fine. A bit roughed up and patches of skin ripped off, but Shinsoo flames started a healing process.

"Run!" Forget about defeating it, Jo didn't even know if this Seo kid could survive it. "H-hey, over here lizard! I am still alive." Jo taunted and ran away. The creature let out a powerful roar as it followed him.

At least I'll help this kid escape.

Meanwhile, somehwere else, a blonde woman was hiding and watching the fight with interest. She touched her glasses and pushed them upwards, the lens revealing a white light.

Andrita

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Evelyn Wicker + Clarent Po Bidau
Floor 20, Outer Tower Residential Area - Ophidian

Evelyn admired the security android before him as he deposited the points to Ellia’s Pocket.

It really was a fine piece of work. Just like he imagined it. Even with a guide giving instructions, those who couldn’t walk the path wouldn’t be able to produce the results. No one less than a skilled disciple could’ve achieved what she’d done—a grade A security bot of the highest quality. Almost made him feel a little bad for tricking her.

Almost.

Lady Khun had come to him first and asked that he guide her to her daughter, after all. Evelyn was, above all else, a professional in his field. Besides, it wasn’t as if he’d lied to her. The guide had every intention of showing her the way to Ajax. Not out of kindness or gratefulness or even pity, but because their paths had already been intertwined the moment he’d sent Ajax to her. Far be it for him to stop what he’d already set into motion.

Evelyn chuckled.

“Hey Boss! Where did Lady Aris and Ellia go?”

“Aris took her daughter out for a bit of training,” Evelyn replied without so much looking at his employee. “I imagine they’ll be gone for at least another hour or two.”

“Should I put away the tea then?”

“Hm, no, keep it out. I’m expecting another guest soon. I’d advise you to hide yourself in the Gate until after he leaves.”

“…should I be worried?”

“Not really. It’s just a precaution.”

Nothing more than intuition told him that they would come today, but Evelyn was the sort to trust his instincts above all else. Instincts about people. Instincts about timing. Instincts about the best path to take. That was how he survived so long after all. Even if it should defy logic, Evelyn knew better than believe that the tower operated on logic. Where was the fun in that?

Therefore, when the Red Knight came to his doorstep, adorned in splendorous red cape and armor, Evelyn only smiled and invited the young-looking man to sit. Clarent Po Bidau might’ve been older than him, but the man’s idealism and virtue made him seem that much younger. Lieutenant of the Royal Guard, strategist of the Commander and Chief of Zahard’s army, and Evelyn’s opposite in every sense of the word. Evelyn smirked. “How may I help you Sir Po Bidau?”

“You should know I’m here, Wicker. Please stop messing with her highness, Murin, any further.”

“Whatever do you mean?”

Clarent’s jaw clenched. “Don’t play dumb. Her future has changed and there are only few in the tower I know capable of such a feat.”

“So?”

The business end of Clarent’s needle was pointed towards Evelyn’s neck before the guide even saw it coming. One word was all it took to set both Evelyn and his shop on fire. “She’ll die. Is that what you want? Bringing harm to one of the tower’s national treasures is a grievous crime punishable by death.”

Evelyn tilted his head, dark hair falling over his shoulders and an amused glint in his eye as the observed the decorated soldier across from him. The point of the needle didn’t seem to faze him in the least. “Princesses die all the time. They are warriors in service to Zahard. Besides, Princess Murin was the one that came to me and tried to force me to be her guide. I simply told her I’d help her in return for a favor.”

“Don’t involve her in your schemes, Wicker.”

“Aren’t you the little hypocrite~?” Evelyn chuckled. “You plan the same thing for Adori, don’t you? Why is Murin's life more valuable than Adori's?”

“Princess Murin and Princess Adori are two completely different people. Murin can’t walk that path.”

“And who are you to decide that? You’re the one that’s overstepping your bounds here, Clarent Po Bidau, not me.”

Red and green eyes glared at each other until Clarent finally sighed, lowering his sword. “Talking with you always gives me a headache. At least take the spell off her.”

“Do I look like a sorcerer to you? Why don’t you ask your father to do it?”

Clarent stiffened. They both knew that Clarent wouldn’t ask his father for anything. Just as they knew he wasn’t the sort to cause problems in the residential area, or break the “rules” of the Tower, no matter how irritated he was. FUG didn’t care about such things. Evelyn certainly didn’t. However, the Red Knight was proper like that. Personally, even if it would’ve been a bit of a bother, Evelyn wouldn’t mind his shop burning down if only to see Clarent’s upstanding citizen charade crack. “That man wouldn’t care.”

Most wouldn’t care about a regular princess that was still climbing, least of all one that didn’t even belong to one of the Great Families, but Evelyn chose not to point that out. “If not the pioneer of shinsoo research, father of science and medicine, and most knowledgeable man in the tower, how about your mother’s side of the family? They’re witches after all. Surely they can show you how to cancel an ancient spell.”

“Aren’t you a guide?”

“I’m telling you how to do it, aren’t I? Whether you take the path I give you or not is up to you, but please don’t waste my time. I’ve got other people to guide.”

Fiery pools of crimson glared at him for a moment longer, seeming to assess his honesty, before the Red Knight swept out of Ophidian without ever touching the tea. For a man herald to be a genius tactician of his time, Clarent Po Bidau was certainly easy to read. But then, most people were when you knew what they wanted.

“Why do you always have to be like that, Boss?” Derrick came from the Gate.

“He and I don’t really see eye to eye,” Evelyn replied before waving. “If Ailsa stops by, let her know I’ve kept my end of the bargain. I’m going upstairs to check on how my favorite cat sidhe and hacking program are doing. Don’t disturb me. Anyone asks, tell them I’m away on a job somewhere. ”

“But what if—,”

A green lighthouse appeared beside Evelyn as the ranker reached in and tossed a thick-looking manual towards Derrick—who caught it awkwardly because he only had one working arm at the moment. “Instructions on how to turn on the security android. I’m leaving that up to you since she was commissioned for your sake. You can even name her~”

Sighing, Ophidian’s cashier returned his seat behind the counter, flipped open the book, and lazily started reading. Derrick knew better than to ask questions. While it was nice to know that his boss cared, it would’ve been nicer if he’d just been given the day off. Perhaps this was why Derrick could never continue climbing. He didn’t have the drive to continue going. Twenty floors was enough to make a decent living. What waited at the top was probably more difficulties and politics anyway. Derrick only wanted a simple life and…honestly…he had no idea if meeting Evelyn was a good thing or bad thing.

Perhaps he shouldn't have asked the Ranker to help Ajax after all.

 

[simj26]

SweetHow long had it been? Were those guys still even alive? Did they have families? Did Lucas and Gaime tie the knot? Did they remember her? Sweet turned the dented bullet in her hand over, her thumb brushing over the etching on it.

"That was some shitty luck, Sweet. Just one short of a full score!"

"A dud round, who'da thunk it?"

”Just shut up, you guys. This rotten thin’s goin’ in the river.”

She would probably never see them again, even if she got out of this Tower. Time, she figured, seemed to function differently than it did outside, or so her body seemed to tell her. Maybe by the time she escaped, those outside would have long been gone. Especially people like her. She dropped the bullet into the palm of her hand and clutched it tightly, as the people around her burst into cheers at what was happening on-stage.

She couldn't stay here either, no matter how much she tried to convince herself. She didn't belong here. She had made it this far, adapted to the customs, survived on nothing more than just good sense and the remnants of a wish. She was a tiny ant amongst giants, she had to remind herself. Try as she might to keep scurrying between their feet, there will be a day when she would be squashed underfoot. She gave her bullet one more glance as the underground arena drew to a close. She hadn't been paying much attention to the goings-on, and she was, really, only hanging around here to hide away from the world at large. It was bizarre, really, how much more alone and calm she felt in a crowd. She was invisible, just another face in a group, just another somebody somewhere. Being actually alone attracted more attention, in her opinion.

"Mmm," she murmured to herself as she brought up her Pocket. This was getting rough. Ever since the 20th floor, she had been stymied by stronger and stronger monsters, and her ‘crawl up the Tower step by step’ was beginning to lose traction. Every day she spent in this Tower was one more day she lost outside. She had to go back. She had to see them again. Them, or what the future held for the world outside. At least she’d be seeing it for them. She stood up and started to follow the crowd out.

She suddenly snapped to attention, her ears burning as she passed by a group of chatty individuals. She turned slightly, and slowed her pace, taking care to blend into the crowd that were still milling about.

“What I’m looking for are specialists that can do their job and do their job well.

That fit her description, as much as it could, anyway.

”...we are being sponsored by a Ranker, so points and repeating tests isn’t really an issue on our team.”

More points! Unlimited points! That meant that she could restock as much as possible! Seeing as they were being sponsored by a Ranker too, it meant that whoever this group was, they were the real deal! Well, as real as the rest got anyway. She held onto her bullet, and hesitated. She didn't think she thought this through enough, but if they were looking for teammates, chances were, they were organised and collected enough to make their ideas work. Alone, a soldier wouldn't last long. However, if they were to link up with a stronger force, there was a better chance that they would survive just a little longer to eat next week's rations. She gripped onto the bullet, inhaled, then exhaled slowly. "Alright, Olli, you can do this. For justice and for homeland!" she cheered to herself under her breath. She waited until they turned to leave from their conversational partner.

“Hey, you two!” She called to them, striding up to their faces. She took in a deep breath, then bowed down low. “My name is Gladioli Arisanthus Sweet,” she introduced herself curtly then straightened up. “I’m a Lightbearer, but I don’t just specialise in long-range reconnaissance and support. If you put me up against a Spearbearer, I sure ain’t gonna lose to them easy. Why am I telling you this? Clearly,” she raised a gloved hand and snapped her fingers for dramatic effect, “because I overheard ya talkin’ about formin’ an ideal team of specialists to climb the Tower, and it just so happens that I’m also in the business of climbin’ the Tower.” She paused, then clapped her hands together and bowed once more. “So PLEASE! I’m askin’ ya! Let me join ya! Even if I ain’t much use in the end, I could at least be a meat shield or somethin’ for the tests. You’ve got nothin’ to lose! I’m beggin’ ya!”

QuirkyAngel

 

[Brendanfp]

Mun Minseo
(Just to inform, given name Minseo, family name Mun)

Minseo listened intently to Ajax. As he spoke she noted how he went about the conversation in a logical manner. He seemed to have laid all his cards on the table and she respected that. The masked man was offering a temporary partnership, an opportunity to learn from another Light Bearer, and a vast amount of wealth. Minseo still couldn't believe how easily this opportunity had come her way. Talent recognizes talent she supposed as her gaze wandered over to Yeong-Su.

Minseo watched as Selicity morphed into a cat and hopped onto the masked man’s shoulder. She had read about this ability but it was still jarring to witness first hand. A pinging sound rang inside her head as Ajax sent his contact information to her lighthouse.

“Thank you for the opportunity. Both of you. Like you said before, I will need a bit of time to decide, but how about we do dinner in an hour or two, the four of us? I hear there are some amazing eateries around the arena.” she said calmly while pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

Minseo tugged on Yeong-Su’s jacket, “It looks like we have a lot to talk about, let's head back to our room, and meet back up later…”

She proceeded to drag her frosty partner away as she waved goodbye. The two slipped back into the crowd.

“Those two were quite the pair… what did you think?” she asked her partner as she doubled checked his wound to make sure it had healed properly.

QuirkyAngel Rantos

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Ajax Cruise + Selicity Faars
Floor 22 - Outpray Underground Arena

Eateries was fine—except Ajax didn’t eat.

Still, far be it for him to reject a chance for positive social interaction from someone he wanted to recruit. While Ajax had given the couple the freedom to think and reject, so as not to scare them off at the first meeting, the truth was that the living ignition weapon had no intention of giving up easily. He didn’t like losing. More than that though was the determination to reach the top no matter what it took.

If he couldn’t do a simple task like recruit teammates, how could he hope of reaching the top of the tower?

Therefore Ajax nodded while Sel cheered at the mention of food. An hour or two also meant that the time studying with Ajax would be cut short. Not that he intended to let the Cat Sidhe escape, of course. Plenty of time to go over flashcards in between meals. Returning Minseo’s wave, he watched the two leave before turning to follow suit. What he didn’t expect was to be ambushed by a pink haired Regular.

Gladioli Arisanthus Sweet.

She seemed quite…enthusiastic. Not that enthusiasm itself was a bad thing. Even while she spoke, Ajax’s lighthouse was running an automatic search on her identity. Temperature scans detected no apparent lies.

While the girl called herself a lightbearer, her description of herself and her capabilities sounded to Ajax more like a long-ranged scout. Support and reconnaissance. Both scout duties. The fact that she offered herself as a ‘meat shield’ only further enhanced this. Certainly a specialized position considering Sel, and most others, were close-ranged ones. They lacked a spear-bearer as well. Whether her firepower was as great as she described was yet to be seen, but she seemed to believe it. Sort of. The last part made it sound like she wasn’t quite sure of it herself.

What interested Ajax most though was her background. Or rather, her lack thereof. Everything before her tower climb seemed practically non-existent.

The only thing he could find was apparent interest and a small (possible) connection to Wolhaiksong…which could explain the missing background. An organization whose power rivaled that of FUG and Zahard’s Army—or at least, that was what the rumors suggested. A social club of ‘elites’ picked out by the strongest man in the tower.

No one really knew how ‘Winged Trees’ were handed out.

However, if Gladioli had ties to them, there was probably more to her than meets the eye. Boss would probably approve of networking in this case. The only question Ajax had was why someone with such connections climbing alone…or, at the very least, desperate enough to make teams with people she knew little about, given neither he nor Selicity displayed their skills in the arena. There were rankers and regulars among Wolhaiksong members as well, weren’t there? However, before Ajax could even voice his inquiry, Selicity’s voice cut through the silence.

“Sure! I don’t see why not. We’re looking for friends, right? And Gladioli sounds like she can do a lot of cool things!” Jumping off Ajax’s shoulder, the cat landed deftly on Gladioli’s arm and sauntered her way up the shoulder, brushing slightly against left cheek as she sniffed. “Heeeh~you don’t really smell like a fish at all. Nice ta meecha’, Gladioli. I’m Selicity Faars. And that’s Ajax.”

Scratching the back of his teal head, Ajax relented and held out a gloved hand to the bowing girl. He might be the strategist for them, but, in the end, it was Selicity’s call. That was what the Boss would’ve wanted. “There’s no need for all that, Miss Sweet. We are indeed looking for an ideal team of specialists to climb the tower with,” Or at least he was. “But the setting bar isn’t that high.”

"Did we even have one? You just told me to pick out the people I like." Sel looked to Ajax who shrugged noncommittally. The cat sidhe tended to like strong people and it was easier than going over all the qualities that made up a good team with her. They had enough issues going over the specifics of her position.

How high could one expect E-ranks to be in terms of power, really?

He just needed to fill all the cogs so the machine could function, while considering team dynamics. High quality parts were always better, but things could always be upgraded, refitted, or even replaced if need be. And no one ever said spare parts couldn’t be used. That was the logical part of his brain. However, the illogical part of his brain also felt a connection with those that were ordinary. It wasn’t like he didn’t fit into that category once upon a time. Truthfully, he was probably worse off as he couldn’t even get past the 20th floor without becoming an ignition weapon. Compared to someone like him back then, Mun Minseo and Gladioli Sweet probably had far greater potential.

“I’m sure we can find a use for someone as earnest as you onboard.” Aim high, but ultimately work with what you’re given. That was how Ajax did things. Not being able to find a use for one of the pieces on his board was his own failing as a strategist. “Right now we’re still in the process of recruiting others. Perhaps you can help with that.”

“Yeah, Yeong-Su Xia and Minseo Mun. They invited us to dinner!”

Ajax nodded. “You should join us, Miss Sweet. Your observations, input, and friendly nature, could possibly help to reel them in.”

“Seriously, Ajax? Shouldn’t the priority of dinner be to eat?”

Ajax folded his arms and waited until the realization dawned in Selicity’s eyes. The cat coughed. “Before you do though, I’m hoping I could also bother you to keep eye on the third person I’m interested in. You too, Miss Selicity.” Just in case Selicity forgot she was a scout, this sort of thing was good training for her as well…and it wouldn’t hurt for her to have company. So she wouldn't get distracted. “You should’ve seen her fight just now--or at least I hope you did. Princess Blitz Haewon Zahard. By my calculations, she should be one of the strongest fisherman in our rank at the moment. I’m surprised no one has collected her for their team yet, but I chalk it up to intimidation…and the Blitz family’s notoriety for sanity issues. Still. The burst power of a solid fisherman is something we’re lacking…even with the addition of Yeong-Su Xia and Minseo Mun to the team. Don’t get me wrong. You’ve been doing an excellent job so far, Miss Selicity, but your strengths lie as a scout and I’d rather not over-burden you with too many positions if I can help it. It’s also better to make an ally of a Princess than an enemy if we want a less stressful climb. Befriending and recruiting her right away would be wonderful, but it’s enough to just get close to her and gather information so a strategy can be formed to catch her later. Her likes, dislikes, favorite food…anything you can manage really. All before dinner in an hour or two would be best. ”

They did say the early bird caught the worm, after all. Or, in this case, the earlier hook caught the princess. Competition in the Inner Tower didn’t just take place in the testing arena. “Think you can handle it?”

“If it means I’m not going back to the books, sure. No sweat, right~?” Bright golden eyes looked hopefully to Gladioli Sweet, though whether the other girl went with her or not, she had every intention of following Princess Haewon regardless. Stealthily of course. As stealthily as a sneaky, non-assuming white cat.

In the meantime, Ajax had to take a call. His pocket had been alerting him of a call from ‘The Boss’ for quite some time now.

simj26 Brendanfp Rantos

 

[Azure Sky]

20th Floor Test, Paintball Mayhem, Part 2- Han Ji-Hyeon, Areum Eurasia, Ha Naseon, Lo Po Bia Exnor, Green Hair and Purple 'Shrooms + Side Story: Hare vs Illiam, Tentacles and Lights Out
collab with Rantos OverconfidentMagi simj26 The One Eyed Bandit
​

Before Drake found the other Regulars...

"Wake up." A hard slap snapped Drake back from reality. He had a nice dream concerning Azalea. The slap, which had more than enough force to send him flying into the nearby wall, served as a harsh wakeup call.

"Today's dish is Nyra Carciphi deep fried, Azalea-nuna! Guuh!" He was still confused, as he looked around. There was Len and...

Pow!

A kick to the gut glued him to the wall. He coughed blood. Yet, that was his only wound. How, who healed him?

"Hi." Von Hare said causally. Drake recognized the voice. It was that damn rabbit. He should have known. There was something different about him though. The 3 pairs of eyes and...

"Why a green wig?" He was still slightly confused.

"You wouldn't understand." He said, as he hit Drake three times in the chest with painballs. Hare was right, Drake wouldn't. "This guy's a psycho." He thought. Seeing Len completely fine, Drake gathered that Hare was unusually aggresive towards him.

"Do you have something against me?"
"Somewhat."
"I see... Have we met before?"
"Probably not."
"I don't get it. Why so much animosity? I don't remeber ever crossing you."

Pow!

A blindingly fast punch to the gut.

"It is the right thing to do."

"Guh!" Drake was briefly left without air. Who was this guy? His punches felt way too strong. Was he really only a soon-to-be E-rank? No, impossible. The rabbit must have been faking like him. Regardless, Drake wouldn't take allow such disrespect towards himself for long.

[Reverse Flow Control- Fast Skip]

As he stopped Hare in place, Drake took out a syringe, and injected himself with a stange drug. His skin became purple yet again, but volatile energy danced around his body. He punched Hare, emitting a purple blast engulfed in smoke as he did so. Hare was sent in the wall, the entire area around him being covered in smoke.

"Len, Nyra?"
"Upstairs soon." Len lied, but Drake didn't bother to think of the possibility. He just ran away from Hare at high speed. The drug would greatly increase his pain tolerance and threshold, while also amping his power up to the that of a top B-Rank. Yet it shortened his lifespan and would cripple him after its effects would be over. Drake did not know that however. Nor did he care at that moment. He wanted Nyra.

Current situation...

"I am not in the mood for this. Where are Nyra Carciphi and Illiam Herlaa, Lo Po Bia punk? I suggest you answer quick, unless you want to die slowly like that brat near ya." Drake emitted a great amount of bloodlust as he uttered Nyra's name especially.

"John Wu." Exnor watched him carefully. He put his guns down and took out his knife. He felt like this was a life and death situation. "I wouldn't know."

"So, you have chosen death." Smoke formed around his body as he walked forward.

"Ah! Where are my manners? Would the ladies also like to have a try answering?"

"..." Areum cocked her eyebrow at the all new cavalcade of idiots spilling onto the floor. She recognized one of them, her apparently freshly disgraced team leader, but neither of the other two. Her finger twitched at the purple-one's questioning, the glowering embers of her just extinguished battle-rage threatening to flare up once again.

She mulled his words, and the situation in general over. She had no idea who he was, what he was after, and frankly, she really couldn't care less.

"Who?" Was the only answer she spat out at the man, regarding him with a tone half laced with disinterest, and half with irritation. Whatever his vendetta with those two was, she wanted nothing to do with it.

"Oi. Horny. My gun." She stuck her hand out at the other woman. "Get yours busy too. Let's fill this jackass with a pellet for every degree of headache he's given me in the last few minutes." With her free hand, she gestured at Naseon, her heel still standing dug into his collapsed ribcage.

Ji-hyeon wordlessly tossed Areum's gun to her, her focus directed entirely to the new invader, her expression masking her struggle to identify just who this person was. Who the hell was he? Why was he even asking them, of all people, dumb questions? "Definitely not here, buddy, but close," she mused. "This here's Myra, I'm Jilliam, the kid on the ground's just another Ha brat. Safe to say, you've walked into the wrong saloon, cowboy. Points for effort though."

"Mhm, mhm. Death as well, I see." Drake concluded, shifting his attention to Ji-Hyeon as he continued walking. The smoke expanded and moved at a faster pace than he did. Seriously, letting all these small fry treat him with such disrespect...

"My patience has ended." He released a wave of smoke then summoned his lighthouses to accelerate the spread and range.

[Gloom Shroom], as soon as the smoke would make contact purple spotted mushrooms would start to grow on their bodies. The mushrooms would gradually steal the vitallity of all living creatures that they feasted upon, while also releasing a poisonous miasma, killing their prey slowly. First symptoms: shortness of breath and continuous coughing.

Ji-hyeon reacted, her body moving almost by instinct, to try and escape from the smog. She took a step backwards, but paused when her foot nudged Naseon's body. She glanced down, cursed, then grabbed the boy, and started sprinting down the hallway, away from the smoke. "Eurasia!" she warned the girl again, as she drew her gun and fired two shots into the smoke, at where she remembered Drake was standing. She heard one of the shots ping off her shield, and she cursed. She left her shield behind! Damn it!

Yet another paint shot hit Drake, this time in the abdomen. How many points did he lose again? He stopped counting after -10. "Are you not going to run Eurasia?" he asked without really caring if she did. Meanwhile, Exnor grabbed Minerva and ran away at the same time as Ji-Hyeon, not forgetting to pick his gun which once again became one. He shot once in the smoke as well, with Shinsoo enhancing the blow. It hit Drake in the shoulder. "I wonder if that would have hurt." The drug he injected increased his pain resistance to great levels, to the point where he didn't feel the blast.

As Drake's smoke bore down on her, Areum clicked her tongue between her teeth. Nothing was ever easy. Her intincts were telling her to just run. She had nothing to do with this guy. All she needed to do was score some points.

But, man, that attitude of his pissed her off.

She shot a dark, long glance into the hazy wall that hid him from her, and her from him. Her legs urged at her to turn tail, but she forced them to move forward.

Just before the wall of smoke engluffed her, the young Areum sent a pair of sparks into her Palisades, and they exploded off of her wrist. In sync with her forward advance they swung in front of her, cutting a safe gulf in the oncoming tide of shinsoo-infused smoke. It would only be a matter of time before it closed it, but she was planning on acting quickly.

Her legs, resigned to their fate of having to obey the whims of their furious owner, charged forward through the sea of smog. Her shields moved in unison with her, parting a way of fleeting safe passage as they pushed their way through the smoke, only allowing it to nip at her uncovered heels.

Then, before Drake would have a chance to fully process her moronic bravado, she sprung out from between them. Leaping forward with one foot first, she then used then other to spring board off of her shields, aiming to deliver a heavy spear tackle to the mushroom-Regular's abdomen.

"Damn it, Eurasia!" Ji-hyeon came to a halt, disposing of the Ha boy's body unceremoniously onto the ground. It was just one thing after the other. Without Naseon's Doldrums slowing her down now, however, Ji-hyeon moved at her normal speed as she charged back into the fray, diving into the closing gap that the smaller girl left in her wake.

As Areum sprung into Drake's abdominal area with great force, the man was pushed a few steps back, but his pain threshold did not register the power of the attack. He did feel something, but it was more aking to a tickle. "As expected of an Eurasia offspring."

"Too bad you're only an F-rank." he whispered.

With that said, Drake touched Areum's head, not even attempting to get out of the tackle, and...

[Green Grin]

Summoned his flesh eating mold. The speed at which it would have started eating away at Areum depended on her Shinsoo resistance and body strengthening. Just to be sure he also summoned 5 Baangs and launched toxic, acid-like blasts at her.

Her eyes went wide as Drake's baangs blinked into existence. This wasn't Areum's first time seeing this many Baangs, in fact, this was chump change in comparison to what she'd seen when she was living with the main family, but...

Five baangs? On this floor?

She felt a sinking feeling in her gut. Something tasted sour here, and it wasn't just the mold that was trying to worm its way into her mouth.

Ji-hyeon burst forth from the smog behind Areum, hooked one hand across her torso, lifted her and spun around, bringing her recently retrieved shield between her and Drake. She shoved Areum away, and put two more point blank shots into Drake. She didn't think she could hold her breath for too long, and hoped that Areum could recover enough sense to retreat from this threat. Her shield groaned slightly, as the Baangs collided into it, and she could just make out hairline cracks upon it. She grimaced as she saw one of the stickers upon it begin to melt away in the torrent of acidity. She supposed that this meant that their partnership was nearing the end of its contract.

"Hoh, impres-"

Pow!

Two shots in the forehead. Drake was starting to get annoyed. But he attempted to maintain composure.

"H-hey!" Areum let out a protesting yelp as the other woman manhandled her. She opened her mouth to let out another complaint, but was cut off as a whiff of Drake's spore cloud wafted into her throat, and forced her to let out a sputtering cough.

Damn it. Between that techinque of his and standing in this mire, she could tell she was already taking damage. She could feel something budding atop her skin, an intricate network of hyphae slowly worming its away through her body; a prelude to a garden of morbid blooms.

She gritted her teeth. She wasn't an idiot, she could tell that the best move here would be to just run; but, giving a piece of shit like this the satisfaction?

Fat chance.

"Ji-Hyeon." For the first time, she addressed the other woman by name. "I mean it when I say it this time. Stay out of my way. If you want to help, just piss him off, or piss off yourself." She spoke at the woman, casting her a sidelong glance as she pushed past her, and back to face Drake.

"Saluations, asshole." This time, she spoke to Drake. "I was just going to beat the shit out fo you, but I'm curious. It doesn't take a genius to figure out you're up to some suspicious shit, but is this really all you've got?" Even if it wasn't possible to see her expression through the dense layer of smog, her smirk on the young Eurasia's face was audible in her voice alone.

"Five bangs and you can't even bust some nobody's shield? Hell, how much of your Shinsoo are you even spending on this cloud of yours? I mean, it's theatrical and all, but what are you trying to do, make me cough? This is even more pathetic than that shorty's stupid pressure trick."

"Heeeeh, you're both standing in the smoke. Heheheehehehehe." Drake smiled malevolently, but popping veins and his venomous tone made it clear he was pissed off by Areum's bravado.

"Don't worry too much about it, Miss Eurasia." He said, as the smoke went further and the baangs disappeared. "Your death will be slow and painful, but at least not as much as Nyra Carciphi's when I find her. You should be grateful for my generosity." He was not about to give a few F-ranks the satisfaction of falling for a provocation. But he also stopped underestimating them.

"You aren't like the rabbit. Or even like that Herlaa guy. Yet, you all act like you're hot shit. Just like that leader of yours. Frikin' direct descendant snobs and no-names."

Ji-hyeon noted the garden of fungi growing upon Areum's exposed skin. No doubt, the same was happening to her right now. They had very little time left to play around with childish games on either side. "Eurasia, the test, dammit!" She tried to straighten up, but fell to one knee. Was it the mushrooms that were growing on her? Were they sapping her of her strength. Blasted black Shinsoo magicks! Cowards who won't even fight her one on one!

Something flashed in Ji-hyeon's eyes. A spark of anger, perhaps? Or a gleam of another strategem bubbling to the surface? She straightened up, her stony expression unwilling to betray which one it was.

Ji-hyeon pulled herself up with some effort, then shoved past Areum, her face contorted into one of anger and frustration. "Listen to me, Eurasia," she spoke to the other girl quietly, we can settle this revenge match outside.Temperr your pride, this is no place to grow mold and die to some mad fool like an idiot. Now keep up, I've got a plan. I'm going to break my arm."

With thosee words, she turned her attention to Drake, bringing her deteriorating shield up. One last mission, Ji-Hyeon resigned herself to the fate. "And I ain't a nobody! I ain't a no-name! My name is Han Ji-hyeon, and I'm going to become the strongest being in this whole damn Tower!" [Shinsoo Engine] activated, wreathing her arms and her shield. "So shut up, and get out of my way! Who cares about your stupid grudge?! I'm gonna die the strongest being, or I'm never gonna die!" Her shield gave one more groan of protest, before it started up, and began to spin, dividing the hallway, seperating both Areum and Drake.

The weakened steel, hammered thoroughly by the Baangs earlier, eaten away by the toxic fumes that Drake had spewed, struck the walls, chipped, then broke off, scattering its debris across the hallway. One large piece dug into Ji-hyeon's shoulder, but she didn't seem to notice. Her entire focus was directed onto keeping her shield up. With a defiant roar, and a certain gleam in her eyes, she charged forwards, straight at Drake

Drake watched as the woman performed a suicidal move. He smiled and sighed. He then performed a combination of charging forward like a rugby player, enhancing himself further with Shinsoo and using his lighthouses to decelerate Ji-Hyeon, with the purpose of making her lose momentum. They would die anyway. He'd charge past all of them and search for Nyra.

"You have a plan..." As Ji-Hyeon ambled on, Areum mumbled under her breath. Of course she did. It was always the same with these people. Floor after floor, test after test, heachache after headache...

She heaved a heavy groan, and resigned herself. She'd been hoping to meet at least one person worth her time on this floor, but it looked like that was a vain effort. If this woman wanted her to cow-tow to her demands, she'd do so. She spared the horned woman one last glance of contempt, and then slidled away to the side of the hallway, sliding down to spectate the debacle unfolding in front of her.

Meanwhile, further away from the action...

Exnor was trying to destroy each mushroom on Minerva's body slowly by attacking it with Shinsoo blasts all while blasting at her with paint bullets to get points. All was fair in love and war.

>> An additional 30 points for Team Illiam, scored by Exnor.

"Don't think too badly of me, young miss of the Po Bidau family. It's the nature of the test." Yet he stopped at just 30 points. "Consider it payment for trying to save ya'."

"Guhh!" Minerva was starting to get to her senses. "Wh-... Lo Po Bia Exnor? Wha!" As Exnor destroyed mushrooms on her body little by little, Minerva became conscious yet again. She subconsciously got hold of her gun and pointed at Exnor. But she felt unusually tired. She then remembered. John Wu, his gas, monstruous strength.

"Wh-where's my team?"
"Fighting John Wu." Exnor continued to slowly destroy mushrooms. The process took quite some time.
"No!"
"Yes. Unfortunately."
"The man is a psycho."
"Yes. Unfortunately."
"We must stop him."
"No. Unfortunately."
"Glad we agree, let us... What?"
"The man is too dangerous. In fact, we need to run soon."
"I can't leave my team mates."
"The guy is too powerful."
"You call yourself a Lo Po Bia with that attitude?"
"Family name and status means nothing. Especially if I am dead. I am hot-headed, not stupid."
"Wha- guh..."
"There, there. Don't push yourself."

Minerva was still weak. She used Shinsoo to strengthen her body and tried to self heal from the poison. She made her pocket visible to send a message.

>>Message to Ji-Heyon and Areum: "I will help soon."

"This girl..." Exnor was speechless.


Drake slammed into Ji-hyeon's shield. That was the straw that shattered the camel's back, so to speak. The horned girl felt a sharp sting of pain shoot up her arm, and could barely just see her shield crack, then broke into pieces. She raised her free arm, just in time to take the full brunt of the buckshot of steel that tore into her body. She was flung backwards from the impact, and hit the ground, rolling a small distance, until she came to a stop in front of Areum. That hurt more than she predicted. Grunting, she brought herself up against a wall, sliding up against it clumsily as what was left of her left arm hung limply at her side. Discounting one of the pieces of her shield having been unceremoniously lodged straight through it, the whole length of it was unrecognisable. It was simply just a red, crushed mess, its skin warped and distorted, as the bone inside was completely twisted apart, the myriad shards blending the flesh around it into mulch. Ji-hyeon swore she could just make out the white of a stray bone jutting out amongst the flood of red, but with the stars dancing in her vision, she couldn't be too sure.

She shuddered as she spoke, clearly feeling the effects of the toxic fumes that she had breathed in. "Hey, you--" she started, then coughed, "Eurasia, you deal with--" she coughed again, "I'm just going to--" she murmured then slid back down the wall, her eyes staring blankly at the floor, "--just going to take a break." Her mouth went slack, and she slumped against the wall.

As Ji-Hyeon tumbled past her, Areum only shot her a blank look. She stammered on about something or another, but it was in one ear and out the other. For a moment, she regarded the woman's limp body, and her thoughts returned to a time when the sight would've filled her with some sort of amusement, but now she didn't feel much.

"So." Her gaze flitted over to Drake, and her voice raised. "Dumb bitch really went and got herself busted up, huh?" While her eyes were focused on Drake, it was clear that she was speaking to whatever administrator was watching from on high. "Not that I care, but wasn't that against the rules? Come on down and do your job, or whatever."

>>System: John Wu has broken the rules. Disqualified.

"What?" Drake was in disbelief. He could not find info, and he could not kill Nyra. At least...

"At least I will kill a direct descendant of the Eurasia..." He stated, laughing in a maniacal state as he generated six Baangs this time, lanuching acid attacks at Areum. But they suddenly disappeared.

"What? How?"

"John Wu, or would you prefer Tu Perie Drake, C-rank Regular?" Weiss's voice could be heard on the whole corridor. The smoke and fungi on everyone, Minerva included, also disappeared, together with the poison in their system.

"Eh?" Both Exnor and Minerva were in disbelief. When? How? They did not even register Weiss passing by.

This was an ability that Deltron was not supposed to have as Weiss, but it wasn't like the Regulars knew that, or that High Ranker Domino's abilities where particularly known at wide.

"What did you call me?"
"Is your name not Drake? Bastard of the Tu Perie family?"
"Y-you...You...guuuuh!" Drake tried to strike Weiss down, but he was stopped by a punch to the solar plexus which generated a white Shinsoo wave that cleansed Drake's body of the drug's effects. He fainted.

Illiam had been unusually quiet since the encounter with John. It was making Nyra nervous. Was he angry at her? Was he upset that he'd been injured while she'd stayed back? She'd offered him bandages in case, but he was probably still upset. Or was he angry that she'd interfered in his fight at all? He could have handled John without her, Nyra considered that a fact. He was probably annoyed that she'd gotten in the way. As scary as John had tried to make himself out to be, the simple idea that she'd somehow drawn Illiam's ire terrifed Nyra much more.

Her head snapped to the side, her golden eyes looking sharply at the wall, but Nyra was seeing something beyond. Her jellyfish shinheuh, and the observer guiding it, had found Ullyr. The large cat was limping down the hall on its way back to her. Nyra's heart filled with love for the feline, but she also felt another hot wave of anger. Ullyr was hurt. First her jellyfish, now her cat. If Exnor was responsible for this as well, she would hurt him. No, she was going to hurt him already. If this was his work as well, she would hurt him more.

Nyra changed direction without telling Illiam why, rounding another corner until her cat was in sight. Ullyr's limping turned into unsteady lunges as soon as she saw her master. Nyra hugged the cat's head before doing a quick glance-over at how injured Ullyr was. Nothing serious externally, but the limp and way she shook when Nyra touched her chest and stomach said there might be some internal damage. "Ullyr, good job. Take a break now." The aquatic wildcat slipped back into its bowl with only a weak complaint.

Nyra's eyes refocused ahead. She'd had Ullyr guarding the guide's body so she could find it after dealing with John, but Ullyr was injured and Len was nowhere to be found. Yon, her needlefish, had returned in time to deal with John, so he'd already finished with Len before that. If Len had been taken out, a third party must have taken advantage of the situation and attacked Ullyr for the free points. Ullyr would run away or hide rather than pick a losing fight, so the third party must have attacked without warning... ambushing an invisible target? Nyra couldn't put together a scenario that made sense. She didn't have enough information. Or she just wasn't smart enough. Either way, trying to figure it out now was pointless.

Her jellyfish had drifted further down the hall and was ineffectually pushing its tentacles against one of the doors. The ghosthair jelly was attracted to shinsoo. In other words, something behind that door was controlling shinsoo. "Someone's in there," Nyra said to Illiam, pointing despite which room she meant being obvious. She moved the observer away to drag her jellyfish back from the door, though its long tentacles continued to reach out. "It could be a trap. What do you think?"

"Blitz it." Illiam answered simply as played with the bandages around his arms. Still wet, still slimy, still a sickening reminder. Though, some credit is due. The gesture was a useless one, but one that held some amount of kindness due to that fact. The pain subsided, the bruises left as the only physical sign. Though of mental stress and the pain of regret, these still remained. The victory afforded to them against Drake felt hollow. Or, if nothing else, it felt like Nyra's victory only.

"I'm going in, and I'm causing a mess. Leave your jellyfish by the door and I'll try to throw people in this direction. Otherwise, watch where you throw a tsunami this time."

Nyra stared at Illiam. "Okay," she said simply, stepping back from the door. She'd almost said something about not having many more spare bowls to break, but years of hiding weaknesses kept her tongue still.

On the other side of the door, Von Hare was chatting with Len Lumiere as he took off and destroyed the last mushroom on his body. It was annoying.

"Do you know John Wu personally?"
"Not really, but he is of higher ranking in FUG than I am."
"So, you're both FUG? Terrorists, eh..."
"Think what you will. We are not all the same as Drake."
"That's what they all say. Drake?"
"John Wu's real name. Drake of the Tu Perie."
"You are giving me some sensitive information."
"I hate the guy."
"Awww, did he bully you hard?"
"Think what you wish..."
"Regardless... Can you sense it?"
"I can..."

Von Hare sensed a few presences behind the dooor through his sense of smell, Len did so through his radar sense. One smell in particular was already familliar to Von Hare.

"Ah, the faint smell of the cat. Did it come back with its owner for revenge?" The rabbit asked loudly so he could be heard clearly.

Splintering screws and malformed metal sounds are the only replies to Hare's provocation. Illiam entered without a moment's pause, stepping into the room, his observer could be seen before he could. All three surrounding his head, the whites of their singular eyes, blinking, fixed on the two bodies within the room. There was no dialogue save for the nonverbal messages a raised gun sent. Illiam shot at the two right away, alternating his shots between the two. Six shots rang out. His anticipation for their next move crackled against his skin, Shinsoo enhancement: [A Graceful Body]

The electric hum was muffled under the oil-slick bandages that covered him. He could feel the stray shocks that would usually fade into the surrounding stay arcing under the bandages. A wrap and oil insulation, and under the bandage, it felt as if it seemed to stay. It felt as it if seemed to stockpile.

"Hello, cupcake." Hare used Len's gun he previously stole, adding some Shinsoo to the blasts, exactly 6 like his opponent, and used them to counter each and every blast Illiam fired.

"I am powerless and about to be in a world of pain. Whatever path I choose..." Len thought to himself. "If that's the case..."

"Do you mind letting me sleep sooner?" Len asked. It was the most ideal choice by far. Risking less damage.

Guide powers are quite something...
"Very well." an arm came forth from Von Hare's shadow, releasing the damage it stole from Len previously. With his wounds back, Len fainted. Hare's own gun was separated in two, with one being "eaten" by his shadow. He swiftly kicked Len's body to the other side of the room. While his body was flying, an arm came out of Lumiere's shadow, holding the gun and launching paint shots Hare previously infused with his Shinsoo. From those shots...

[Moon Rabbit]

The shadow of the "bullets" became a 2d shadow rabbit, which attempted to jump in Illiam's shadow.

Bullets and strange shadowy shapes flew, forcing Nyra to ignore the many questions that rose to mind from seeing the scene within the room. Len aside, her golden eyes took one look at Hare and judged him as a predator. This one was Illiam's fight. She stepped back and then jumped back further down the hall, the floor rising up beneath her feet to launch her hopefully out of range of that guy's strange power. But she wasn't abandoning Illiam here. She planned on winning this game, and the two people inside that room were worth enough points to almost guarentee that.

Nyra turned to the jellyfish floating outside the room. She really hated controlling this one. It didn't have a brain, so asking it to do anything was pointless. It needed to be directly controlled. It felt gross. But Ullyr was already injured and Yon was worse off, and her other shinheuh were too big. "Nobody, obey," her voice rippled through the ambient shinsoo in the hall until it reached the jellyfish.

Three eyes surround, protecting as they observer the surroundings. Erratic eyes who's focused darted and dashed from object to object. Never daring spend too much time on a singular object, save for Hare. Always an eye trained on the prey, how did he move, how would he scurry, how would he fight, how would he respond when backed into the corner? How would he back Illiam into a corner? These are the questions that needed answers if he was to succeed in the test now. Though, forgoing the trivialities of the test in favor of gaining a new pelt was a tempting prospect. But no, the test came first, a good hunt was secondary. This was the order of operations as Illiam's mission-focused mind demanded.

Shadow. The only keyword that Illiam could gather in the fight so far. From the shadow of the body, Hare kicked came a gun. From the gun came shots, one of which was able to find its mark, hitting Illiam's body. The rest would have followed soon after if not for his enhancement. Dogging out of the way, Illiam's observes caught a glimpse of the moving shadow from the bullets. It didn't move in tandem with the bullet, it moved towards Illiam. Avoid at all costs. In a room of this size Illiam only could think of one way. If only Yaga were watching, it'd do her proud.

Bouncing from wall to wall, Illiam kept himself moving all around Hare. Staying out of his physical attack range as he did his best to avoid the shadow rabbits. Keep moving, keep bouncing, adjust the angle to keep from getting predictable. But above all, Illiam fired a shot at the unconscious body every time he happened to pass by. Though he didn't make a point to pass by often. His focus was to dodge Hare's attack, shooting Len was simply a bonus.

"Impressive." Hare observed Illiam with great interest. He was slow without Shinsoo, but his speed grew to a decent degree with it. And the sheer amount of electricity he dashed out, as if he had little in the limit of how much he could control. The rabbit started sniffing. The smell was quite unusual.

"Are you from the outside?" He asked. But he didn't really care for a response. Six Baangs formed, and launched dark blasts at Illiam. Immediately afterwards, one Baang disappeared, and one other grew as it took a more spherical shape. A pair of arms came out of it, each holding a dark energy spear. Meanwhile, Hare, for the first time durring the test, enhanced his body with Shinsoo. The dark energy danced around him in an eerie manner.

Boom!

His movement caused ripples of force in the air as he appeared in front of the other Irregular launching four blasts directed at his limbs, while one of the hands from the bigger Baang threw a spear to his chest.

"If you are, I hope this is not your limit."

The spear, upon contact, could temporarily make something lose its ability to use its arms (or front limbs). The victim would feel a strong sensation of numbness as the arms/front limbs darkened.

"Oh, wait..." Von Hare vaguely remembered the rule regarding limbs. He was going to temporarily incapacitate his opponent, and he was not going to chop or destroy his limbs, but it was going to make Illiam's arms useless if he hit. He was unsure if it was grounds for disqualification. "Damn it!"

Nyra out in the hall had her eyes shut tight, all of her focus on maintaining control over the jellyfish shinheuh. Mindless as it was, its instincts pushed it to grasp for prey that altered the flow of shinsoo around it. Nyra had been holding Nobody's tentacles back from reaching out and ensnaring Illiam, but what she needed to do was more than just restrain her uncooperative shinheuh. "Come on," she mumbled under her breath. She split her focus to see through the observer looking out through Nobody's clear body, nearly losing her control by doing so, but she pulled back the tentacles that lashed out before they touched her teammate. She really should have practiced this more, but it was so unpleasant she'd neglected to do so.

Her bandaged arms reached out in front of her as she split her focus again. Watch the battle, hold Nobody back from attacking Illiam, and now she manually controlled the jellyfish's tentacles. They began to move, vagualy shifting in reaction to Nyra's moving arms out in the hallway. Alright, she could do this. That distracting thought almost broke her delicate control. She needed to keep completely focused. Manipulating all of the stinging tentacles as one group - finer control was beyond her - Nyra reached out around Illiam try and grab and sting Hare, but her control was too clumsy to even manage that and the mass of tentacles hit the floor and wall of the room.

No good. Her control wavered, but before she was able to fully reassert control some of the tentacles lashed out for the shadowy things moving around the floor. The unnatural shadows fizzed and faded... Of course, they were just shinsoo. Nyra got Nobody back under her control. Trying to help Illiam fight Hare like this wasn't going to work, but she could at least deal with these annoying things. Keeping the tentacles away from Illiam and Hare, Nyra manipuated them to sweep across the floor and walls by the door, eating any of Hare's shadowy rabbits that came within the tentacles' reach.

A jellyfish this time. The anima was full of surprises. And it killed his [Moon Rabbit]. It was a shame he could not end this quickly, but the more he saw Illiam in action the less he believed he needed that skill to defeat him.

Bless the girl for her attempts. As Illiam's eyes scanned the room they caught a glimpse at Nyra assisting him. So long as she could handle the shadows, Illiam could focus on the threat before him. It was his turn now to go on the offensive, or at least it should have been. Six Shinsoo blasts found their way to Illiam, keeping his momentum Illiam continued to bounce and run along the walls and floor. The Shinsoo blasts missed, only inches at a time on every shot. After the sixth Illliam got himself ready to strike, landing on the floor, his body pointed and aimed at Hare, looking to take advantage of the time it takes to remake his Baangs.

But that's not what happened. In the time it took Illiam to process the fact he had an opening, Hare had already slammed it tight. The window shut as he closed the distance. They were face to face now, and soon to be Baang to body. Shot after shot, fired directly into Illiam. It didn't sting, it didn't burn, it tore. The first hit was enough to send him flying if not for the fact that Illiam had grabbed hold of Hare a moment before. Sturdy bastard made for a wonderful stabilizer. So as the myriad blasts came Illiam's body responded by jerking against the recoil of each hit. All the way until the final hit, delivered by a spear, through which Illiam could feel his deepest wound reopen.

It only took him an instant to realize what the spear had done. Removing the sensation in his real arm, dirty enough as it was. His arm was still there, he knew it was, his observer witnessed it as such. But Illiam could feel it. In that instant, his arm was torn to sunder. Twisted and broken by the joint, and thrown away in the aftermath. Illiam looked upon Hare, finally with his own eyes, bloodshot, dilated, pained. Hare's face was reflected and warped to resemble the face of the man who took it all.

[Ignite, Desire]

The arm that still held its grip on Hare began to shimmer. Or rather, it began to slither, as skin molted under the bandages that ripped to give way to sinister Shinsoo rising.

The sudden metamorphosis of Illiam's arm surprised Von Hare. "Ignite? Haven't seen a person ignite before. Wasn't that an Ignition Weapon thing?" The Rabbit thought as the snakes caught his right arm. He had no choice, it seemed. He was forced to neutralize Illiam. Von Hare strenghtened his body with Shinsoo, his right arm in particular being coated with an extra layer that looked like obsidian. He was about to prepare a blast to the other Irregular's chin, but before he could unleash it...

"OH, YEAAHHH!" Someone burst through one of the walls, wearing a Kool Aid t-shirt, the green haired woman appeared in front of the two Irregulars, pushed Hare aside and hit Illiam in the chin, all in the split of a second, faster than even Von Hare could process.

"Sorry boys, and the Anima girl in the back. Test is suspended due to technical issues." Sasha said.

"Eh?" Even Von Hare was confused.

A few moments later...

Drake was in the medical area, under observation by the Test Director. His wounds from Nyra also returned, so his state was not pretty. Naseon, Ji-Hyeon, Minerva, and Len where in the medical area as well, but a different wing, all of them dealing with various degrees of wounds.

"The test was dirtied by foul play. As John Wu, real name Drake, was in fact an infiltrated C-rank, likely from FUG, not to mention an offspring of the Great Families, this test was fundamentally unfair for the rest of you. But I have analysed your fights. Nyra Carciphi and Illiam Herlaa managed to defeat him, Von Hare healed and was overpowering him for a while, Areum Eurasia held on well, and Ji-Hyeon was smart in her approach, defeating him using the rules, while Lo Po Bia Exnor managed to remain completely unscathed during the entirety of the test. The other three..." Weiss thought about Naseon, Len, and Minerva, "Were unfortunate." Weiss took a pause and looked at everyone present.

"Regadless, after a talk with the Test Director, we agreed that they also displayed great skills in every situation they were put in. Therefore..."
"You all passed!" Sasha was getting impatient.
"Indeed." Weiss was unperturbed by her.

 

[The One Eyed Bandit]

Sometime later...
~~~​

By the time her team members had begun to recover from their injuries, Areum would already be long gone. Through some form of divine providence or another, her wounds were relatively light, so she didn't even concern herself with a visit to the medical bay.

Just the thought of being around that meddlesome woman any longer than she had to was enough to make her veins swell.

Absentmindedly, the young Eurasia wandered the streets of the 20th Floor. Occasionally, her eyes darted from the pavement and towards the map displayed on her Pocket, but she worked well enough with directions for it to be little more than a matter of principle. Occasionally she heard a mutter thrown in her direction, trailing after a gaze of befuddlement or mockery, and for once she didn't blame them; her dress wasn't quite in tatters, but it was certainly close. Between Drake's mushrooms and the paint that'd been splayed all over it, she wouldn't have blamed someone if they thought she was wearing some sort of avant-garde art piece.

She furrowed her brow. In hindsight, the speed of her flight may have been a bit of an overstep. While she did usually travel with a few spare dresses, she hadn't even bothered to pluck her suitcase from the team's room before she'd stormed off. Areum bent her brow inwards even further, and her face crumbled, transforming into a scowl directed at nobody in particular.

While she did spot a few clothing outlets, and even a cute looking boutique on her way to her destination, she didn't care enough about appearances right now to bother visiting them. Right now, all she wanted was to bring at least one of her plans for this floor to fruition.

At that thought her Pocket pinged faintly, informing the girl that she'd reached her destination. Her vision glode up from the pavement, catching sight of a sign labeled "Ophidian", and she allowed her feet to carry her inside.

She had to admit, the place was far... Quainter, than she would have expected. The bored-looking store clerk behind the counter, at the very least, didn't exactly fill the room with the sort of gravitas that she had imagined when reading about the place.

How could she put it? Considering the colorful ownership of the place, she was expecting something a little bit more extravagant.

She spent some time shuffling between the store's aisles, lazily inspecting each of the items that lined their shelves. Now and again, her already sluggish pace would drag to a halt and pick an item up, as if she were completely ignorant of the Ranker-level price tags, to give them a closer look. Tens of minutes dragged by as she worked her way through the store, clearly lacking any concern with hurrying herself.

"Hey, buddy." When she spoke, it was sudden, finally acknowledging the store clerk when she'd drifted close enough to his post for a conversation not to be awkward. "I imagine Regulars aren't the usual clientèle for this place, but have you got anything any more affordable? I'm looking to pick up some sort of souvenir from this floor that doesn't piss me off." She let her words hang in the air for a moment, before gesturing to her newly-bedraggled dress. "Some clothes would be ideal, but I'm not picky."

QuirkyAngel

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

Nyra Carciphi​

"Thank you," Nyra spoke softly. Her sharply pointed fingers, bandages undone for once, delicately touched the cold moist scales of her friend and family member. Yon had been with her for six years and ten floors. Not long, all things considered. A long time, all things considered. He was combative and arrogant and rash and fiercely protective and irritating sometimes but wonderfully loyal and reliable under pressure. With a quick movement, her other hand stabbed a small blade into the shinheuh's head, piercing its brain and killing it as painlessly as she could manage. And now he was gone. The bandages on her face absorbed any tears that may have fell during the minutes she held the dead needlefish. "Goodbye," was her final words to the dead member of her family, after which he would simply be meat.

John's - Drake's - poison had been far worse than she'd thought. Especially that final explosion after Yon had stabbed him. The needlefish hadn't retreated immediately after attacking, and this was the result. Most of the scales and flesh of his face had burned away already, one eye completely gone, and most of his body was only slightly more intact. He'd only been kept alive this long from being preserved inside his bowl and Nyra's shinsoo slowing the effects of the poison eating away at his flesh. Nyra looked down at the dead shinhueh, no sign of her momentary sorrow remaining anywhere in her golden eyes. When a member of her family died, normally she would use their body to feed the rest of her family, and sometimes even herself. But Yon had been killed by poison, so she couldn't do that. Yazi and Siri would miss out on a treat, but there was nothing she could do about that. That too was Drake's fault. One mistake and then death. Nyra didn't think it unfair or cruel. It was simply the rule of life for any predator. Illiam's face flashed through her mind. Drake had wanted to be a predator, Von Hare was a predator, but Illiam was who the word made Nyra think of.

She cut Yon's body up into smaller pieces before calling out Nobody. The large jellyfish floated aimlessly, so Nyra gathered a weak excuse for a baang and held it over the pieces of Yon's flesh to guide Nobody's tentacles to it. Once it found the fish, its tentacles slowly began pulling the pieces towards its body and stomach to eat. Nyra watched the whole thing silently. The poison shouldn't do much to Nobody, even if the tentacles didn't destroy the poison. As far as she could tell, Nobody would try to eat just about anything and just spit out what it couldn't. She wasn't worried about it eating poison or even Yon's sharp nose, she'd seen Nobody try and fail to eat a whole needle. Stabbing, cutting, poison. Was a brainless thing that didn't fear harm or death really even alive?

As she watched Nobody consume the body of her family member, Nyra thought back to the end of the test. Hare had attacked Illiam. And Illiam had... something had changed. For just a second he'd been the predator Nyra's shinheuh sensed inside him. Even through Nobody, Nyra had felt the shinsoo react. She hadn't even thought that possible, but the change had affected the jellyfish so strongly that she'd completely lost control for a moment. If it attacked Illiam then, she'd have lost two family members. She'd reached out to hold Nobody with all of her will behind a single command: STOP. Even after the test had ended and Illiam and Hare had stood down when faced with having to defy a ranker if they wished to continue, Nyra's shinheuh had remained frozen in place. She'd had to physically drag Nobody from the room and shove him back into his bowl before he returned to his normal brainless self and would move again. It was strange. It was all strange. She didn't understand anything. Drake had been simple. Drake had been easy. Illiam was difficult. He gave her a headache. Nobody was confusing. The jellyfish wasn't like her other family members. It didn't act like the others and her power didn't act normally on it. It gave her a headache. Nyra didn't like complicated things. A predator should live a simple life. Win, live, eat. Lose, die, be eaten.

When Nobody was finally close to being done with its meal, Nyra brought out her pocket. She scrolled through the lists of names of the other regulars on this floor whose names she knew, stopping on John Wu. After a minute of internal conflict, she continued scrolling to message Exnor.

Come to the arena​