Dearly Departed (Reyla, Katsumi. Job)

The Quest:

Reyla stood motionless at the base of the path that lead up to the cabin that was her goal, one hand gently resting on the hilt of Stinging Nettle and the other propped against her hip, a crumpled up letter held in her grip. With a weary sigh she let the letter go and watched disinterestedly as it tumbled away from her in the light breeze.

With a mild grimace she turned her gaze back to the cabin. What in the world were you doing here? The letter had clearly been from one of Reyla's childhood friends, a schoolmate in fact, though she'd lost touch with them after she actually began delving into her magic. They'd kept contact sure, mostly through letters, but were they close enough for Reyla to be the first person they'd request aid from?

More suspicious was the fact that the letter had arrived for her at the guild hall, she certainly hadn't told her friend about her new housing arrangements. Needless to say, something was off, the cursed lands, the desperate cry for help, and her friend being able to address the letter to a place she shouldn't know about? This was wrong, but then again what came out of the cursed lands that wasn't wrong in some way? Regardless, Reyla had decided to heed the letter, despite her concerns as the letter was clearly written in her friends handwriting, albeit hastily scrawled.

Reyla wasn't stupid though, so she'd sent out a request for backup, not really caring who came with her, and the fact that she was waiting on that backup was the only reason she hadn't started the walk to the cabin yet.

With a frustrated sigh Reyla looked back along the path she'd followed, hoping to find a glimpse of her companion.

WC:300

Katsumi was making sure she was completely prepared for this mission. She'd been selected by the Rune Knights to answer a call for help. The job would take place in the cursed lands. It would easily be like being back in the 17th floor of LAO. She shuddered a little in remembrance. Actually, it would probably smell worse than it had in LAO. There undead creatures and monsters didn't smell all that bad. It helped them sneak up on you in the game. She double checked her bag to make sure she had enough bandages and salves from the Rune Knight medicinal wing for this mission. It didn't matter that she'd checked the supplies a good four or five times already. There absolutely needed to be enough.

The result was that Katsumi was late to the rendezvous. Damn it. Her white Rune Knight overcoat flapped behind her as she ran through the trees. Why did she have to be so prepared? Who knew what the other mage on this job would do? They might have gone exploring already. They could be dead because she'd taken so long to get ready. Curse teamwork. It didn't work all that well. Not for her anyways. She was always on her own, left to her own devices. Katsumi wasn't really sure how to work with someone else.

The Rune Knight was forced to stop as a large rat stepped into her path. No it wasn't a Rodent of Unusual Size but an undead thing. It was warped by necromantic magic. Katsumi whipped out her Henkan III flipping it into the wand configuration. She didn't have time to waste on this thing. Hopefully it was vunerable to Holy magic just like undead in games were. "System Call. Generate Luminous Element. Form element, bird shape. Discharge." Birds of light formed on the end of her wand, flying out to strike the rat. It squeaked horrendously before falling in a smoking heap. Well, that was good to know. Holy elements hurt these creatures.

Katsumi kept her wand at the ready as she charged through the trees. Where was her partner? Please don't be dead, please don't be dead. Katsumi wasn't sure if finding a dead body was worse than watching a person disintegrate into pixels. She didn't particularly want to find out though either. There was too much death that had been dealt by her madman of an uncle. Knowing that this death would be on her head for trying to be over prepared might break Katsumi entirely.

The Rune Knight burst through the trees to find a woman standing on the path. She nearly sobbed with relief. They weren't dead. Katsumi wasn't very presentable as she skidded to a halt next to the woman. Her black hair was in a disarray, mud streaked her black boots and the bottom of her coat. There was a scratch along her cheek where a branch had hit her face. However, there was a radiant smile on her face. "You're....not....dead....I'm so....glad." Katsumi said between great gasps of breath. She was way too out of shape. This would have been nothing in LAO. "Shall...we get....to it...then?" She asked gesturing toward the cabin.

WC: 532

Reyla raised an eyebrow at the panting girl before her, somewhat confused as to her haggard state. Thinking about it the girl may have been a bit late, but in truth Reyla hadn't even noticed, consumed as she was with her thoughts about the situation in general.

Lazily she raised a hand and inspected it, "Hm, looks like you're right, I'm not dead. I figure that's good news for me as well isn't it?" Reyla's smiled at the girl to take the bite out of her words. "I'm in no hurry, we can take a moment for you to catch your breath. The cabin isn't going anywhere."

Her smile faded, "And I imagine that whoever sent me the letter, whether or not they're who they claimed to be, is either dead or worse and not going to be inclined to leave us either."

In truth that's where most of the frustration about this mission was coming from for Reyla, she wasn't looking forward to seeing the corpse of an old, if distant, friend. Unfortunately she couldn't imagine that anyone in the kind of shape the letter claimed her friend was in would survive long enough in the Cursed Lands for the mail system to get the letter to her, and as such Reyla had forced herself to deal with the idea of confronting a rather grisly scene once they reached the cabin, for whatever definition of confronting that wound up being required.

After giving the girl a chance to catch her breath Reyla began to move forward, pulling Stinging nettle out of it's sheathe and holding the rapier at the ready, leaving her partner to decide whether or not to take the rear or keep pace as she prepared to deal with whatever the area decided to throw at her.

WC:313 TWC:613

The member 'Reyla' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

Katsumi sucked in long breaths rapidly. She was glad that her partner had a sense of humor and a little bit of kindness. Both seemed to be rare within the real world. Of course here, the constant threat of death by game wasn't hanging over everyone's head. Your stats didn't determine whether you lived or died. Katsumi knew that the state they'd been forced to live in had broken some, molded others. She'd seen some good people harden into almost emotionless beasts. Others had transformed into brutal murderers not content with the hand life had dealt. It took some effort to keep from falling into that state of flight or fight. Her PTSD about LAO was better but not quite all the way controllable. Katsumi hoped it wouldn't flare during this job. The last thing they needed was for her to freeze.

"I'm Katsumi Akahoshi." She said once she'd caught her breath. Her partner's words struck a chord within her. Staying with them? Like that undead rat she'd seen on the way here? "I hope we can send your friend off as nicely as possible then." She said sadly in response. "No one should linger upon this mortal plane, where pain and love are intertwined." Katsumi looked at the ground a moment longer before twirling her sword. There was no use dwelling on sadness. Her partner marched forward toward the cabin. Katsumi spun about to guard her back. Whatever was in that cabin was for this girl to face alone. Katsumi would help if asked but otherwise, she'd face down whatever came at them.

Another undead rat appeared in the treeline. Katsumi made a disgusted face. Why were there so many of the disgusting things? "System Call. Generate Luminous Element. Form element, bird shape. Discharge." She said sending birds of light at the creature. It squeaked from the strike before falling over dead. A smoke rose from the defeated zombie rat. Katsumi smiled fiercely. If this was all she had to deal with on this job, she'd be rather happy.

Unfortunately, Katsumi wasn't so lucky. As the other girl touched the cabin, several moans echoed through the forest. The Rune Knight backed away from the trees quickly. It sounded like many enemies were on their way. Her back was much to open for a fight against several opponents. It didn't take them long to appear. Gray lanky shapes crawled through the trees. Skin dropped off their limbs. Bones gleamed in the pale light. Katsumi shuddered, holding up her sword. They wouldn't get through her no matter how disgusting they were. Sightless eyes turned toward her as the five undead picked up her scent. Katsumi's hand was shaking. What had drawn them here to the cabin?

The undead let out terrible shrieks. Katsumi rapidly began spilling the words of her spell. She knew what would come next. ""System Call. Generate Luminous Element. Form element, bird shape. Discharge." The light slammed into one of the ghouls as they charged. Its body smoked from the contact, flopping onto the ground in mid jump. One down, four more to kill. All without one of them biting her. Katsumi wasn't sure if she could manage that. The wand was slipped into her belt quickly. It wouldn't be any more use here.

As the ghouls reached her, Katsumi moved in the song of battle. Her blade flashed, severing a reaching arm. The ghoul fell back with a howl. A spin took the Rune Knight away from another attacking ghoul. It landed heavily and her sword cleaved head from shoulders. Two down. The remaining two slowed their charge having seen what happened to their comrades. Katsumi stepped toward them. Never stop moving in battle. Her blade bisected a ghoul head with one stroke. Three down. In seconds, Katsumi had reduced the ghouls from five to two. If the shrieking one counted, having lost its arm.

The one healthy ghoul turned to run. Katsumi activated a spell. There was no way it was getting away. Her feet left the ground briefly as she slammed a glow blue sword through the ghoul's torso. It shuddered as it died. Katsumi pulled the Henkan from its back. A flick cleared the sword of the disgusting black sludge caked to it. One left to deal with. The Rune Knight turned to find the ghoul leaping for her. Damn the thing. Her hand came back, igniting in a yellow glow. As the ghoul almost reached her, Katsumi slammed her hand through its throat. Her mouth twisted with disgust.

Pulling her hand from the undead, Katsumi did her best to clean it. Over her shoulder, she called out to her partner. "I think I cleared them all out, out here. At least for the time being. How's it going in there?" She hoped it was going well. That they'd found her friend alive. Though the woman had been right. It was more likely that they were dead. A pity if they really were her partner's friend. Not such a bad thing if they'd been trying to deceive her. Katsumi was suddenly glad none of her LAO friends had been capable of turning into a zombie in the game. It would have been awful to try and deal with that.

WC: 876
TWC: 1,408

As Reyla set foot in the cabin she heard the shrieks of the dead behind her, but before she could turn to help she felt herself yanked over the threshold and heard the door slam behind her, cutting her off from her partner and causing her to tumble to the ground. With a frustrated snort she jumped back up, only to find herself facing five rotting corpses in varying states of repose as they rested on the dilapidated furniture in the room.

Reyla quickly brought Stinging Nettle to bear and lifted her other hand in preperation to cast as the corpses began to stir, groaning, or in the case of the corpses that were more bone than flesh rattling, as they began to shamble towards her. Taking in the group of zombies and how cramped the area was Reyla made a snap decision, yes she could take them out individually, they weren't that strong, but by focusing on one monster at a time she'd leave herself vulnerable due to the lack of room to maneuver in, so instead she decided to take care of all of them at once.

"Unreal Spring." With the utterance of her spell Reyla felt her skin begin to tingle as her flesh took on a shimmering, almost scaled appearance, at least until the 'scales' began to peel off and reveal themselves as flower petals. At first they just floated there, surrounding Reyla as more and more petals left her skin, but then just as the first zombie began to lunge towards her they began to rocket away from her, leaving shimmering trails of light as the shredded the undead flesh of her assailants and embedded themselves in the wooden furniture, walls, and door of the room. Waves and waves of petals continued to eject themselves, and by the time they finally faded nothing but ribbons of decayed flesh and dust from pulverized bones remained of her opponents.

The furniture wasn't in any better shape either, the aged wood of the various chairs and single couch had fallen easily before her onslaught, being reduced to so much kindling, and conveniently revealing a hatch to what looked like a cellar of some kind that had been underneath one of the chairs.

Deciding that going underground in an undead infested house by herself was a bad idea Reyla turned to the door and tried to force it open, only to find it was stuck fast. Not wanting to waste her energy Reyla began to hammer on the door, "Katsumi! Can you hear me? The door's stuck fast, do you see any other ways in from where you are?"

WC:446 TWC:1059 Mana remaining: 275/300MP

Katsumi heard Reyla call through the door. Another way in huh? She could blow holes in the tiny cabin. She pulled the wand from her belt. "Reyla stand back from the door. I'm going to blow it open." She waited a few moments before initiating the spell. "System Call. Generate Thermal Element. Form element, sphere shape. Discharge." Several red orbs formed at the tip of the wand. Katsumi sent them flying forward. Four slammed into the door's corners while the final few slammed into the center of the door. The blast blew the door apart. Katsumi blinked at the destruction. That hadn't been the plan at all.

"Reyla? You okay in there?" Katsumi called inching forward. She entered the cabin slowly, looking around for her partner. The inside of the cabin wasn't in good shape. It was nearly destroyed. Katsumi wasn't sure if that was Reyla's fault or a zombie's fault. "Looks like someone destroyed all the furniture. Pity, I was hoping to sit down for a little while." The Rune Knight teased. She saw the hatch on the floor. Katsumi looked over to Reyla.

"Is going down there really the best idea?" She asked softly. "I can provide light down there but the narrow space might make it difficult to fight as a team. Assuming there are pillars holding up the ceiling down there." Katsumi brushed aside the kindling obscuring the hatch. She pulled it open. The stench of death wafted up from below. Katsumi wrinkled her nose. "Assuming we can fight while wallowing in filth." She looked up toward her companion. The Rune Knight was a shut in, not a noble woman or hero by any shot. "You can go first, Reyla." She said cheerfully with a smile.

WC: 300
TWC: 1,708