Under The Cherry Blossoms Part Nine Point Two

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#12 of Under the Cherry Blossoms (NEW)


So Nakishodo,Zen,Rain,and Romulus have made it to The Village Of Gracesia.

Aggro: Short for Aggression. Meaning that all hostile creatures have their attention focused on the one that has Aggro.

(Naki)

The gate guards both women dressed in leather armor one with a spear the other with a crossbow slung over their back greeted Romulus with a nod of their heads. One had reddish brown hair that reminded me of summer while the other had an almost pale sky blue.

If I batted for that team I admit I would be slightly interested but since I didn't and I wasn't about to come off like a creeper I decided to return my attention to the words that Romulus was saying to the guards.

"Hey Rom. Bringing Guests Home?" the Sky blue one asked him with an easy grin. I found myself struck by just how...well human that was for a bunch of zeros and ones. I mean yes I remember that we were required to call the dinizens of this world Residents upon the penalty of death. So help you Gods. But I guess until this moment it hadn't struck me just how...real they were.

A snap of fingers refocused me on the owl and he gave me a look before we were allowed into town though he stayed silent. I mentally rolled my eyes. I'm sure that from my voice alone it was obvious as to what team I batted for but ya know at this point that really didn't matter. I wasn't exactly to worried about that part of my anatomy or using it for important decisions.

Back to the buildings. While the base was stone and the tops interwoven straw they all looked to be sturdy enough despite their...mundane appearance. In fact scanning over the closest one with Fox's eye (forgot to turn it off remeber) No structual weaknesses flashed Orange. Though I did get a notification that the skill had leveled up and with it came a 3% increase to both loot drop quality and weak spot detection. Still even with the boost nothing showed up on the building.

I guess it was another quirk or maybe building's didn't show weakspots. In either case I was so cuaght up in observing the town that I had lagged slightly behind the others so I jogged to catch up.

Once beside them I noted that Romulus was pointing out a few modest shops the town had. "Blacksmith and Apothecary. Seem to be doing fairly well. If ya'll need a place to stay we do have a small tavern in town with a few rooms." said Romulus.

"Aren't we supposed to be guarding you." Zen interjected and I didn't hide my small smile. "I'm Home...Surley they wouldn't attack me here." he began before Wolfshadow cut him off. "That's what all the old kings thought until they wound up with an assasin's knife in their back." I couldn't stop my laughter at that observation and while that seemed to draw all attention to me I just gave an easy shrug."It was funny." I replied in my defense at the attention.

"Fine, Fine. Come guard me then to my home." He replied grumbling softly under his breathe. Not that I heard what he said after that. He began to lead the way there while I took the time during the walk to notate the locations of the general goods, apothecary, The blacksmith and stables seemed to be rolled into the same building which made sense after all. Well I say same building it looked like good pasture land was right beside the blacksmith shop so they just purchased a few good horses to maintain the grass levels within such. Though based on the height I could see going by the blacksmith would have to add in a few goats to truly keep the pasture at grazing level. The Apothecary and General Goods were side by side but separate individual buildings.

While my mind was wandering here I couldn't help but to notice just the general quality of the air and such here. It seemed a lot more easy. Lot less jam packed as if nothing were in a hurry to get anywhere. It was in essence the perfect vibe for a sleepy little town. I think I was more than a little overcome with fatigue despite out relativley short journey. Then again my time hadn't been calm with this game for quite awhile.

As we continued onwards the sides of the roaded faded into lines that the eye couldn't see while rising walls of soft golden grass rose above our heads. Seeming to mute all sound and though we were on guard the only sounds seemed to be our footfalls on the ground. The wind seemed to play a gentle melody with the grass stalks silkily sliding it's talented fingers back and forth through the vegetation.

"STOP!" The cry came from Wolfshadow and before I could ask why it became clear. A deadly lines of sparking light intersected in front of us. Now such a thing was either a special high tensile strength wire made for quickly slicing through limbs or it was a spider's web. In either case the shout should have....yep. Something or somethings was moving in the grass.

The Avian grabbed his axe while the rest of us formed up back to back keeping Romulus in the Center. Staff and daggers and an axe at the ready 4 set's of eyes scanned the undergrowth around us.

A black shape with a metallic gleam Jumped from Zen's side and based on the trajectory would land right on top of us. "Scatter!" shouted the Wolf and as if that was the cue three more shapes rose up in unison moving themselves to land where we scattered. "Damn pack tactics." muttered Wolfshadow.

Blood Red Crimson Spiders with 8 legs and two mandibles resolved themselves in front of us in the fading light their legs and jaws tipped in metallic protrusions. I found myself staring at two while Zen had one on either side as did Wolfshadow. "Weakness?" I called out gripping my staff in sweaty hands. "Go for their.." began Zen. "Eyes" followed Wolfshadow with a grunt of effort he swung directly at the creature most directly in front of him causing it to dance back while the one behind attempted to hit his back. He rolled to the side getting both of his opponent's in sight while evading the attack.

At the same time both of Zen's opponent's attacked seemingly slicing him into two pieces...but there wasn't any blood? I didn't have time to worry about that though as one of mine shot webbing towards me which I blocked with my staff getting it taken for my efforts. I just simply didn't have the strength to hold onto the weapon.

"$#%^!" I cursed my eyes quickly going down to look at my skills. Purification Does Nothing. Solstice...well we appear to be good on health regeneration. I still have that one skill point...why didn't I think to grab an attack Spell? I moaned to myself before hitting the deck as the next shot of webbing went over my head and the sender zipped along past me onto the greater web in front of us turning to face us while the one that remained crushed my wooden staff to smithereens wood chips flying into harmless debris with an audible "Crunch as it worked it's powerful jaws.

I set my jaw and gripped my hands into fists shaking my head at my own stupidity for not thinking to get a sword. I looked to Romulus who gave me a weak shaky smile. "Time for something stupid." I muttered and at that the Merchant rolled his eyes. "Like you ever Do anything else?" he managed in jest while from my Inventory I drew out the former thief's poison dagger.

_Warning you do not have the correct stats to equip Poison Dagger Level 1. You will suffer a damage penalty. Do you wish to Continue? Y/N _

"Yes!" I said with an irritated growl before moving forwards. However I failed to notice that of the five spider's that surrounded us not one of them was the leader. The ground underneath my foot trembled in an unsettling manner then it began to give.

I didn't posses a Thief's Dexterity so when it collapsed I fell on my ass my ankle buried in the earthen chunk that sent me hurtling helplessly backwards as massive steel jaws clamped shut where I had been seconds before. I stabbed the dagger into the ground to get myself to stop flying and slid to a stop beside Zen's right foot. "Get up." he said not unkindly but with some urgency in his voice.

I managed to get to my feet grimacing at the pain wracking my frame despite only taking 3 Damage to my HP. *_Such a wimp!* _ I thought to myself before sighing. _Kick yourself later. Right now you need to get your ass into gear. Romulus is surrounded by the boss and a minion. _

"We got a plan?" I asked holding my dagger like I new how to wield it. Well at least I kept the pointy bit pointing towards the enemy. Before Zen could answer me I heard the sick noise of an attack connecting before an odd hissing noise reached my ears. "Acid blood. Mind your equipment." Called Wolfshadow as the spider that had landed on the web formerly in front of us zoomed towards the Avian while it's partner engaged him in Melee.

Frustrated I glanced towards Zen. Well actually now that I looked a bit closer I saw that I had two Zen's in front of me. Seems he had a cloning ability. "Need you to help Romulus." Zen told me. "I'm working on getting there." I replied watching the Merchant having to roll out of the way of some webbing and almost into the jaws of the big boss before hastily kicking himself away from it his foot connecting with the now pissed off beast's manidables which as it roared sent him further away into safety for the moment.

"Hate me later." I managed to Zen and then shouted as loud as I could "Solstice Three!" Immediately all of the many set's of compound spider eyes all zeroed in on me while the mostly unwarranted Regeneration effect hit the entire party including myself. There was dead echoing silence almost one of disbelief before the spell was broken and EVERYTHING was lunging towards me. And by consequence Zen. I felt myself grabbed and throne high into the air.

One, Two,Three,Four Set's of leg's trembled before like rocket's the Spider's shot up into the air after their prey. "Rain!" Shouted Zen and apparently that was all the prompting needed as within seemingly moment's deft finger's switched from Axes to unslinging their bow which with a reverberating Twang! Shot it's payload into the air two of the Spider's soft underbelly's pierced with a massive arrow apiece.

My ascent was starting to slow down and my two remaining pursuer's drawing closer until with a Shink Zen teleported underneath one slicing fatally into it's belly bisecting it and raining acid blood below. The remaining one I managed to twist myself and while it did manage to web one hand to my body with a cry of rage my remaining hand still holding the dagger Stabbed with all my measly strength into it's eye...and did an amazing 2 points of damage. "Dammit!" I shouted as we began our further descent. "Purification!" I shouted and despite the attack not designed to do damage it blasted my elbow forwards therefore driving the dagger with more force than I could normally manage and as a result the point dug an inch into the meat of the eye. It didn't kill the spider though apparently it caused enough pain for it to roar and A purple spec began to fill a bit of the health bar indicating that I had managed to poison the creature the first tick of dmg a measly 2 again but it was something.

However in my haste I had forgotten about Gravity's embrace and I was now rocketing further to the ground hand stuck to my side and it appeared that Zen was frozen in place due to the cool down of his skill robbing his body of movement for two seconds.

We had about thirty seconds before we would strike the ground and while my earlier skill had grabbed aggro from everything facing us it seemed the boss had shaken it off as it turned toward Romulus and hissed before moving towards him which caused a girly shriek and then the Merchant was running the Spider Boss on his heels while our descent continued.

"Rain Get Romulus." Zen shouted as he became unstuck and braced himself for landing. I unfortunately would not be that lucky. And my opponent was likely to still be alive for the landing. "Purification." I tried again however my blade lodged no further though the poison tick did trigger lowing the spider Hp by a further 2 and sending us faster to the ground. Ten seconds now. "Solstice! _Ack!" _The last part was because of the impact to the ground which did absolutely nothing to the spider but took 10 Hp from me. Leaving me with a total of 34/100 HP. That is until the regeneration took place which began to slowly bump me back up.

Yes I am very aware that I should have trained my Vitality in order to have better HP total but I had pumped it into Dexterity, Wisdom, and Intelligence in the hope that I would be harder to hit and my own magic would hit harder. I mean I was over healing the DMG dealt to me now that I had spammed my regeneration skill but it only lasted for a short moment.

The Spider tossed it's head upon me landing and despite my best efforts I was sent flying once more losing my grip on the dagger while it remained embedded into the eye socket of the spider in question.

While I flew through the air cursing my poor life choices once more and trying to land at least on my feet and not my ass Zen zipped to the Spider's side a kick further embedding my dagger and making a gross Kush sound before the arachnid burst into death cycles it's blood eating into the dagger's metal leaving it sizzling as it hit the ground. "Catch!" shouted Zen kicking the somewhat sizzling dagger towards me in midair. I somehow managed to catch it...barely. The last of the acid burnt a hole in my mage robe though causing me a further 2 Hp Damage.

Meanwhile Wolfshadow set his bow to the ground drawing back the string and the arrow loaded before he sighted it and fired "Wind Shot!" the arrow seemingly morphed into the air itself before it shot forward with percussive force drilling into the Spider Bosses' flank. It skittered around angrily seemingly forgetting Romulus existed to scuttle towards Wolfshadow. Though the Avain was Smart enough to have given himself enough Range to get off a further two Volley's before he had to reposition the spider moving to barrel towards Zen who managed to parry it's retaliatory slash once it was close enough.

Thrown off balance another quick arrow from Wolfshadow successfully knocked the Spider Boss to half it's HP before it recovered it's footing it's beady hate filled eyes settling on me. "Looks like your bait Naki. Get running Furless." Quipped Wolfshadow before aiming his next shot. "I hate you." I managed before taking off running as it made time towards me.

"It was a joke!" Wolfshadow shouted after me. I didn't waste breathe to reply as I took off the beast scuttling after me another webshot going for my feet. I hadn't managed to shake off the former attack from it's brethren though I did manage to dodge this one hoping to one side on one foot while it used it's webbing to rapidly approach where I had been moment's before cutting the strand it sling shotted at my back. I hit the deck and turned raising my dagger which scoured a weak hit on it's underbelly not even breaking the skin as it zoomed over me and failing to proc the poison I had been aiming with though it seemed to be deeply affronted that I had managed to land a blow. It started to glow red and sizzle ."What's going on?" I asked puasing in my running.

"You pissed it off." said Zen across from us lightly tossing his dagger into the air before catching it and shifting to a defensive stance once he caught it. "Of Course." I muttered as it seemed to complete whatever evolution it was making and it's health bar refilled back to 75%. "How long?" I asked and this time Wolfshadow answered "About 20 minuets. I hate how this bow is not even fully up to a war bow on draw strength yet I have to do something physically impossible to fire it in game." "It's a Game Bud. It don't gotta be realistic. Relax and make with the spider pincushion already." replied Zen.

"I'm soooo spending that last point on an attack skill." I managed before I started to run again making a circle with Zen at one end and Wolfshadow at the other. As I did so both of them fired of a skill Wolfshadow making a wind shot and Zen using A lighting slash. Both attacks hit but before the Spider could decide who to attack. "Soltice Two" Which gave me Aggro and I ran with it. Literally.

It took us a good 4 laps around the 14 foot circle for the Spider Boss to get back under 50% health. "Just Die already!" I complained as I kept running using Solstice to keep Aggro on myself.

Almost as if on cue sounds of clanking armor and torches came from the town as the light had faded enough to warrant such. Evidently the Spider heard it to as with a Roar of frustration it began to make it's way back into it's Den.

Before I could do much more than skid to a halt Wolfshadow gave a devilish grin and as the Spider Boss made it's way into the den itself the Den exploded into flame and smoke and a loud ear bleeding volume of a cry. The front of the spider boss was...gone. Where it's mandible's had been was a gurgling green wound and the eyes were covered in suit. The health showed that the creature had suffered a grievous injury before with another blink to slashes from Zen in close range then a smoke ball later which allowed him to skillfully withdraw left the boss twitching on the floor dissolving into death sparkles.

"What?" I managed dumbstruck rubbing my ears and panting almost doubled over from being winded due to the exertion from running in circles. "I put a set of bombs into the entrance of the things' Den. " Said Wolfshadow before the town's folk erupted into cheers lead by Romulus.

_You have Leveled up!

You have Leveled up! _

I ignored these at the moment beyond reminding myself to stuff those points into vitality and defense in order to be safer in combat while I caught my breath.

_Title Awarded : Spider-Slayer: 10% Damage VS. Spiders. 5% Chance To Automatically Intimidate Spiders. Equip?(Y/N)

4 AP and 5 SP require Assignment Do So Now? (Y/N)_

I swatted these aside just glad I was alive though I did take a moment to note my level.

Nakishodo Glitterfox Level 10 Healer

Something tickled my memory. Before I could realize what it was however

You have a Level 5 starter kit waiting to be opened. Will you Open it Now?(Y/N)