Welcome to Gaia! ::

^^*I don't know if this is a good image to use. Right now I'm playing the original .hack series and I haven't picked up GU in a while, so I'm going with the original look XD*^^

Cyrance ran into another group of enemies, this time it was two Goblin Rookies and a Vak Bezel! Cyrance drew his watery Blade Fern, "I thought Vak Bezels were level four creatures... Why is it here, in a level three area?" As the creatures drew around him, he flourished it, causing the monsters to hesitate their advance, "Oh well, guess I'll worry about it... AFTER I kick their sorry asses!"

As he went in to strike the Goblin Rookie on the left, the Vak Bezel swooped in and parried his attack and countered. Knocked back a bit, Cyrance regained his composure and tried separating the Vak Bezel from the rest of the group, thinking if he could get it out of range, the other two should be cake. He uses a charged strike to knock the Vak Bezel over into the wall opposite him and began his assault on the two Goblin Rookies.

He began jumping between them - striking one of them with a combo then roll-striking the other one into a combo and parrying the previous Goblin Rookie's attack and slicing him. As he continued to fight them, he quickly learned their attack styles and began reading them like a children's book - too easy.

"Time to take it up a notch!" Cyrance yelled as he stabbed the weaker Goblin Rookie and tossed it over his body into the other Goblin Rookie, knocking them both onto the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a red circle move underneath him, "What th-"

A pillar of flame erupted underneath him and knocked him up into the air and into the wall. As he regained his composure, he used one of the potions UnKing gave him and then proceeded to use the wall to propel himself at the Vak Bezel, slicing it at the hilt, "Payback, sucker!"

As Cyrance slid across the ground, he watched the Vak Bezel move lazily along, trying to cast another fire spell on him. He waited until the circle was right underneath him, "Hehe, you're pretty fast," The circle erupted, but Cyrance was already gone, "But you're not fast enough!"

He appeared behind the Vak Bezel, "Blade Brandier Skill: Sword Flash!" With a quick slice, the Vak Bezel disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He noticed the Goblin Rookies had gotten back on their feet and were slowly making their way back to him, "Haha, back for more? Ok, let's go!"

He locked blades with one of them and swiveled around until he was facing both of them. He then broke the sword-lock and pulled out a blue item, "How about a little of this? Take this! Tidal Wave!" The item disappeared and out of the ground, a pillar of water erupted and destroyed the two Goblin Rookies. He sheathed his sword back into Hammerspace, "Hehe, and another three bite the dust."

He began his journey again, gaining more and more experience and EXP.

"Ah, UnKing-sensei, thanks for these items, they've really helped out a lot, hehe." He followed UnKing's direction and headed for where the Boss was. He knew UnKing wouldn't help him, and he didn't mind, he wanted to get strong through his own effort, not because his friends - or friend, in this case - helped take out a Boss. As they walked to the Boss Area, Cyrance asked UnKing, "So, do you know what kind of creature this Boss is?"

[I was thinking it could be the Gun Giant, but he's level 5 and I'm still level 1, so I don't know. XD]

Cyrance nodded to UnKing, "Sure thing, be right back, hehe." He crept his way over to the creature and strafed around it to strike from behind. He found an opening and exploited it, striking the beast square in the back with a powerful kick and sending it flying into the wall, "Come on, ugly," Cyrance taunted, his fingers making a mocking 'come-on' motion, "Show me what you got!"

The Gun Giant leaped from where he was and punched Cyrance up into the air with a powerful uppercut, "Gah!" Cyrance groaned as he flew high up into the air, "That was pretty good." He pulled out a blue item, "But I got one better. Tidal Wave, activate!"

With that, a torrent of water came spiraling around the Gun Giant, doing some good damage. However, the Giant saw it coming and guarded just in time to reduce the damage. Too bad it was only a feint.

"Up here, ugly!" Cyrance yelled as he came down with a fist clenched and pulled behind him, "Let me see you grit those teeth!" While the creature was distracted by a powerful water attack, Cyrance gathered energy into his fist and sent it all crashing on top of the Gun Giant's head, sending it into the ground with a loud thud.

As the creature got up, Cyrance scoffed, "Still haven't had enough yet, huh? In that case," He pulled out his last three Tidal Waves, "Eat salt water, punk!" Wave after wave of water crashed over the giant, but it was too fast to guard against, and so it did massive damage. Using this as an opportunity, Cyrance charged and struck the Gun Giant with a full combo, sending it into a Rengeki state.

Before Cyrance can activate his Skill Trigger, the Giant slapped him up into the again with a mighty heave, "Hehe, from up here, you don't look so tough, especially with that purple glow." He slammed on his Skill Trigger button, "Well, let me help you with that! RENGEKI! SWORD FLASH!" With that, he leaped down on top of the Giant, blade drawn, and slashed through the beast's chest.

Cyrance stepped away, thinking he had won, but the beast only got back up. He looked back to the HUD to see he had only taken away about three-fifths of the Boss's health away, "Tough customer huh?" He looked to his gauge in the top-right, "Well, let's see how you handle this!"

Cyrance began to glow brightly, radiating with power, "RELEASE RESTRAINT! BEAST AWAKENING, ACTIVATE!" The power released into a giant column of light, "Alright, let's see you stand after seeing me like this!" He ran straight at the giant, which sent his fist flying straight at Cyrance, but hit nothing but air...

"Hehe, over here," Behind the giant stood Cyrance, blade drawn and cut across the beast's back, "Didn't even notice I cut you, did I?" He flashed out of sight and reappeared on the left side, "You can't catch me now, and good thing, too... I'm getting low on health and time... I need to get stronger, and you're gonna help me do that, el gigante." He drew his sword and began running furiously around, creating after-images, slash marks appearing everywhere on the beast.

"Hehe, time to end it," He brought his sword up as he jumped over the Gun Giant, "Take this! Sword Flash!" With that, the beast fell and disappeared into a cloud of dust and smoke, "Phew, that was a bit much, wasn't it?" He sheathed his sword into Hammerspace and walked back to UnKing, "So, how was that, UnKing-sensei?"

Cyrance sighed as the glow spread over his body and restored his HP. He had impressed his teacher, and that was a good fight, but he felt that it wasn't that great of a fight. He was fighting an AI, something that had no improvisation, no flair. He wanted to fight other players, see how they fight and use that to grow stronger.

He turned to UnKing, "Hey, UnKing-sensei," he paused, "Do you know a place where players can fight each other? I don't mean PKing, but more like a... Legitimate battle, I guess."

"Hehe, well," Cyrance took a step back to sit on a nearby rock, stretching his arms in game and in real life, "If I do go into the Arena, I want a cute Beast-girl Harvest Cleric and a somewhat cold, but still caring, Steam Gunner... That'd be just like I'd imagine any team that wants to become a champion or something." He looked back to UnKing, "Don't you think so?"

He remembered all of the manga he read and anime he watched, the sassy/hot-headed hero always had the cute healer and somewhat-rival ally. They would be an unstoppable trio, taking down baddies wherever they go, "Hey, UnKing-sensei, in the Arena, do they have team names and a symbol for the team? Cause, if so, that'd be so~ awesome!"

Cyrance heard the sadness in UnKing's response, even through the headset it rung like a bell, "Hm, I wonder," He paused, wondering if he should push this question, "If I ever get to your level, at one point... Would you like to do the Arena again?" He watched UnKing's expression turn to shock and a bit of anger, "I-I mean, I think you did have a hard time there, but," He looked back to the environment, across to the sun setting the sky ablaze with orange, "Didn't you also have good times with your friends?"

"Roger that," And with that, Cyrance followed suit and gated back to Mac Anu.