CLOUD v6.66 [T] [IC]

[Red's Hawt Chibi Pelippers]

RYUUJINX

Hi Ryuujinx, this is Atreyu from the guild.
Are you still in the Stadium? Want to team up?

Ryuujinx noticed the message and as she read it, she was a bit confused at first. She looked around; the stadium was beginning to empty, apart from some groups of DAEMONS who still foolishly battled each other, and their own group who had taken on the monsters in the middle. Atreyu... she did recognize that name. From the guild, huh? Ohr right!

She began moving back towards the fight, staff ready, while her human self typed up a response. Atreyu. That was the little wolf that had raided a dungeon with her group last week. Inside the dungeon, he was not so small anymore, towering up into some kind of werewolf creature of the same height as herself pretty much. But a lot stronger, probably. Now, strength didn't matter thought, since they had to grow up again all of them. Level 1, hah.

I'm still here. I'm the black mage with the robe and staff in the group that is taking on the monsters at the center of the arena. See the pillar of light? Get here and there might be a starter kit for you too, soon.

The chicken monster from before had been waging a scare-war against a rather frightened DAEMON who played brave by not backing down, while Ryuujinx had been busy with her new stuff. But the monster was getting bored now, it seemed. It moved forward in an attempt to squash the little DAEMON in front of it to pieces. Ryuujinx would normally have dashed forward and clawed the creature at the throat or face. But now, she didn't have that speed. Only the ring and the staff.

She pointed the staff at the chicken monster and her human self pressed the necessary buttons to throw the most basic attack of a black mage in CLOUD: Black Ray. A strangely hazy ray shot out from the dragon's staff and hit the chicken square in the chest. It was thrown backwards and coupled with the damage it had already taken from the previous round of their fight, the monster now died, signified by it shattering into pieces of data. Numbers were shown atop its gone body. It seemed like Ryuujinx had leveled up to level 2. Her dragon face smiled a little. This would take a while.

On the arena's floor, about to be stomped to pieces by the remaining 7 monsters, lay a few more basic class kits. Drop from the monster. She messaged Atreyu again.

Yep, there definitely is some gear for you here now. If you're quick.

[雷影 イチロ]

Fletcher Davis – Melbourne, Australia

I'm still here. I'm the black mage with the robe and staff in the group that is taking on the monsters at the center of the arena. See the pillar of light? Get here and there might be a starter kit for you too, soon.

Fletcher scanned the rapidly clearing dome for any site of this group. All around the dome, bands of DAEMONs fought each other for keys and for survival while others escaped through portals to other areas of Cloud where they felt safe.

Up ahead, he spotted the fluttering of a black cape in mid-air just as a wave of dark data obliterated a large chicken monster into small bytes of data. Falling like debris, a couple of starter kits dropped to the group as sparks appeared above the head of the black Mage. On screen, the small envelope flashed red as a small number one appeared announcing the arrival of a new message.

Yep, there definitely is some gear for you here now. If you're quick.

With hands at the ready, Fletcher raced his avatar forward. In the fox form, his avatar was agile and speedy, yet weak and vulnerable. His main goal was to dark in and pick up one of the starter kits before pulling back behind the group to quickly equip the gear. It was risky but the only way he was going to get anywhere in this game. Like a white blur, his fox Avatar scurried through the feet of other Avatars and across the floor where his prize lay in sight.

Atreyu – Thunder Dome, Cloud Server

With starter kit in inventory, Atreyu retreated to the back ranks of this main group, transforming into his werewolf form before donning the gear. In this form, speed and agility gave way to defence and durability while also gaining an increase in attack. Medium weighted armour now covered his body; changing shape slightly to better fit his current physique. Now that he was all suited up, Atreyu made his way to the front line’s where most of the fighting was taking place.

[GENERAL] Anyone call for a tank?

Atreyu leapt into the fray, putting force in his shoulder and knocking back a gorilla-ish monster. Un-equipping the sword and shield, he used a flurry of basic scratch moves by swiping at the gorilla in front of him. Every scratch Atreyu made on the beast, a tiny bit of data would evaporate into the air, but these seemed to fuel the creatures rage rather than weaken him. He felt the full weight of the gorilla’s punch making contact with his body; the armour quickly losing durability with each hit.

As a tank, it was his job to take the brunt of the damage; however the gear he was wearing wasn’t much in the way of tanking material. The best he could do would be to continue fighting the beast while DPS sorted themselves out quickly enough to aid him. By the looks of their health, he theoretically could take down this monster by himself, but without a healer, he would be in danger of dying.

[Lt. Col. Fantastic]

Micah Roran ~ Micah's Dorm
Shaka Shaman ~ THUNDER Arena

Micah noticed the layout of the battle menu change, showing the new allies' names in green, as opposed to the grey of before. Also, it gave him a box to type in as a sort of instant messaging to the whole party, so he wouldn't have to send individual messages anymore. Before he could come back to the fight, however, twelve arrows pierced the demon's chest. It went down in a rain of pixels, with the exp being magnetized straight to Shaka. Pepperton ran forward and nabbed a pair of really beat up gauntlets, presumably a drop from the demon. She spoke through her mic to Micah.

"Get back," she said to him, "White Mages are not frontal fighters, they are healers. You help us. Keep us healthy so we don't die. Because if we die, you die. And you," she turned to the monkey and tossed the Rusted Knuckles at him. "Don't be lazy."

Thanks, typed Micah into the message bar, And yeah, yeah, I know the drill.

Shaka Shaman took a few steps back, letting everyone fall in front of him. To his right, the dragon Ryuujinx felled another demon with some form of black magic. Ahead, mokeyboi_89 was mumbling to Pepperton. His health bar was lower than the rest of the party, so Shaka gave him the basic heal spell. It recovered him back to around 9/10ths health, but before Shaka could heal him a second time a werewolf looking daemon darted by taking on a gorilla monster.

Wearing heavy armor, the werewolf, who was named Atreyu, soaked up damage fairly well. His health however dropped lower than anyone else's presently, making him the top priority for Micah. Shaka cast one last Heal on mokeyboi_89, then turned back to Atreyu. He sent a volley of heals his way too, trying to keep up with the damage he was taking. The spells were just barely short of nullifying damage, only bringing Atreyu's health to a slow decline.

[Party Chat Box]

Shaka Shaman: I got you brotozoia

Micah would have to keep his attention on Atreyu for the time being if he desired to keep his health bar up.

[DeLaMuerte]

NightlyWind

The class kit Wind had picked up didn't only have weapons. Alright! A skill! Wind surveyed the skill that he had received. It was definitely worth it, as it was a *1.5 buff for physical attacks that lasted 5 seconds. Then, returning his gaze to the yellow blob ahead of him, he decided that now would be the perfect time to test this skill.

NightlyWind gets into position...
A red aura surrounds his blade! Aura Spark!

After the awesome message displayed by CLOUD, he began to run, bringing up his glowing red blade and bringing it down on this... slime looking thing. Then he jumped back, raising his shield and deflecting small yellow pellets. Weird. They reminded him of lemons. Bouncing back to hack and slash, he began a small pattern, with the occasional break for Aura Spark and a critical hit. After a while, which was long because many times he would have to replenish his energy before using Aura Spark again, he finally defeated the monster. The emanating red sword sliced the monster in half, destroying it and creating pixels of EXP.

Level Two reached!
ATK: +4
DEF: +5
AGL: +2
MP: +3
HP: +9

Wind grinned, but his smile faded into a frown afterwards. There was a lot of work to be done....

Hikoru

"Hey, you're already awake? Do you know how early it is?"

I had just received a new class pack when Krane walked in, running his hands through his hair. My best friend stood there, eyeing me carefully. "It's 9 AM, and you usually sleep in. But you woke up for that CLOUD announcement."

"You mean, the only network you don't use?" I frowned. "Be happy your paranoia got you outta this one, Krane."

"Whaddya mean, 'outta this one?'"

"My identity is on the line. Now being online matters more than... You know what? It's probably all over the news. Make yourself some coffee and see what's going on. Make me some, too. And toast. Preferably buttered."

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"Watch the news and make breakfast. I'm the one who invited you to my apartment after you got booted out of your old one, now you're going to get me some stuff before we lose it."

"What the-"

"WATCH THE NEWS, KRANE. For my sake." Krane walked out muttering under his breath, while I continued back on CLOUD. After watching the news, Krane was still muttering, but understanding, gave me the food and went back to his room. He had no input. Krane had no CLOUD account. He had always been paranoid over this kind of thing, so he really never made one no matter how hard I pestered him. And right when it seemed he was on the verge of making one, this happened. Returning to the computer screen, I scanned the area for any lesser monsters. Unfortunately, all seemed to be pretty damn strong.

Crud.

[Red's Hawt Chibi Pelippers]

RYUUJINX

Atreyu came and picked up a starter kit, turning into his more menacing form before putting it on. Ryuujinx gave him a cheerful smile before she jumped out of the way from an attack by a large humanoid monster with a horse's head. CLOUD really was strange when designing some things. She launched a Black Ray at the monster, who's health went down a little. Ryuujinx had never really played as a caster before. She guessed that what she'd need to do was spam Black Rays until she learned something better.

Knowing that if she attacked every monster in sight, she would get their aggro and attention and that wouldn't be good for a caster class with low defense, she instead focused on this horse headed manbeast. Unfortunately, the monster reached her before she could bring its health down completely.

She wanted to jump away, but her body was slower than usual; it was the burden of a caster class. She cursed as the large fists of the monster slammed down upon her and pressed her against the floor. Her health bar went down to about half. From that single attack? They really were down at the bottom of the leveling grid now!

"Heal! Heal me!" she shouted to whoever could have picked up a healer kit from the drop, while she got up and ran to the back of the group, trying to put some close range fighters between herself and the monster. Its large head squealed in a horse-like way before it locked eyes with her again. She launched a Black Ray and hoped that she'd soon learn some more clever technique other than a direct attack. The creature moved towards her.

"Tank! I need a tank!" she then shouted, remembering that casters in her old raids always wanted heavily armored people to protect them. That was the key to surviving. Tanks protected casters, speedy attackers moved around on their own and healers made sure that the right person was healed at the right moment. She had been one of the speedy people who could mostly take care of themselves with an occasional healing. Things had changed now.

[雷影 イチロ]

Atreyu - Thunder Dome, Cloud Server

I got you brotozoia

The words flickered along the bottom of Atreyu's vision and he smiled his wide, animal smile. It was always nicer working in a group than alone, but they would need a much larger group to take on the amount of monsters that were present in the dome. Regardless, Atreyu felt his heath being revitalised; the energy flowing into him and pumping him up. When he usually did raids, he often stayed back as DPS, however he knew little of cycling and rotation of moves and constantly died due to aggro-ing of the monsters. With the boost of health, the world became a blur as he began to swipe, strike and claw at the giant ape in front of him.

"Heal Me! Heal Me!" Ryuujinx cried out, "Tank! Tank!"

Cursing to himself, Atreyu enticed the Gorilla monster backwards as he tried to make his way back to where Ryuujinx had been felled by a horse headed man beast. The beast was about to pummel Ryuujinx into the ground when Atreyu came within distance of it. It turned and looked at him, it's weird, un-blinking eyes seeming to gaze into oblivion.

It roared and charged at him, headbutting Atreyu in the back causing him to stumble. His health fell more drastically now and if they didn't form a raid or dungeon group now, then they would all be slaughtered; their lives lost to pixels.

"Shaman, heal Ryuujinx once, then heal me twice," he roared as he now took a beating from two beasts, "Once Ryuujinx is at full health, concentrate on healing me, but keep an eye out for AoE's that may hit either of you two."

Atreyu roared as he felt a punch from the Gorilla make contact with his chest plate while the horse-man-beast collided with his back. "Keep back to avoid aggro!"

[GENERAL]: Tanks, aggro as many of the monsters as you can, and bring them together with me. Healers, focus on tanks, but keep an eye on DPS. DPS, blast these pixels with all you have! Unless you are a Tank, keep as far out as you can.

He had never been one to lead, but his entire life was on the line right now and they couldn't just sit around waiting for the pixels to be beaten out of their DAEMONs. It was now or never that they needed to make a stand.

[Lt. Col. Fantastic]

Micah Roran ~ Micah's dorm
Shaka Shaman ~ THUNDER Arena

Shaka Shaman kept his cures up on Atreyu, keeping him relatively healthy.

"Heal! Heal Me!" Ryuujinx cried out, "Tank! Tank!"

Dammit, Thought Micah, These guys are so strong!

Atreyu distracted the horse beast attacking Ryuujinx, as well as his own Gorilla monster. His health dropped dramatically as he took heavy hits from the two demons.

"Shaman, heal Ryuujinx once, then heal me twice," he roared as he now took a beating from two beasts, "Once Ryuujinx is at full health, concentrate on healing me, but keep an eye out for AoE's that may hit either of you two."

Micah focused on keeping Ryujinx alive instead of typing a response. He sent a heal her way, bring her back up to around 75%, and then sent two in quick succession to Atreyu. His health came up back to green range. He sent one last heal to Ryuujinx to give her full health, and then focused on Atreyu.

[Party Chat Box]

Shaka Shaman: Got it

A zombie looking demon was approaching the party, but very slowly. He pointed it out to the group.

Shaka Shaman: Don't let this zombie sneak up on you guys, he's near our team

Shaka Shaman: And someone should help Atreyu out, he's not really doing much damage and I don't know how long he can keep up the tanking.

[Miss Doronjo]

online cat ☠ LGDClaw

Of course, it didn't take long for LGDClaw and the rest of the PIRATE members to meet up; unfortunately, most of the PIRATE members already perished in the battle in the stadium. Well, they were fighting in the stadium, since they are in fact, greedy. But moving on, LGDClaw sat quietly on a nearby desk, as there was a small rally going on.

"Well, so far this has become quite a... thrill," LGClaw remarked. "Who's ever idea of this as a joke definitely needs to get a social life."

"You got that right..." replied SippieToady. "We've been trying to hunt for monsters all day but with no success yet."

"Might I suggest entering one of the beginner dungeons?" said Oryps. "We should level up before we tackle on to PIRATE matters."

"I like that brain of yours champ," remarked LHGClaw with a wink. "Soooo is it just the three of us?"

"The captain said that the some of the pirate members are either dead or off hunting somewhere," SlippieToady explained with a sigh. "And the rest are just jerks. They'll slow us down with their bad jokes and insults, y'know?"

"Yeah, I don't them either," said LHGClaw. "Especially that goat-faced, two-assed jerk of a goat! I mean, what an ass!"

"I believe he was called a satire," explained Oryps. "Nonetheless, I suppose the three of us will have to do for now. However, it'd be wise to know where we plan to go, what we plan to do, and what we plan to bring before we go."

"Simple!" LHGClaw said. "We go to the dungeon, wack a few monsters, drink lots of whiskey, and yeaaaah we'll be rich again!"

"We're doomed aren't we..." SlippieToady asked Oryps. Oryps simply replied with a nod.

[雷影 イチロ]

Atreyu - Thunder Dome, Cloud Server

Atreyu felt Shaka Shaman's heal spells take effect after each from the two creatures pounded him further towards deletion. Thank god he had the Healer and DPS to back him up, even though there was only three of them, it would be enough to keep them going until others joined. A small, green icon flashed in the edge of his vision, pulling it up he had a quick read of the automated message before pushing it back down and carrying on fighting.

Note: Equipping weapons such as swords and bows increase your attack power whilst shields and armour increase your defence.

Cursing to himself, Atreyu equipped the basic sword and shield that had come with the starter pack for his class. Within a couple of swings of his sword and bashing with the shield, he noticed an increase in his overall DPS and a significant drop in the monster's health than before. His own health even decreased at a slightly slower rate than previously.

"Such an idiot. Never was good at this dungeoning thing. Looks like I'm going to have to skill up now if I want to live." He berated himself with each swing and block.

A shattering of data announced the destruction of the Gorilla beast, while celebration would come after, Atreyu turned his attention to the Horse-headed DAEMON, taking quick peaks at any other monsters nearby.

[GENERAL]: Keep it up guys, almost there!