.hack//Hero's Return (Any can join!

[ULFRIC]

Sounds like that old man to me.

BlackRose thought of the old man who had helped her and Kite. The one who knew far more than any regular player should know and who seemed to be moving forward for some intellectual purpose that she would never understand. He was invaluable with information and yet seemed to be a complete mystery all in himself. But that was long ago.

"I'm ready to go now. Let's get to it. The arena matches will start soon."

[Kaedan]

Haseo confirmed the keywords and warped to the area. When he arrived, the familiar ocean of green met his gaze. 'Hmph, back again', he thought to himself. This time, there was no NPC waiting to relate the story of Cerunnos, as he had already completed the quest.

"Well, here it is, the Forest of Pain. Most of the regular fights here won't pose us any threat and won't really help us level up at all, so I'll jump us right to Block 50, since that's as far as it will let us jump to. We'll have to make it the rest of the way on foot. It starts getting interesting around Block 70, when some of the tougher bosses start to show up. Ready? Let's get to it!"

Haseo warps to Block 50 as soon as the others are ready.

[ULFRIC]

BlackRose looked around and was in awe at the enormity of the area. No place existed like this back in her version of [The World]. Eagerly she gripped her sword and chased after Haseo, relishing the bouncing gold rings that moved her to Block 50. The forest was thick and consuming and it showed no signs of wanting anything less than to devour her. She was excited by the prospect of battle.

"Piece of cake."

[shugo_lover]

"Wow things have really changed..." he quickly grabbed out his blade and chased after black rose

[Kaedan]

"Heh, wait till you check this out..." Haseo ran forward, dodging the swinging blades, rolling under the last one to spring to his feet in the next room. Upon spotting the first set of monsters, he set himself to pounce and surprise attacked the group.

A blue barrier appeared around everyone as battle commenced. Haseo drew his Dual Pistols and glanced back at the others.

"For building combos, I stick with long range, so you guys pound the crap out of them and I'll show you what a Rengeki is." He grinned as he turned back and fired.

[ULFRIC]

"Rengeki? It think I saw that in the intro tutorial thing."

BlackRose planted her sword in the ground and flipped over it. Using the momentum she ripped it from the earth and brought it crashing down on the enemy. The resulting shock wave sent the other two monsters flying into the barrier wall. That kind of thing didn't happen in R:1 but it seemed that R:2 had upgraded her old stuff. It was actually kind of cool.

"While you wait to show off I'm gonna do what I do best."

She smirked and swung her massive blade like a baseball bat. Launching the unfortunate victim across the playing field.

[Kaedan]

Blackrose seemed to be getting used to the new system pretty well. As she swatted the monsters about, Haseo stayed back and plugged them full of bullets, silently keeping track of the combos, '28, 29...30!'

Suddenly, the primary target froze in place and black-ish purple rings surrounded it. "Here I go!"

Haseo activated his skill trigger, "Justice". He leaped up high in the air, then sped quickly towards the target. At this short range, he fired bullet after bullet into the enemy, keeping himself aloft with the force. With the last bullets in his clips fired, he flipped in the air and struck down on the enemy with the blades attached to his pistols.

Haseo reloaded in a practiced motion just as his feet touched the ground, the enemy falling in perfect harmony. "Tch, overkill... Blackrose, try your new skills on the next one!"

[ULFRIC]

Seeing Haseo perform so gracefully stunned BlackRose. She hadn't expected him to be so...amazing. And in a dire effort to be just as eye catching, to one person in particular, she batted another monster away. It stopped midair with the familiar rings she had just witnessed and seemed to hover over another beast.

"BLOSSOM!"

She flew forward and swung her blade. It seemed to go as normal with no real display of power but a closer look revealed that the blade she swung was entirely separate from the blade that she had been holding. A third swing duplicated the weapon once more and suddenly she was juggling three swords that only moved when she held them. Slicing, carving, and mutilating as she grabbed one and swung, grabbed a different one and swung, grabbed another and swung. Faster and faster until the blades came together as one over her once more and she drove it into the beasts chest. She pulled back and the force sent a shock wave that decimated what was left of her enemies, though nothing had been left for it to really damage.

The battle wall lowered and, stunned, she looked at her weapon. It looked just as it had the day she began [The World] and yet, it felt different. "I didn't know it could do things like that..." Rengeki...new world, new powers. She was getting more and more excited about the events of her return.

"Heh, how was that Haseo?"

[Kaedan]

"Pretty impressive Blackrose, that was some beat down", he smiled. "Can't wait to see if Kite and Balmung have any new skills."

Haseo took out an orb containing a fairy, threw it in the air and shot it, shattering the glass. The fairy zipped around faster than the eye could see and then returned with a map. Haseo knew the way, but thought it would be helpful for the others to know where they were going.

"Looks like there's more monsters this way, come on guys."

[ULFRIC]

BlackRose stuck close to Haseo as he charged into the lead. He wasn't half bad. She had seen that people in town were visually unarmed and in passing remembered that R:2 offered the choice of stashing your weapon in some invisible sheath. But she had lugged the massive hunk of metal through [The World] of R:1 and she'd be damned if she didn't do it here in this world too. So she dragged it along behind her ready to swing at any moment.

"Right behind you!"

[shugo_lover]

Balmung easly slashed threw one of the monster useing rangeki and sighed.
"Tch. That was easy"
The world changed alot and took alot of geting used to for him

[Kaedan]

Haseo led the group through the dungeon, quickly moving from block to block. When monsters blocked the way, they sliced through them with easy. Haseo could tell that these guys definitely deserved their reputation. Even though the monsters weren't that tough, they were getting used to the new system much more quickly than most players.

As they approached the end of block 59, Haseo charged the last group of enemies, "Hey guys, ever wonder what an Adept Rogue is?"

Firing a few shots with his Dual Pistols, Haseo hit another one of his skill triggers. In the blink of an eye, he drew a gigantic broadsword, leaped towards the enemy, bringing the massive blade down on it's head and following up with upwards strike to free the blade from the ground. Without even waiting for the enemy to hit the ground, he turned, "Reaper's Dance!" and in another flash of light, drew a wicked scythe and with it, summoned dark energies from the abyss, slashing and clawing at the remaining enemies. In a final flash of light, he drew Twin blades, "Ghost Dance!". Still reeling from the last attack, he caught the enemies in mid-air, following up with a series of lightning fast attacks and ending by smashing them to the ground.

"Sorry for hogging all the action there... I just wanted to show off a bit before we take on the boss." He grinned back at the others. "He's in the next block."

[shugo_lover]

"Adept rogue...thats kinda like a twin blade isnt it?" he sighed. "Sheez you can carry multiple weapon types now?"

[Kaedan]

"Only Adept Rogues can. When we start the character, we choose three weapons. However, we can only use one of those weapons until we get our 1st Job Extension, then we get the third weapon after our 2nd Job extension. The trade-off is that our stats are very weak and I had to buff up with stat books."

Haseo summoned his guns, "I've been able to use a fourth weapon after a 3rd Job extension that resulted after being hit by the shockwave of the Rebirth. I won't get into details, but I'm a... special case, like Kite."

[shugo_lover]

"I see...you have a hacked character.."

[Kaedan]

"Yup. Not in a malicious way though, I don't abuse it. I was fatally damaged after the Rebirth and while Zelkova helped the process along, it was "The World" and my Epitaph that allowed it to happen. I don't quite understand all of it, but essentially my Epitaph merged with my character to make my true self."

Haseo paused a moment, "You know, it's kinda nice having someone I can talk to about this stuff..."

[shugo_lover]

"Theres no one else for you to talk about it too?" he scratched his head.
"And Whats an epitaph?"

[Kaedan]

"Well, there's the other members of G.U., but they all went through the same thing. I guess I meant it's nice to talk with someone else about it. G.U. was the guild Yata created to help fight against AIDA, which was the infection of "The World" in this version."

"It's kinda hard to explain, but an Epitaph is a power that comes from one of the Epitaphs of Twilight. I guess you guys knew about them in R1... Mine is Skeith. There's Magus, Tarvos, Innis, Corbenik...I forget the others at the moment."

[ULFRIC]

"Fidchell and Macha. Their named after the seven shadows of the abominable Wave..."

It had been a long time since she had heard those names and she had hoped she would never have to again.

[Kaedan]

"Oh yeah, and Gorre... It was actually because of the Epitaphs that we were able to save "The World" this time. The Epitaphs were 'sealed' in special characters and we were able to use them to fight AIDA. I'm sure you probably heard about the AIDA virus in the news."