Brute for hire Pt01, "I'm not completely useless!"

Yôkai smiled as he was transferred into the town of Mac Anu. He wandered around a little to begin with, just aimlessly wandering. And then he began to attempt to chat up a few other players, starting with the first cute player he saw.

"Why hello there, What's your name?" He asked.

The cute player turned and looked at him. She gave him the eyeball before turning around and waving her hand.

"Sorry," She said. "I don't talk to creepy old men."

She flicked her wrist and went off.

"Bu-Hey! I'm not...old..." He cried out. "...or creepy either..."

His hopes where not dashed yet. He spotted another cute little player and attempted another conversation. She beat him to the punch however by gasping and logging out. Another failure. His day wasn't turning out so well. He looked about him and sighed in pain. Why do they do that? He looked over at a couple not far off. The couple looked at him and sneered.

"That's not very nice." He said to them.

"What're ya gonna do about it?" The male of the two said.

"Leave that loser alone. He's not even worth fighting." His lady-friend replied. "He's just a level one!"

He sighed again. I'm getting so destroyed here. Why is everyone so mean? He scratched his head and stared at his feet. He began to count the pebbles at his feet when another player approached him.

"Hey, you're that Yôkai character right? From the forums?"

He looked up to spot a little child player in black with gold trim and a scythe. He gave the kid a smile.

"That's me. Crimson Jacket Yôkai." He said. "What can I do for ya?"

"Well...You're pretty weak for a brute for hire aren't ya? I mean? Shouldn't you be bigger?" The child asked.

"Yeah, I guess...But this is all new to me. Why?"

"I see. Well, Let's trade Member addresses, It'll come in handy in the future. Maybe I'll be able to help you later on."

The kid extended his hand with something shiny in it.

"Um...How do I give you a member address?" He asked the kid.

"You mean you really don't know?" The kid said shocked. "Wow. You're in really horrible shape. Let me tell ya something. Mercenary to mercenary. If you can't give people your member address you can't get hired. Just open up the sub panel and select send member address and click on my character. That should do it."

He did obediently, giving the child player his member address by selecting it in the same way that was explained. The kid smiled and gave him a pat on the back before looking up at the sky for a second. Yôkai followed his gaze, looking for whatever the kid was gazing at.

"PM." The kid said, telling him what it was. "Another thing you'l need to familiarize yourself with. I gotta go now, time for supper. See ya pal!"

With that the kid left, leaving a rather enlightened and confused Yôkai behind.

([OOC: Ms. Morrigan? If you would be kind enough.])

Eico walked through Mac Anu for a bit, looking for a crimson coated heavy blade. The task was easier said than done. Most of those around her in red wore vests and such. A few were level one, but many weren't. Her task was to find the level one heavy blade in a crimson coloured jacket. What a pain. She wandered all over looking for heavy blades and crimson jackets. Life was better when she wasn't looking for someone. Yokai, Yokai. Maybe I'm missing something here. Yokai with the crimson jacket. She took a break by a fountain to collect her thoughts when she saw something interesting. A level one Heavy blade in a crimson jacket was sitting all alone next to her. She spoke up next.

"Hey, you. Are you Yokai from the forums?"

He looked up at the girl who had spoken to him. She was pretty cute, he had to admit. He stood up and examined the tag over her head. 'Eico' it read. This must be the lady from the forums as well.

"I'm he." He stated, standing proudly before her. "You are Ms. Eico?"

He considered himself pretty lucky to go on his first adventure with someone like her. She looked like she knew her stuff too, which would undoubtedly prove useful. He was very, very happy indeed. He opened his sub panel and sent her his member's address.

"We should exchange these, so that we can communicate later on."

Eico reluctantly took his member's address and then gave him her own as well. At least it was a start. He would be able to fight with her and make sure that nothing too hard would pop up. She had already decided that since she was probably going to be paying him, she should at least be party leader. She opened her menu and sent him the party invite.

"Accept it and tell me what your price is."

"Well.....For a cutie like you I could do it for free." He said kind of cautiously. He recieved her address and then answered a shortmail reply to join her party.

"What do you say? Lead me to the chaos gate and I'm yours."

She disregarded his comment about her being cute and kept in mind the phrase 'do it for free'. She gave a quick and friendly smile, the only one she planned on giving him.

"To the chaos gate we go then." She said confidently.

She was sure that if she input the information she needed that the two of them would be taken there together. They would have to be. She cleared her throat and activated the gate, selecting the three keywords needed.

Delta: Broken Raven's Mercenary.

The words seemed...appropriate to her situation. She selected them and waited as she was engulfed in blinding light and then darkness and placed in a new field, one with withered old trees and harsh gusts of wind. It was like a burnt wood. Her wings fluttered limply behind her in this wind. She felt like she was being watched in this place. And it wasn't because the trees had eyes or mouths. Something was lurking deep within them. She felt that having a heavy blade was a perfect thing for this place.

"Yokai? You here yet?"

She had spoken and acted soon after. He found himself in need to chase after for her she walked so much faster than he did. Upon reaching the Choas Gate he admired it and watched her patiently as she stood there silently. A message appeared before his eyes and he read it quickly.

"Wha-" He managed quickly before he was sent off in a flash to another place. As he came to in this new plane he was able to finish his sentence."-t the?"

He found himself in a dead wooded area. Before him was Eico, his party partner and leader. He had the wierd feeling of being watched by thousands of pairs of eyes. He reached for his broadsword and grasped the pommel, letting his natural sheath loosen and let it go. He carefully arced the blade around and before him, grasping it with his other hand as well and resting it on the ground. The vines from his back extened and floated behind him, wavering like a living symbol of the sun. He hadn't really expected to get his own aura in fields, but it was nice. And standing behind his partner, he noticed that she had on a cape too. A cape of feathers that rustled in the gentle wind of this place. He'd ask her about it sometime, but now was not that time. Now was the time to get away from these peering eyes.

Her question snapped him from his own semi-dazed state. He was aware now of her tenseness and static tone. He was also now aware of things moving about just out of sight. It was rather creepy for him. It made him feel that if his aura could at least give off some light other than look nice he would be much appreciated about it. It would give him something a bit more comforting in this place.

"As here as I hope I should be." He said a bit uneasily. This was too dark for him now. Even the eyes peered at him. "What then do you ask about for?"

"Good." She said flatly, drawing her blades. "I'm going to be clear about this. There is something lurking out there and it is in home territory. Being a heavy blade, I assume that you can take out objects. My idea is that you should swipe away these trees and give us a clearing for which to fight. While you clear the wood away I'll watch your back."

She made a quick turn to face him and stumbled a bit in her way. He had a radiating growth on his back she discovered when she leaned over a bit and walked around him. She had only assumed he was human upon her first glance, so that left him as either a demon like herself or otherwise. She turned around and glanced quickly as something snapped a twig not far off.

"Here they come, I'd get to work on clearing this place." She snapped. "I like to see what I'm fighting when I'm fighting it."

"Yes M'am." He said quickly. "I'll get right on it."

He brought his sword up, making sure that Eico was not in the way and brough it down hard in a sweeping motion against a tree. It went through it like butter and continued about half way, stopping only to keep him from accidentally hitting his partner. He had cleared a path before him now, and the gloomy darkness receeded a small bit. He swung his sword around again and chopped a few more down, making a slightly larger area. He stepped forwards, crushing withering roots and trunks underfoot. He smiled to himself. His job was really easy so far. All these frail trees could be swept away like twigs under his blade.

"Ms. Eico?" He called out. "Watch yourself now, I'm coming about."

He turned and, swinging his blade alongside him, ended up sweeping away quite a few trees. His job was simple enough, until he saw several small, angry and viscious looking bobbing plant-things coming at him from the woods.

"Ms. Eico? I've found our inhabitants." He said worriedly.

"Twinkle Grass. Level zero, fifty hitpoints." Eico said calmly, "Sounds like you've gotten to meet our other guests then."

She turned back to face the creature whose attack she had just repelled. It was pushing hard against her crossed blades and was a white knight-like creature. She was so tempted to push it off and go for the others, to a place with more space, but she had it on the edge.

"Razine. Level zero, fifty hitpoints." She replied. "I'm dealing with this one first. Take out those plants. You're an area person. Should be easy for you."

But something larger was on its way. By the crashing sound not far off, she could hear it. She shook her arm as the Razine let off on its attack and then quickly slashed at it. A small bit of health was taken from it and that was it. She swung again and again. Her last blow met air as the Razine quickly sidestepped away from her. She could see not far off that there was another white thing coming towards them. But this one was carrying something other than a spear.

The Razine, having slid around the tree, tried to catch her off guard. She double-stepped forwards and narrowly missed the sharpened edge. She slung herself around, cutting her blade through the tree and aimed to stick it with her short sword.

"Twinkle grass?" He said worriedly. "It looks more like hungry grass to me."

As the creatures came closer to him however, he was able to catch the tag of their names. Twinkle grass was really their name. He gave a quick and nervous smile. Well, It's low at least. He brought his blade around and caught a couple of them. He was happy when they flew off with a few errant branches into the darkness. But it shrank as they quickly came back to assault him. He swung his blade again, sweeping them all away. A couple remained and snapped at his ankles. He watched almost removedly as his HP bar dropped little by little.

"Get off!" He snapped, stomping on the two of them. "Get off me now."

His stomp was just as hard as his blade. And he should have figured rightly so for it was, after all, just another form of attack. he twinkle grass' were stunned just long enough for him to finish them both off with his sword in two fell strikes. He repelled less by dealing with them individually but it did more damage that way too.

"Ms. Eico?" He asked, unable to see that she herself was currently busy dealing with a monster herself. "What do you consider yourself in this game?"

"What do I consider myself in this game?" She asked herself.

She had just run the Razine through and sliced it into three sections, it fell to the ground, bleeding and melting away. She turned quickly to detect the creature coming towards them but it had stopped. Was her mind playing tricks on her again? No. She had seen and heard this thing. It was playing a game with her now. She turned and jumped after Yokai, intent on killing his marks to keep him on with slicing an opening for them.

"What do I consider myself?" She asked herself again.

Yokai had just launched a group of the Twinkle grass off into the distance now and he was bringing his blade round to do it again. She hurried herself and leapt in front of his striking blade, propelling herself forwards by kicking off of it. With her swords in hand she grabbed the edges of her wings and swiftly dived down towards the far flung twinkle grass.

"I am a Goddess!" She cried out. "That is what I am."

Upon reaching the Twinkle grass she let go of her wings and spun in a flurry, slicing the creatures into a mere haze before her. More and more were converging around the mark in an enclosed space, but it didn't matter. She was faster than them. As she struck again and again she spotted here and there signs of the white creature. Surely this was no trick of the mind? She knew she needed to get Yokai's attention. To get him to clear this far and make recovery easier.

"Yokai!" She yelled. "What do you aspire to be?"

If she was right, he would chop a path by the sound of her voice.

What the? The simple comment ran through his mind quickly as his partner jumped in front of his attack. And the final coment left after her she had been launched far far away was: Are those wings? He wasn't sure about what was going on but he choppped through a few of the twinkle grass and noticed quickly how they were receeding. It made his way to getting to his partner that much easier to achieve, especially since he was currently Wood-cutter champion Yôkai.

"heheh, onwards I go." He chuckled.

Her question rang out from the woods. It sounded a bit disconnected but he got the message all the same. He swung his sword in a large arc and cleared a huge path. What was it he wanted to be? He was Yôkai the Executioner, Yôkai the Crimson Jacket. Yôkai was all he needed to be. Or did she mean in real life? After all, weren't goddesses usually models?

"Me?" He said, clearing more trees. "Well, I want to retire and settle down when I get too old for my job." He cleared more trees. "Maybe. I don't really know."

He switched directions now, instead of cutting towards his partner he began to cut back up his path a little, making it twice as wide.

She listened intently through the squeaks and squeals of the dead and dying creatures for Yokai's voice and the sound of demolishing trees. The sound was coming from three different places now. It was hard to tell which was yokai since it was echoing. She finished off another two of the twinkle grass and leap back. No sooner than her foot had touched the ground she had to jump back again. A giant branch smashed its sapling kin to pieces and a large angry purple-leafed tree began to crawl towards her. She leapt at it, springing her blades into it before realizing the futility of her blows and jumped off. The tree swung for her, trying to take her out. She jumped again, and began to race off into the woods.

This place is destroying itself to get rid of us. She ducked under a branch and kept moving away. There's got to be a safe haven for us. Where is Yokai anyways? She jumped over another branch and then bounced off another, putting her atop the tree line. She wasn't alone up here either. White creatures, some like Razine and others not, were also leaping about up there.

He was pretty much untouched on his way back up the grand path he was cutting down. It was fun and simple. He reached the original clearing once again and turned back down to continue widening his path. Something exploded down near the end of his path and waddled its way towards him. A massive tree with purple leaves was bearing down on him, an evil grimmace on its face.

"Ms. Eico?" he called out nervously. "Ms. Eico!? I need help!"