Duty Session 71: Obligatory Rat Cellar

    "I told you! I wanted to kill some more rats, but I also wanted to see what the quest looks like in other towns!"

    A purple-haired, purple-clothed imp drags a black clothed Spriggan through the town of Dun Loireag, "And everyone in my guild was busy, so you're it, buddy!" Seems like Yuuki has 'convinced' the Spriggan to join her on some questing, the two making their way towards a shop where a posting for help with a rat problem is being advertised.

    An albino girl dressed as a onna bugeisha, is just sitting outside the shop where they are having the rat problem. She seems to be working on something small but mostly seems to be waiting. She looks up at the approach of adventurers "Hey, you guys looking to clear the cellar?" she says with a wide smile. "Want another? One isn't enough and a duo would be real rough."

"Rats don't give that much XP on their own, but I'm hoping a swarm of them should pay the difference." Says Kirito as he walks alongside Yuuki, sighing for that one solitary moment where he may or may not be judging his alternatives rather harshly. But, he looks over at Wisteria. "True, but at least we'd get to hoard the XP. I don't mind it if you join though, just put in the work." Kirito gives a thumbs up as he keeps walking. "Hope neither of you have an aversion to rats."

    By the time the group makes it to the inside of the shop, a familiar player can be seen talking to the shopkeep as the door opens in. A tall looking individual with a rather large cloak covering his person. As he turned around though, if it wasn't already obvious enough, those glasses and the sanpaku eyes behind them should have made it clear who this villain was.

    "Ah, looks like I wasn't the only one with the idea. Trying to check if there's any variance in towns? It's funny, I was actually about to call a few people over to see what the situation would be. You guys mind if one more ends up tagging along?"

    Wisteria stands stretchy stretchy and follows after. "I've been writing a newbie guide to rats and spiders... so far... it's a terrible failure given how much variance. You know which shop keeper needs rats cleared out seems to cycle at random? Takes a while before a particular cellar resets...and then.. THEN.. it's different than the last time you ran it." she sighs "But I need to make sure."

The Idol figured that the best way to beat the cold is to keep moving. And what better way to do that than to get into side-quests, AND get inside too? She takes a break for her recruitment business for this... not tleling her guildmates. She figures that they don't need to monitor every movement, right?

She steps into the shop "Been here before, but I heard that the merchant fled town... but if there's still rats here, then someone else is herding them?" She ponders as she joins the small group already present "Hey Shiroe, Yuuki." She overheard both names last night at the bar, although she hasn't properly introduced herself to Yuuki yet. She did have a few talks with Shiroe, at the recruitment fair among others.

    Wisteria is already waiting for them at the shop. Yuuki ponders the bun's words for a second. Kirito interjects his thoughts, to which Yuuki says to Wisteria, "Don't listen to him. It's not all about the XP! It's about the excitement and the fun and the friends we make along the way. So, the more the merrier!"

    The group enters the store, only for Yuuki to stop and stare as she sees Shiroe in there. She stares at him for a moment, then asks, "Are you stalking me? Cause while I'm flattered, you're not really my type." But he expresses an interest to join forces and suddenly Yuuki seems friendly again, "Oh! Sure! Hop on in!"

    Reika also joins them in the store, smiling at her, "You too! Let's kill some rats!"

    Yuuki guides the group up to the Lander store owner. The jolly man smiles at them, greeting them, "Why hello, Adventurers! I assume you're here to help with-"

    "Skip." Yuuki smiles as she says this, looking expectantly at the Lander.

    The store owner looks a little confused, "Skip? Erm... Well... I guess I could just say-"

    "Skip." Yuuki interupts him again, apparently eager to get on with the quest.

    The store owner frowns a little in annoyance, "Now listen here, little miss, I'm trying-"

    "Skip!" Yuuki is still smiling.

    The store owner raises his arms in defeat, finally saying, "Fine. I have a rat problem. Kill them and I'll reward you."

    Yuuki gives the Lander a thumbs up, "No problem, mister! You can count on us to take care of this." Yuuki happily makes her way down into the cellar.

    It's dark in the cellar. Creepily so. What little light filtering down from the store above is barely enough to keep yourself from tripping over a crate. Though the further in you get, the harder that becomes.

    There's an ominous quietness to the cellar, making the chittering of creatures unknown echo loudly through the cellar.

    Right up until Yuuki cries out cheerily, "BOO!"

    Wisteria waits as everyone starts moving. "Sorry sorry... not all adventurers are uhm... well I guess chatty." she says to the shop keeper "But we'll clear your cellar so no worries there. Sorry about the whole thing though." of course the nongame player is treating the Landers like they're not just NPCs she doesn't really know any better.

    When she heads into the cellar and it's just stupid dark, her reaction is almost automatic. She sketches a glyph in the air and whispers. Small blue 'bakimono' fires flare up over either of her shoulders illuminating the space around her without giving off heat or being in a place to ruin her night vision. She looks at Yuuki's BOO and blinks a little her red eyes and white skin and hair ghostly in the bakemono firelight.

    As he sees the others he gets quite the question from Yuuki. "I-I promise you that I'm not. Besides...I showed up here first, right? Wouldn't that make you the stalker?" He tries to flip it but just ends up letting out a sigh, "Never mind, forget I ask. Thanks for letting me join, good to be working with you again." He also gives a nod to Kirito. Seems like he's definitely made an acquaintenance with his friend at this point.

    As he starts settling in with the group he also takes a moment to see Reika who gives him a bit of a greeting as well, "Ah, good to see ya again. Didn't get to talk much the other day but meant to ask how things have been going."

    He actually was a bit curious what was new with this Hamelin guild so when she answers he does take a bit of an interest. Though what's even a bit more interesting (concerning) is the way Yuuki responds to the Lander. Shiroe takes notice and by the time she's done Shiroe can't help but try to apologize on her behalf as she starts heading into the cellar. After a few seconds he ends up back with the group. "Hey Yuuki, you don't do that often with Landers do you?" Before he can receive an answer though, the first stage of the quest begins with the need to provide light. He tries to set up his electrical fuzz to do that but as he does, 'BOO!' Yuuki gives him a jump scare and his spell gets interrupted. Not cool Yuuki, not cool... D:<

as the group makes it into the shop, Kirito looks upon the familiar cloaked, glasses-wearing individual known as Shiroe, which makes him smile. "Hey there, Shiroe. Getting documentation, I see?" he looks very amused at the moment, but he shrugs. "Sure. The more than merrier, at this point." He gets a move on then, before he looks to Reika. "I think we've seen each other a couple of times now. I'm Kirito."

He figures most other introductions can wait until they are finished here, before he cracks his neck. "Its definitely about the XP. But...I agree. Sometimes the thrill is something that just can't be passed up." Kirito is silent as Yuuki communicates with the store owner...then they descend into the cellar.

Chittering of rats.

Kirito immediately uses a fire-type attribute skill and gets to work on the slicing.

Shiroe's blunder does make him smile though. "Its not like you to get startled so easily, Shiroe. Everything alright?"

Reika smiles to Kirito, and waves "Yes, once or twice, there's so many faces to take account of really." But she always made a point to try to remember the faces of her fans. The Nero Idol was a known face in the real world after all, so it's only nice that she gives some of it back to them.

She hmms as they go through the dark cellar, using a bit of fire elemental magic on the torches and scones to try to lit up the way better for the entire group, as she looks toward Shiroe at his question "Oh, it's been doing fine, I think." She hmms in thought "We've been tackling the first level of the tower, or at least the other sare, I'm mostly to stand back and let them do their things. The influx of newcomers help getting better organized." There's the rumors going on thought, which are not too pleasing overall.

She eeps at Yuuki's scare tactic though, and puts her hands on her hips "That's not nice! We have to be careful down here you know." She huffs, puffing her cheeks.

    The cellar begins to light up as flames come to life. Wisteria's little wisps, Kirito's flaming sword, Reika's helpful lighting of the various torches they happen to run into. It makes it easier to see one's way around the boxes and tools and other mess that has been left down in the cellar.

    Of course, Shiroe fails to get his spell off due to Yuuki's little prank. And the prankster Imp herself is laughing joyfully as a response. But as she does this she makes a mistep, losing her footing. There's a brief, surprised cry followed by an 'oof'.

    Yuuki groans for a moment, before asking, "What was that?" She picks up the object she had stepped on. A round gem of some sort. At her touch, it begins to light up. Yuuki looks on in wonder, "Oooh, lucky find!" She proceeds to stand, using the stone to help light her way.

    Yuuki picks up on Reika's words though, "Ohhhhhh? You've been fighting in Aincrad, huh? What's it like? I haven't been back there yet since the Apocalypse. So much new stuff to explore!"

    Wisteria smiles "Oooh.. traps... traps are always fun." she says, the albino girl says as she sends a ghost light floating down the hallway of traps. "Alright, lets do this then." she says happily. The halway exposed by the floating flame is neatly crafted of hewn stone and ends in a door. The slots for cutting traps and holes for arrows, and all the trigger plates and such leaving the whole thing look like it belongs in some movie about archeologists who are way cooler than they should be.

    "It's cause..." His eyes look back to Yuuki..."...Been a long day." Totally not because Yuuki has threatened to PK him nonchalantly, and has also gotten into his blind spot before. Totally nothing of that sort...He just ends up letting out a sigh as the group continues on. He dusts himself off, something he never really had to do before now when this was just a game as they continue in the path.

    As they keep walking they seem to find the long interconnected tunnels that really did seem like the spanned for miles upon miles. "MMmm, even in another town they still have the long lines of tunnels. If it's the same it probably connects the entirety of the city...Maybe even possibly connects to other towns as well? That'd be an interesting thought. Also if we're here that probably means...Keep your eyes and ears open." Traps. Plenty of them too.

    The Enchanter starts walking to the front of the group a bit as he starts using his spell to illuminate the path ahead of them. He sees a few of notches on the walls and the plates on the floor this way, and with that in mind just starts walking to avoid those traps altogether. He may have faltered cause of a certain someone before, but this time he'll be helpful without a doubt! "Just watch your surroundings guys! Might be a few that are better hidden."

Reika accesses the situation as they go below, and chooses to go for stealth here, no need to agitate the (nearby) critters more than necessary. She casts a Dark Ball over herself, and others in the party that might make use of it as well, concealing themselves in darkness.

She nods to Yuuki's question "Well only near the entrance, the higher ranked said it's more efficient to level up using the first floor, but not touching the boss room yet." To older players, this might sound off. It should be more efficient and safer to use the areas around town instead, especially at low levels. Unless you're using some unknown tactic here.

She steps around the traps carefully as the others point them out as found. Not everything can be avoided by sight.

    Yuuki misses the look she gets, happily walking through the tunnels. Though at Shiroe's possible theory, Yuuki whistles, "A giant underground network of tunnels? That sounds like it'd be interesting to explore! I can only imagine what kinds of bosses and treasures might be down there."

    At Reika's answer, Yuuki tilts her head a little, looking confused, "Really? Mmmm... That doesn't sound right. The stuff near the entrance is pretty weak. If you want the good fun, it's wayyyyy further in. Like the floor dungeons and stuff. But, I suppose it might be easier for newbies to handle the entrance mobs?" It's been a long time since Yuuki was a newbie.

    The group comes to a passageway. Oh! This must be the one which has the locked door at the end. Yuuki quickly steps forward just as Wisteria mentions traps, to which Yuuki echoes, "Traps?"

    Suddenly there's a FWIP sound. Yuuki quickly leans to the side as an arrow just passes by her side. The Imp blinks. This wasn't how it went last time!

    Yuuki quickly drops into a run, rushing straight down the center of the passageway. She uses her speed and reactions to avoid the traps as she triggers them, ducking and jumping and flipping and spinning where necessary.

"Oh, traps."

Kirito mentions with a bit of an unimpressed look on his face. But, he grins a moment at Shiroe. "I understand." He listens to the other adventurer though, humming. "There could be little variation then if thats the case. Either way, lets still stay on our guard." he hums, before he looks at the pathway again and steps lightly, managing not to activate any traps, but that could've been through pure luck...or talent.

Depends on your view of things.

But, he manages to survive. Occasionally, spikes might come up around him, or a heavy object might swing by. But Kirito makes it.

    Wisteria for her part draws her sword. The tallish wide shoulderd woman doesn't look much like she's the graceful type. However she starts to move; a step, shuffle, turn, cut... it's like a dance down the hallway after everyone else has passed. She sets off the traps after her ensuring they've been tripped. "There we go... that unlocked it last time." she says with a smile and tries the door, opening it up.

    Shiroe's way of getting around the traps isn't as flashy as a few of the others...BUT IT WORKS OKAY?! Besides, non-flashy is Shiroe's style. Still, speaking of non-flashy, when he hears the words Reika starts mentioning about some of the higher ranked players that are going through Aincrad, it makes him raise a brow. "Hey, Reika, this is things you've been told from people in your guild, right? Any other advice they've been giving out to your players at all? I'd be curious to compare notes since I recently ended up a guild leader and I would love to make som-" He stops his statement, as his look gets a bit more serious, "Hear that?"

    At this point they had arrived into the domed chamber, and with the dome echoing their footsteps it was a bit difficult to hear anything besides it. Though as everyone would come to a halt there would be the sound of more of that chittering. More small skittering steps which the sound of would begin to bounce around the walls of the room. The echos of it making it somewhat difficult to pinpoint where it's all coming from. "Frontliners get into position..."

    The sounds start getting louder and louder till finally the swarm comes into the presence of their light sources. Rodents start skittering around from all directions. The group finds themselves in a sea of rats, each and everyone of them with blood-red eyes, rotten yellow teeth that begin to chomp in their direction, and dirtied gray fur that stands up at the sight of the Adventurers that had come into their home.

    Individually, the small rodents are just as you'd imagine pests. But with so many of them, it'd be difficult to avoid them all... "Tch, just like the other city. Frontliners try to keep aggro. Backrow, focus on using AOE spells. We wanna try wiping these all out at once!" With that said Shiroe gets into position behind Kirito and Yuuki trying to make himself as sparse as possible as he prepares a spell.

Reika would answer the questions on Hamelin, but she stops with her mouth open when she's made to pay attention to the pitter-pattering. "They are close." She whispers.

Quickly accessing the area though "I got an idea." She sees there's a rope holding some heavy looking contraption high up against the ceiling. Using the same fire magic she used earlier, she sets fire to the rope, sending the heavy metal device crashing into the group of rats, hopefully removing a good part of them from the fight.

She looks to Shiroe "That works too, I hope?" She's getting more used to the physics of this world at least. "And what the others do? They send the new, lower leveled on the front lines, so they get battle experience." Or at least that's what they say. The reality is a little different though, as she continues describing "Since they respawn, it's no danger if they fall, and then they use the tombstones left behind to keep the monsters away."

That doesn't sound normal.

    Yuuki backflips out of a handstand to land at the end of the passageway, just before the door. Yuuki grins and bows to the triggered traps, before spinning around to find Wisteria opening the door, "Good work! It took us a while to work out that door last time." Different challenge, Yuuki.

    The group continues forward, Yuuki humming quietly to herself as they do. Though as Shiroe speaks up about just becoming a guild leader, Yuuki pipes up, "I'd be happy to give you advice on being a guild leader at any time! I'm sure there's probably a few words of wisdom I can pass along. Like... Always have snacks available in the guild hall. Your members will love you for it. What else..."

    Thankfully before Yuuki can continue providing her 'wise tips', the group finds themselves in the large domed room. Clearly a room for the next encounter. Which appears to be rushing towards them, right on time! Yuuki draws her sword, before grinning at Kirito, "Guess it's time for a little DPS tanking!"

    Reika causes a large object to crash down, not only causing some rat casualties, but also forcing the flood of vermin to split. Yuuki calls out, "I'll go right!"

    The Imp darts forward, heading for the right stream of rats. Her blade glows as she sweeps it out to meeting the rush. The sword arte is unleashed, smacking into the rats at the front.

    From this point forwards, Yuuki starts to dance her way through the large numbers of mobs, lashing out with her sword. Not to kill though, but to get that first hit in to draw aggro so that the back line can pick them off. All the while she zigs, zags, jumps, flips and steps around the rats to try and avoid their angry bites and swipes.

    Wisteria draws a rune in the air and gives a bit of a chant and then starts a shuffle runn forward. Her feet kicking up rocks in a small wave of earth before her making a prow that cuts a wake through the sea of rats. Her sword flicking out to try and help keep the path clear, how long that will stay open behind her is questionable but she hopes to make it possible to make others an easier path to take.

Kirito draws both of his swords then, the slow sliding of metal against sheathe causing a ringing in the air as he holds his swords steady in preparation thats coming. "Lets take care of this quick." There's suddenly a swarm of rodents coming to chomp on 'em like they're the first bit of meat they've seen in months. But, they ain't gonna get any bit of him. Kirito moves those swords like they were extra limbs, slicing apart rats as soon as they come.

A rat almost takes a bite out of his face, but he manages to cut it clean before he's moving, moving in, managing to keep exact pace with Yuuki as they just tear 'em apart.

Its a sword dance of black and purple, but he intends to drag as much attention to him as possible so the others can play support and give buffs or heal as needed.

He doesn't even question how many of these things there are. Every kill is more XP.

    Reika's use of the contraption at the top of the domed ceiling proves to squash quite a few of the rats with ease, and obstructing the paths that they can take as a whole. It's enough to get a Shiroe too, "Nice thinking. But keep your wits about ya!" It was one thing to get a clean hit in, but it was another to finish the fight. He wanted to make sure that Reika was aware of that since it did seem like she was still new about these things.

    Of course it's not just Reika's efforts that help to divert the rodents. Wisteria's prow like strike splits the sea of rats down the middle. At this point Wisterias would claim the title of Rat Moses! But in all seriousness, her strikes end up cleaving a very useable path for the group that prevented them from being completely swarmed and allowing it to be utilized by those who were planning to deal with them through straight melee.

     Yuuki being the veteran that she is, is able to capitalize on the new obstruction and path that's made by the two. Her decision to give the small rodents enough damage just to draw their aggro proves quite effective. Running through the area she's basically got a whole Cha-Cha line of rodents going right after her. The closest a few of them even get to chasing her down is trying to chomp at her tail, but even that proves fruitless for these pests!

    What's more effective than poking them apparently? Apparently killing them! Kirito's path intertwines with Yuuki's and it seems that his sword dance proves to be part of the reason Yuuki doesn't even have to bat an eye-lash as she continues to draw aggro. While she was picking up the aggro, Kirito was successfully thwarting any threats to her HP by dealing with any rodents that appeared to be getting too close to her!

    The group so far had successfully divided the rodents, and drawn their aggro, and was slowly working away at their numbers after the first crushing blow from Reika and Wisteria. "MMmm...Guess I gotta try to do some AOE damage...In that case..." The enchanter raised his staff into the air. While they weren't most well known for providing large amounts of damage, even if it was for an AOE spell to deal with rats, he could manage. Bolts of fire would rain down and swallow groups of rodents in the dozens. The sea of rats becomes a sea of flames soon after. Though if anyone wants to get some 'Tasty Rat Meat' oh wait never mind they're all turning into motes of light.

    With that said, as the pile of slashed, crushed, and roasted rodents litter the room before they eventually all get cleared out becoming motes of light, the group gains the huge chunk of XP from the small little pests. Plus they lose that freshly roasted roadent smell...Also nice. It gives them the leeway they need to continue their conversations from before, which Yuuki immediately interjects with her proposal of always having snacks available. It's something that gives Shiroe a bit of a smirk, "Hmmm..." He gives Yuuki a look over for a moment as if validating the idea, "Truth be told Yuuki...I almost forgot you were a Guild Master..." Maybe it was a little rude but she just seemed so free spirited that it was hard to see her being the type to lead people. At least from his experiences with her. He does try to rectify what could be a bit of a rude statement quickly, "Though, that's definitely something I'll keep in mind. I bet it works great. So thanks for the heads up." Yes, that'll work...Right?

    Reika's information is a little more unsettling however. Even if they weren't aware of the potential risks of death it seemed pretty obvious from what was going on that Hamelin was using the players as bait. If it was true then there was some serious problems going about. "I see...Reika, when this is over you mind if I ask a favor of you?"

The defeat of rats left mostly splots of polygons that vanish soon after (thank kami for no blood right?), which opens the way to the next rooms, which are mostly empty save for the remains of whatever the rats ate... which isn't to appetizing either.

The larger room the party come accross though looks empty at first... but as soon as the first person enter the room, a loud crashing noise and a dust cloud rises from the center of the room. In the middle of the cloud, the first thing that pierces through is a red glow, the eyes of the creature within it. A very large rat stands there, and screeches at the party, unhappy of the invaders.

    Yuuki gives a thumbs up to Wisteria and Reika for the excellent tactical manipulation of the battlefield. She then continues onwards with the others. She chuckles as Shiroe gives her what a usual person might consider an insult. But something Yuuki completely agrees with, "Hahaha, I don't blame you. I keep telling the others I'm not leader material, yet they keep insisting I keep the position! Truth be told, I wasn't originally the Sleeping Knights leader. But that role fell to me after..." Yuuki trails off a bit there, her cheery tone quickly fading towards the end.

    But thankfully a distraction comes in the form of the boss. A familiar one. Yuuki raises her sword, "So we meet again, Fatrat. And here I thought we had killed you. But that was just a trick, wasn't it!? Let me guess... It was a clone! You mad genius!" Yuuki reaches behind her back, pulling out a bomb in a repeat of her last time through the quest, "Well, I'm going to make sure this time we-ack!"

    The dire rat appears to remember Yuuki too, though probably not. Either way it quickly closes the distance towards her, smashing into her and sending her flying. Her bombs goes off to explode against nothing useful.

    Finding herself with aggro, Yuuki quickly runs off, trying to avoid its swipes and bites as she kites the dire rat around the boss rom, "C'mon guys, gimme some help here!"

Give her some help?

Kirito's got ya covered. He approaches the 'fatrat' as Yuuki deems him, before he approaches and keeps his swords at his sides. "Hey there buddy. You've had a really bad day, haven't you? We just want to clear out the cellar for the poor guy living upstairs." Is....Kirito talking to the rat monster?

Yes, yes he is.

"Because man, let me tell you, I think you're awesome man. Ya just gotta stop causing trouble. And hey, I brought ya something." he takes out some food from his inventory and offers it to the rat. "Here you go. How about we not fight, and we end this peacefully? Something tells me you're a really nice guy."

Because the rat monster is totally just misunderstood and lonely.

    Wisteria smiles "Battle!" she says happily, the tall albino girl putting hands to her katana and taking her stance. "Lets do this thing." she says with a bright laugh, and suddenly there is a fluffy bunbun girl? Her smile however is all nightmare, row on row of jagged razor shark teeth. Then she takes a step forward, a turn and a clean iaitsu draw, a slash that is far to far away from the beast. Only a black crackling arc flies from the sweeping blade, the dark energy crashing into the side of the beasts head leaving it stunned and reeling, giving Yuuki her escape from agro town and leaving it open for further abuse.

    As the group starts walking once more, Yuuki does bring up her mention of not wanting to be the guild leader and well...It gets a certain sorta smile, "Mmm, I've been in that spot before...Kinda how I got my spot in the Alliance if we're being honest. But uh, if the guild wanted you to be their leader well I think that's fine. If anything...Sometimes the best leaders aren't the ones that opt to be leaders themselves, but the ones that are chosen by others. Besides, like you said before with ideas like providing snacks for them, I wouldn't doubt it." The pleasant moment gets cut short though as the rat goliath makes its presence known, once again appearing like the other night. "Alright, this time we'll do a different approach. Yuuki, Kirito, Wisteria, I'm gonna pin him down! Get in as many hits as you can!" As he says that he raises his staff towards the monster and in doing so several magical vines start to sprout from the ground. Each one covered in multiple thorns that ensnare the beast's limbs, forcing a squeal of annoyance and discomfort from the monster's new leash.

    It'd help keep the monster from continuing to aggro Yuuki, or anyone for that matter. It might also make the beast more receptive to Kirito's handling. But also raises the question...How lonely has Kirito been to try and make friends with a monster rat? And the main use of the vines which Wisteria does ends up applying extra damage when her arc'ing strike ends up slashing into the vines causing them to explode.

Reika nods to Shiroe "Sure, let's talk later!" She chimes, as she trudges past the rat bodies that they left behind, but soon end up in that dire rat guarded room with the others. She pulls out her blades from her back, getting ready for battle. If she could use some contraptions like the previosu room it'd be good, but it doesn't seem like there's any chance too here.

Yuuki's bombs didn't manage to do much as the swipe of the dire rat batted it away before it could explode, blasting a wall harmlessly. Shiroe's thorn bind manages to wrap around the rat's limbs, considrably slowing it down, holding it against the ground, but still managing to wriggle and claw at the adventurers. Wisteria's mind shock rattles what little mind the rat has, further removing its danger levels.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Kirito's attempts to calm it down work either. Maybe being pinned is making it mad.

Reika chooses to keep distance, and throws her two blades straight at the rat. The blades seem to hit a weak point, as the rat screeches and slumps down, lifelessly. Seems like the combination weakened it enough for the blades to find their mark, as the dire rat explodes into flashy polygons. "Looks like that did it~"

    "Victory!" Yuuki grins, holding up two fingers in a V shape to the rest of the group.

    Once they've taken their share of the dropped loot, Yuuki proceeds to start heading towards the way out. She muses out loud to the others, "If it's another merchant trying to ruin his competition, maybe this time I'll try locking him in a cage!" She chuckles at the thought.

    But as the group make their way past the boss room and into the final chamber, they find not a merchant and his store of caged rats, but rather a simple, yet well-kept bedroom. Sitting at the edge of the bed, a Spriggan Bard, wearing an elaborate dress of green and gold. Her fingers softly dance across the strings of the guitar in her lap, her lovely voice humming out a tune. A small group of rats are all curled up at her feet. Some watching intently, others resting, their tails swaying to the music.

    The group can hear the Bard's singing not just with their ears, but also their hearts. A melody that reaches inside of them, making them feel like they just want to let go of their burdens and give themselves wholely to this woman.

    Yuuki is not immune to this feeling either as she says quietly to the others, "Wow, she's pretty."

    The words appear to reach the Bard though, who stops her music to look at the group. As she does so, the rats seem to get a little antsy, rising up to chatter their teeth and hiss at the group. But the woman calms them, reaching down to pet some of their messy fur, "Now now, let's not be rude. These are our guests."

    The feeling of that strange melody is fading. For now. The woman briefly lowers into a curtsey as she says, "Welcome, Adventurers. I hope my children have not been giving you too much trouble. They do so like to explore the underground. And no doubt they became excited when others entered. We get so few visitors here... Tell me. What brings you to my abode?"

Reika picks up her blades after the dire rat vanishes, hearing the music from the next room. It doesn't take her long to realize what's going on. She is a singer after all, she knows enough about music to understand what the bard is doing.

Immediately, the idol's voice starts ringing into the room, countering the bard's musical spell with her own, weakening and breaking it apart with discording notes. The others might ask what she's ding, but soon it becomes apparent that the bard's control over the rats has weakened, and many of them scurry away, freed from their temporary slavery. Hopefully that will lower the numbers enough to open the way for the others.

"If you do, I think I might help..." He really had been sick of dealing with that shopkeep. So at this point, even if it was a joke, he didn't mind playing along. It was a joke...Or maybe not if going by those 'Skip' comments from before...Oh boy.

    There's a look on Shiroe's face when he hears a sound in the distance. "Mmmm, I don't remember this part of the quest. Could this be..." A smile starts to accrue on his face, a new path?! A NEW PATH?! The explorer in Shiroe actually gets a bit excited. It's a rare occurence to see him smirk that much for something that should be so mundane, and yet there it was. It's definitely not as cheerful as a Yuuki smile, she's got more practice!

    Arriving into the room they come upon the Spriggan who was playing a tune to the beast, seeming to keep them rather docile, "A pied piper...?" It was the first thought that came to mind when he saw them, and well, while this might have been the source of the rats he couldn't help but remember a similar scenario where at the end it seemed like the guy hadn't really been a source of the rat infestation. He was just some guy trying to make rat meat taste good. So if this had been his first time...Maybe...Just maybe he would have been more prone to attack, but he doesn't.

    "Reika, wait!" He watches as the bard counteracts the spell and while it does seem like if this person really is using them for evil that'd make sense to stop them! But...If it's keeping them docile...Oh boy! The quickest idea he has is to use Thorn Bind Hostage to keep them from attacking anyone regardless. That way it didn't matter whether that Bard's song was keeping them nice or not. Those rats weren't going to bother anyone.

    Wisteria in her caerbannog form sketches a rune into the air with a finger and chants a quick spell, a writhing green power coursing up her legs and into her arms. "Lets take care of this." she says and starts kicking up and stomping down shuffling forwards her swings ripping swaths in the rat crowd including leaving deep scars in the stone.

Hey, hey, Kirito was just trying to make the quest easier, though he is very much so lonely by way of friendship. However, he managed to help keep the beast contained until it was brutally destroyed by Shiroe's bind thorn hostage and everyone's attacking simultaneously. Though Kirito does draw his sword at the last minute to slice at the rat creature.

Though he does notice the bard playing the song and though Kirito does not fall for it, he tries to activate an earth-based skill and....he's run out of mana!

Knew he should've taken that mana potion, so unfortunately, he's contributed almost nothing to this particular endeavor. "Don't get enchanted, Yuuki. We don't know how strong she may be, especially at our current levels." 'bosses' are often tricksy. Or if this is a person of the land who happens to have some strength to them....best to be on guard.

"They've given us a bit of trouble, certainly. But, we've come to end the infestation."

Blunt Kirito is blunt.

He does look at Reika as she apparently rushes in and Kirito frowns.

"Well, looks like there's no time for talking."

    The Bard's eerily welcoming aura quickly switches to one of cold anger as she and her 'children' find themselves under attack. A quick pluck of a string and a cry from the woman sends the group of rats into a frenzy.

    Reika's own musical tones prove to be somewhat effective against the Bard's spell, causing a number of the rats to stop in their charge and scurry away to hide. Others are caught in Shiroe's thorns, tied up and screeching in anger. But they don't screech for long as Wisteria comes rushing in, arms and legs unleashing powerful blows against the rats. They trigger the thorns spell, creating greater damage and causing the rats to shatter into motes of light. Kirito's announcement that they're 'ending the infestation' seems to do nothing but draw the Bard's ire, another pluck of her guitar string sending some rats to assault the Black Swordsman. But they quickly fall to his blade.

    Seeing the sudden shift in persona, Yuuki blinks in surprise, "Oh crap, she's scary!" Yuuki joins the others in assaulting the rats as they charge the group, her sword shining with a sharp gleam as she cuts her way through the rats.

    Most of the rats have vanished in defeat. The Bard drops to her knees, looking sadenned at the loss of her 'children'. Her spell has been broken, those surviving rats beginning to scurry out of the room. The Bard reaches out to pick one up as it runs by. It wiggles in her hand as she looks at it, "Please, stay with me. It's so lonely down here." The rat responds by biting her hand, causing her to shriek in surprise and drop the rat. It runs off.

    The Bard looks up at the Adventurers and simply asks, "Why?"

    Yuuki shuffles around a little uncomfortably, before heading for the ladder, "Uhhh, time to get our reward! Let's go, guys!"

Reika is a little shaken by the bard's reaction... she wasn't expecting that. "This is just part of a quest's script... right?" she asks a bit concernedly...

If it's like the previous times though, the bard will come back at it again and get her 'friends' back sooner than later. But emotions like that are still rather disturbing.

Well, no use standing around at least. She starts heading to the exit, picking up her quest reward along the way. She looks over to Shiroe "You had something to talk about?"

    Shiroe doesn't have an answer for Reika, so he just encourages her along with the rest of the group. Some things are just better left unanswered, and this was just simply one of them.

    As they finish the quest, acquiring their items, there is a bit of contemplation on the matter...A little unsettling on whether it actually was the case, but Reika's up a matter of just as much if not way more importance. "Ah right. I was actually going to mention it but apparently there's been a group of players that have gone missing in the last few days. Friends and the like haven't heard from them or anything and apparently they weren't too familiar with the friend system at the time so they can't reach out to them as well. At the moment the RTA has found someone willing to act as a sketch artist to help see if we can make it easier to find them by getting their faces out there. Was wondering if I could have you come by sometime when we finish the sketches, I'd figure you could post them up in your guild or what not. I know that the RTA covers most the Adventurer population but figure we should make sure we're covering as many bases as we can.

Reika nods, smiling "Sure thing, that's an easy thing. I'll put the sketches up in the Guild House for all to see. Disappearing people sounds concerning though." She hmms thoughtfully. She pulls up her menu nonetheless, and sends a friend request to Shiroe, just in case of future communications. And if she was to disappear as well, who knows. That's part of the problem with the vanished people after all.

    Wisteria for her part gives the bard a handkerchief and ruffles her hair. "Find a new hobby... rat minions make terrible friends." she offers on her way out to go gather their reward. The bunbun girl really doesn't know that gamers might treat NPCs in a game like this any different than a player.