Everlast Online

Piper, Jess and Bailey charged forward with excited vigour. Jess taking the frontmost role as the tank, Piper acting as a vanguard and sub-tank while Bailey hung back as the primary dps of their party.

However, the moment Jess took her first step into the bosses arena it shifted - righting itself such that its petals were on full display. Then, in an instant, a blizzard of pollen erupted from its centre, covering the entire arena.

The girls were completely shrouded in the pollen, their sight obscured and their bodies beginning to chill. Luckily it seemed this pollen was not as strong as the concentrated pollen sprayed by the other plants the trio had faced, but a [Freeze] debuff could be felt building if only slowly. The only one seemingly unaffected was Bailey who rather felt her power increase in the faux snow storm.

[Melody: Freeze building, time limit]

Bailey was shocked to see the message Piper had sent, but understood that she was affected differently to ice related matters and sent an affirmative reply.

Jess had also seen the message, but it didn't change her approach. She sprinted forward while activating her [Bone Exoskeleton] skill, her body being covered in her white armour, massively boosting all of her physical stats - including speed. This boost in speed worked against Jess however, as the difference in movement threw off her timing and she was unable to dodge an incoming attack.

One of its vines had extended and whipped towards her, landing a hit right in the stomach and knocking her back to crash into Piper. They had not fully solidified their teamwork and so situations like this had become slightly common. 

Jess almost always charged in, only to be struck with an attack she couldn't dodge. On the other hand, Piper would often hesitate - overthinking her attack and its overall impact, attempting to weigh her options mid battle. Both were unused to the actual strategy that came with fighting; Bailey of course hadn't had much problem after a while, but as a backline mage she was rarely in the throes of danger.

Recovering just in time to avoid an onslaught of icy petals that cut the ground below them into pieces, Piper and Jess once again charged forward - this time ensuring that they would not interfere with one another should they trip up.

Jess ran forwards, facing more vines as she did - but with her enhanced agility she was able to evade the danger, utilising [Quick Dodge] when necessary. Similarly Piper was also faced with vines, but she chose instead to utilise them.

Cutting her hands slightly, Piper allowed for blood to seep out of them and as a vine headed towards her she jumped up and grabbed hold. Instead of being flung off due to the momentum, she had rapped her blood around the vine and began climbing it as fast as she could - feeling her stomach turning from the frantic movements of the plant to remove her.

All the while, Bailey was hanging back as usual. Her friends were quite exceptional at turning the scene chaotic; presenting many openings for Bailey to exploit. Bullets of water flew forward and crashed into the stem of the plant at incredible speeds.

Typically, water-type attacks would be less than useless against the boss monster, even with Bailey's [Chilling Soul] skill enhancing it; but the boss had made the mistake of utilising its environmental skill [Blizzard Pollen] that had unintentionally further boosted Bailey's water-type spells.

With Bailey using her fists to smash parts of the vines she faced; Piper using her blood to dig into the plant and cut it up slightly as she climbed closer to its centre; and Bailey's water bullets and occasional water ball bombarding the plant; it was not long before the boss entered its second phase.

A scream seemed to echo from nowhere and the vines and petals began to shake with increased frenzy, only for thorns to extend out of the vines - greatly injuring both Piper and Jess who had been confronting said vines up close and personally. But the effects of the phase change did not end there as the flower head shook and released large clumps of pollen that landed around the arena.

In an instant, these clumps of pollen sprouted into smaller versions of the boss:

[Fragment of Winter - Sapling (~~~) (Monster)]

Bailey, Piper and Jess all felt a momentary wave of shock before they regrouped and came up with a new plan. Not an easy feat between the petals of the boss attempting to cut them down and the vines of the add's attempting to ensnare and dice them with their thorns.

"What do we do?" Jess asked as she ducked in order to avoid another petal.

"Let me think..." Piper responded, cutting through one of the sapling's vines with her sword.

"Well hurry up... I'm feeling annoyingly cold." Jess snapped back, fearing they would succumb to the [Freeze] debuff before the boss was killed. 

Bailey was having the hardest time of it. They couldn't leave the boss arena after entering it and now the field had no areas that were safe from the vines of the plants; before she only had to step left or right to avoid a petal or two as Jess and Piper captured the boss's aggro with their albeit weaker, but more annoying attacks. Now however, Bailey had to keep an eye out for many more variables - a difficult feat with her ghastly agility.

"Got it!" Piper called out, her smile returning, "Take it like any boss monster. Me and Jess take care of the adds while Bailey continues attacking; you'll have to deal with more petals, but the vines will stop."

"I think I can handle it..." Bailey responded as Piper turned to look at her.

"Sounds like it'll work." Jess replied, as optimistic as ever, "Good luck MVP."

With that Piper and Jess charged back into the pollen blizzard and began cutting down plant after plant. They were much smaller and, while still thorned, their vines were exceptionally weaker - such that even Bailey's basic punching could get through and damage them.

Piper and Jess went around the field, just trimming flower after flower until none remained; all the while Bailey kept up her attacks. The damage was lesser now that she was the only one attacking the boss, even if attacking the vines dealt far less damage than the main body, but its HP was still going down steadily so far as Bailey could tell. The petal attacks had certainly increased, but as Bailey remained as far as she could from the Fragment of Winter she easily spotted and avoided them before they became too dangerous.

Piper and Jess began to slow down from the cold right as they had finished off the last of the summoned plants - and so restarted the primary assault on the boss monster with a few more levels than they had started with. Piper and Jess couldn't approach as easily as before due to the thorns - Jess being especially reduced in power - but nonetheless they were able to assist in dealing their fair share of damage; entering the 3rd and final phase of the boss fight soon after they had defeated the saplings.

But this is where the real danger of the Fragment of Winter began.

It seemed to grow, extending upwards - but this was not growing at all, but something else. The trio looked around as the entire garden beyond the invisible barrier shook, every plant in sight had been sucked into the ground, leaving nothing but a barren wasteland with not a plant in sight.

The ground below the flower erupted into a cloud of dust, mixing well with the pollen flying through the air wildly. And from deep within the earth, roots pulled themselves from their stony bindings - revealing an almost humanoid body standing at almost 2 stories high.

The flower itself acted as the head, but roots and vines had twisted and twined around one another to form the most basic human shape. Other, smaller flowers peeked out from within the crevices created by the twisted vines and roots.

The 3 undead gawked at the creature, only breaking from their stupor as the quaking of its footsteps almost knocked them to the ground. It headed right towards Piper, who had been closest at the time, its hand raising into the air before falling like a slaughterer's cleaver. This alone would have been manageable as its speed was befitting of a creature that size - however, a simple crushing blow was not what it was attempting.

As the arm swung down it began to unwind, almost a dozen vines spinning at impossible speeds all crashing towards Piper. It was only sheer luck that prevented the young dhampir from being crushed into paste or cut into pieces - yet even with her luck, Piper did not escape unharmed. Upon contact with the floor, the flowers that had embedded themselves within the vines sprayed a highly concentrated icey pollen that caused the air to freeze instantly, spears of ice shooting from the sides of the impact. One such spear ran through Piper's side.

The arena had been almost entirely reshaped from a singular attack: The earth below gouged out and razor sharp icicles jutting from the site of impact as if hoping to pierce through the heavens.

Piper downed a potion as she regrouped with her friends.

"How the hell do we beat that thing!" Jess called, watching as the roots and vines slowly twisted back into the general shape of a limb.

"Well, I thin- DOWN!" Piper began speaking, only to call out in shock as the head of the boss turned to face them - gargantuan petals carving further damage into the arena and unlike before, not melting.

Luckily none of the 3 were injured in the attack, but as time went on it seemed there would be less and less available room to dodge in. The only thing to be thankful of was that the faux blizzard had slowed to a stop as the source was now too far to inflict any debuffs onto the trio.

"Okay. Here's the plan- " Piper explained what they would do, having seen just enough to take advantage of what seemed to be the boss's only weakness - should they be lucky enough to survive long enough to exploit it.

The 3 girls moved in an instant, spreading out and running forward so that even if one of them was targeted it wouldn't result in a team wipeout. Even Bailey ran forward, despite her position as a backliner, knowing the boss's range could get her anywhere she went - even with the arena increasing in size as the 3rd phase began.

Piper had remained the boss's target of aggression as it lifted its arm once again; the vines and roots unravelling as they came crashing down towards her. This time Piper was ready, actively avoiding the crushing attack before ducking under the icicles that attempted to pierce through her head.

Then Piper enacted her plan; grabbing hold of the closest root and allowing it to pull her up towards the main body of the boss. It was quicker than she'd imagined and fear ran through her body as she realised she was about to be crushed under the twisting roots - her only choice being to throw herself towards the central part of the boss's body. She flew through the air, and yet despite how daunting the view was - Piper had never felt more free.

She could never do something like this in real life. Going on adventures, chasing treasure; flying through the air as she fought side-by-side with her best friends - to Piper, the only thing that could make it better was if her sister were there.

Piper's descent stopped abruptly as she crashed into the body of the Fragment of Winter; grabbing hold of the first ridge she felt to stop herself from falling. The lucky part was that due to her size, the boss did not notice she was scaling its body and instead thought she was dead. 

Looking up, Piper noticed a large sapphire crystal in the centre of the flower's head - almost like a nucleus hidden behind its beautiful petals.

That must be its core or something... Piper thought, new steps being formulated in her plan. Probably a weak spot too.

With a grin she carried on climbing, grimacing slightly at the temperature of the roots and vines she gripped. Frost was slowly building on her hands as she climbed; with her later being joined by Jess and Bailey who had gotten so high by following the same method Piper had used.

All 3 of them were now well on their way to getting to the head of the plant, the part that dealt the most damage when attacking; however, there were some downsides. With all of its prey still gone, but somehow not dead, the Fragment of Winter finally realised the nagging feeling of ants crawling over its body was actually the disgusting creatures trying to kill it.

It was Piper who discovered this as an attack shocked her backwards - almost off of the body itself, where she would have plummeted to her death, had it not been for [Blood Control] allowing her to create a tether from a wound the attack created that wrapped around a loose vine and pulled her back to safety.

A thorn had jutted out randomly from the plant, before receding backwards into its body. Piper quickly sent the other girls a message to watch out for this, hearing Jess scream almost simultaneously - before a reply was sent thanking her for the early warning.

Like this the girls ascended higher, the cold increasing along with the frequency and variety of attacks. Vines would extend from the plant to whip at them, flowers would grow from the roots to spray icey pollen on them and occasionally small icey petals would be flung at them from distances they couldn't perceive.

Soon enough the girls reached the shoulders and entered range enough to attack - it was then that the flower activated one of its most deadly attacks. One that had previously almost killed Bailey in the second phase. 

The petals of the flower began to spin like a plane's propeller as it prepared a volley of lethal petals that would fly at them fast enough to cut right through their bodies - assuming they didn't fall to their deaths trying to avoid it first.

"We need to do it now!" Piper called out, realising this was the boss's kill move, "Bailey, aim for the behind the petals! Jess and I will try and reveal it!"

Jess ran forward, understanding what she needed to do, as Piper drew out as much blood as she possibly could - her HP dropping rapidly. Bailey as well did not stand idle, gathering as much mana as possible to form as many [Water Ball] spells as she could, all empowered by the incredibly low temperature at the top of the flower.

In the second before the petals went flying, Jess activated 2 skills: [Bone Exoskeleton] and [Strike]; her fist slightly blurring as it crashed forwards into the neck part of the plant's stem - forcing the flower to bend forward slightly from the force as Jess's attack seriously damaged what held the flower up.

With the target closer, Piper's blood somewhat solidified to become sharp enough to form a bladed attack. Her mana was dropping rapidly, but the rate was almost the same as the increase in her proficiency as the feat became easier over time. She slashed, even incorporating the [Slash] skill to increase the damage. Upon impact, a number of petals were blown off of the petal to reveal a large sapphire embedded deep within the flower; a perfect target for Bailey.

With such an easy mark, 5 balls of water flew forward - the first creating a heavy impact; the second a tiny crack; the third extending it such that it went from one end of the crystal to another; the fourth increasing the depth of the crack such that it was no longer just surface level damage; and finally the fifth, hitting directly upon the stress singularity of the crack - shattering the sapphire once and for all.

The girls could not even celebrate the number of system messages appearing in front of them as the titan upon which they stood began to rapidly deteriorate. The flower had withered as its core was destroyed, but with it went the rest of the plant such that the trio had nothing to stand upon and began falling to the ground at rapid speeds.

It seemed they would beat the boss, but still die in the end - at least that is what they thought before the final message appeared in front of them:

The 3 girls cheered as a strange light enveloped them with it subsiding to reveal the 3 of them sat on the floor of the [Lavender Dread Forest], just outside the dungeon entrance.

The 3 congratulated one another further as they looked over the number of rewards they had gotten. All 3 had levelled up, reaching 29, 29 and 28 respectively; beyond that, all 3 had received the title [Giant Slayer] by killing a monster much larger than them. Then came the final rewards: The grimoires. Just pulling them out, the 3 did not at all care that they had lost out on the dungeon rewards due to their quest.

(A/N: Jess/Bailey at 29, Piper at 28)

"Show each other on 3?" Piper asked, the other 2 nodded in agreement as they all pulled out leather bound books from their inventory, "Okay then... One. Two... Three!"

With that they turned the books around and showed the titles - the girls inspecting their friend's rewards.

[S-Rank Grimoire: {Blood Tyrant - Blood bends to your whims as you are its king (Learn to see more)}] (A/N: Piper)

[S-Rank Grimoire: {War Dancer - Dance to the melodies and symphonies of slaughter and carnage, war is where art comes to life (Learn to see more)}] (A/N: Jess)

[S-Rank Grimoire: {Storm Warden - The raging weather can only be tamed by the hands of a true storm warden (Learn to see more)}] (A/N: Bailey)

The 3 all giggled at the sight of the skills they had gained; the power was clear and so began the arguing over which was the best.

"Mine literally says king!" Piper said with a laugh.

"Who cares about kings in a war!" Jess responded mockingly.

"Well, mine will be able to change the environment of your wars!" Bailey chimed in, causing laughing fits between the 3 as they had inane arguments over who would beat who in a fight - ignoring the fact they had little to nothing to fight about.

"Alright, alright. Let's just learn them first." Piper said, still chuckling slightly. 

To learn from the grimoires, each of the 3 simply opened their books, getting a smaller system message appearing in front of the - to which they all grinned.

[You have learned from the grimoire {Blood Tyrant (S+)}]

[Blood Tyrant (0%) (S+): Blood bends to your whims as you are its king (Expand)]

[Skills learnt through grimoire (1/?)]

• [Blood Manipulation (0%) (A): Able to manipulate blood inside the user's body and outside of a body. Draining blood from the user's body reduces HP. Mana drain and control over blood scale with INT and proficiency]
  • [Lesser Skill {Blood Control} detected, absorbing into superior skill]

Piper was quite surprised that the grimoire skill not only absorbed her racial skill, but also became her new racial skill - seemingly replacing it. At first Piper was disappointed that the skill seemed to be no different to [Blood Control], but then she noticed that the skill had a strange wording to it; it then clicked in her mind that the skill could manipulate other people's blood so long as it was not in their bodies - fixing what was the greatest weakness of [Blood Control] as she had needed to drain her own HP in order to use the skill before. Now that problem had been fixed.

[You have learned from the grimoire {War Dancer (S+)}]

[War Dancer (0%) (S+): Dance to the melodies and symphonies of slaughter and carnage, war is where art comes to life (Expand)]

[Skills learnt through grimoire (1/?)]

• [CQC Mastery (0%) (A-) : Passively increases proficiency in hand-to-hand combat to the master level; massively improves power of CQC]
  • [Lesser Skill {CQC} detected, absorbing into superior skill]

Jess's excitement dropped slightly seeing the skill that her grimoire brought, despite it being an incredible improvement to the skill she had before she could not immediately notice this - though she would soon enough.

[You have learned from the grimoire {Storm Warden (S+)}]

[Storm Warden (0%) (S+): The raging weather can only be tamed by the hands of a true storm warden (Expand)]

[Skills learnt through grimoire (1/?)]

• [Storm Call (1) (C+): Call a rain storm to the user's location with the user as the centre. All water based abilities +100% power within storm. All fire based abilities -50% power within the storm. Intensity of storm scales with INT and Skill level. Size of storm: 1*(skill level)km radius]

Bailey was more than happy with her skill, even if it did not have any actual attack power - mainly because it massively improved the power of her skills.

Little did Bailey know that this skill would act as prerequisite for many others that were exceedingly more powerful.

---

In a room, inside a garishly decorated mansion a golden haired man sat up on a bed. He had just deactivated his biosphere chip, one that had not even been released as of yet.

He was rather vexed as nothing had been going his way recently, having expected otherwise he was having trouble keeping a calm head - even showing his subordinates a rather unfortunate side of himself.

At least it was just in a game. He smiled to himself. I have an image to uphold.

As he changed his shirt a knock came from the door. He turned slightly at the sound, ignoring it for at least 2 minutes before finally speaking.

"Enter." He called out, the door opening the moment he did. A rather elderly gentleman entered dressed as one would expect a butler to be dressed - he even had the silver moustache and monocle that made him seem rather like a stereotype.

The golden haired man did not even acknowledge the butler as he continued dressing; the butler not speaking as he had not yet been permitted to. This caused the man to sigh.

"I am not my sister." He said, "I will not have a fit because you breathe without my say-so."

The butler's stoic facade broke ever so slightly, his lips curling by around half a centimetre, as he gave a quick bow.

"Understood, thank you sir." He responded before pulling out an envelope, "This is the result of the search you asked for."

The golden haired man took the envelope before opening and skimming through it as the butler continued speaking.

"Unfortunately, Camelot has put a lot of effort into ensuring their player's anonymity so an exact log-in location could not be found." The butler started, "However, we were able to discover they're definitely from City-Z. From our research there are only twelve residents of the city that could possibly be the person your looking for; I would reccom- "

"It's this one." The man said, throwing the letter back to the butler with a small circle drawn around one of the 12 listed addresses.

"Very good sir." The butler bowed, he should have expected the young master to immediately ascertain the most suspicious of the candidates - and such swift decision making was surely why he was made heir, "I'll have the men begin the plan post haste. How exactly would you like them to proceed?"

"Beta." The man responded, the butler understood entirely as he turned to leave; not missing the angered mumbling of his young master behind him.