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kingdomcome

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    kingdomcome reacted to Dergonu for a blog entry, The Last GM Standing - FINALE - Part 1/2   
    The last GM standing Q&A:
     
    Link to the thread:

    Would you rather read the chapters in a PDF document? Click here!
     
    Chapter 1:
     
    Chapter 2:
     
    Chapter 3: (Word count, 4439)
     
     
    The Last GM Standing Chapter 4 (Word count, 3984)
    The Last GM Standing
    Chapter 5 (Word count, 4491)
     
     
     
    The Last GM Standing
     
    Chapter 6 (Word count 3334)
     
    - Finale, part 1/2 -
     
     
     
    The atmosphere on the battlefield was suffocating. With the sun once again covered by dark clouds, a strong wind blew across the area, seemingly building up to a storm. The three GMs were standing on an open field, facing each other, with their remaining warriors at their side. Kaguya, Nosebleed and Down. Only one of them would come out of the battle alive...
     
    ....
     
    Nosebleed was knitting his brows as the powerful wind struck him. In his mind, countless questions raged around. Why do we have to do this? Why wont the others put down their weapons? Why do we have to fight?..
     
    At his side, Kingdomcome and Nebjula stood, with their weapons drawn. Nosebleed had lost many during the battle, and was down to his last two brave soldiers. He wished for nothing more than to let those two brave survivors make it out alive. But in order to do that, he had to fight ... He had to fight for them, and for the ones who had already given their life in this gruesome battle.
     
    "It's time. I can't guarantee your safety during this fight ... Not that I have been able to do that previously either..." Looking down at the ground with a shameful expression plastered on his face, Nosebleed spoke to his comrades.
     
    "Don't worry, we will be at your side until the bitter end." Kingdomcome said as he put his hand on Nosebleed's shoulder.
     
    Nebjula said nothing, but walked up at Nosebleed's other side and prepared his maces for battle. His hands were shaking ever so slightly and his lips were trembling. Before them stood Kaguya, with his four remaining fighters, and to their right was Down, who also had four warriors remaining.
     
    No one spoke. The overwhelming silence was soon followed by a loud roar of thunder coming from the east. Just as the sound of the thunder was heard, Kaguya made the first move... The battle had begun.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    - The beginning of the end -
     
     
    Kaguya lifted his arms above his head and summoned a massive fireball, hurling it at Down.
     
    Down reacted quickly and pushed his comrades out of the way, then jumped up in the air, making the fireball collide with nothing but the bare ground. As he floated through the air, Down gripped his sword and made a big swing, targeting Kaguya. The blade approached its target with great speed. Kaguya lifted up his right arm and the blade collided with his flesh. But, despite the strength of the attack, his skin was not cut. A big shockwave blew across the battlefield, as a reaction produced by the powerful impact of Down's sword. Down quickly drew back his blade and went in for another attack. Kaguya used his arms to block the attacks, and retaliated with punches that Down fairly easily dodged. The two traded blows for a while, neither landing any good hits.
     
     
     
    "Devourer of light,
     
    bane of the living,
     
    ruler of death,
     
    envelop the world in darkness!"
     
     
     
    Chanting a spell from behind Kaguya, Jade stepped forward and sent a large cloud of dark smoke towards Down. The smoke crept forward like a living being, seeking out enemies, and completely avoiding teammates. Down reacted quickly and jumped back a few meters, then he raised his sword towards the sky, and a bright green light erupted from the tip. The light wrapped itself around himself and his warriors, shielding them from the smoke.  
     
    "Dergonu, Greenshadow." Speaking to two of his underlings, Kaguya pointed forwards, and the two launched an attack at the exposed Down. Because he was busy holding back the shadow from his forces, he was wide open. It was not a physical barrier, but instead one to hold back magic, which meant humans could pass through it. The two ran towards their target and raised their weapons.
     
    "Get back scum!" Before they reached Down, a shadow quickly jumped out from behind him, blocking both their attacks. Two green swords glowing in a green light, similar to that Down was producing, was blocking their weapons.
     
    "Yaaa!" Their opponent, FinalChaos, pulled back his swords and spun around, making the blades strike at both targets in a circular motion. They both had to raise their weapons in a defensive manner to block the attack, at which point another attacker stepped out behind Down and struck at the two team Kaguya members. He held a long green dagger, and stabbed at Greenshadow's chest. Greenshadow quickly moved his shield in between himself and the dagger, whilst still holding back FinalChaos' sword attacks.
     
    Fred the Barber, the second attacker from team Down, quickly moved sideways and tried to stab at Greenshadow's flank, but Dergonu jumped in between them. The four warriors started attacking each other left and right, looking for openings. Meanwhile, Down was still holding back Jade's magic, which was starting to approach its limit.
     
    Suddenly a rain of crossbow bolts approached Down and the other fighters present. Down extended his left hand, making a physical barrier to stop the sudden attack, leaving him even more exposed than before. Kingdomcome from team Nosebleed was positioned about 50 meters away, firing freely at the group. To his left stood Nebjula, protecting his teammate from potential threats.
     
    "Damnit ... At this rate we will be sitting ducks... Babiker, Kawasumi, take out the sniper, I'll hold back Kaguya. If you run into Nosebleed himself... then run." Doing as their leader told them, Kawasumi and Babiker started running towards the team Nosebleed members. Fred the Barber and FinalChaos were still in a fight with Dergonu and Greenshadow. Jade and Gijimu were standing next to Kaguya, working like bodyguards.
     
     
     
    ....
     
    Team Down: Fred the Barber, FinalChaos
     
    VS
     
    Team Kaguya: Greenshadow622, Dergonu
     
    ....
     
    Down finally got a break from all the oncoming attacks. Kawasumi and Babiker had approached Kingdomcome, and Jade's magic had finally stopped. But, just as he had some time to catch his breath, two pink shuriken soared through air, approaching Down's position. He quickly tried to swat them down with his sword, but as the blade was about to hit the oncoming shuriken, they moved as if they had a will of their own, making them avoid Down's weapon. They hit him in the chest, making his personal barrier take a strong hit. Upon closer inspection, Down saw that the shuriken were tied to a string, which was being controlled by someone further away.
     
    "... Nosebleed."
     
    Clutching his sword with all his might, Down swung it in a big arc, moving it towards the location the shuriken were being controlled from. A massive wave of green energy approached its target, breaking everything in its path. A pink magic circle appeared in the target location seconds after, blocking the attack.
     
     
     
    Meanwhile, FinalChaos and Dergonu were in a fight a little further away from the GMs. As Down had engaged in battle with an enemy, FinalChaos had taken command of the battle against Kaguya's troops, and had sent Fred the Barber to fend of Greenshadow622 while he himself fought Dergonu. Fred's dagger would be of little use against a massive mace. Of course, it wasn't very ideal against a sword and a shield, but if he could at least hold out until FinalChaos finished his own fight, then that was enough. FinalChaos was calmly analyzing Dergonu's attack patterns as they fought, trying to find an opening. From the look of it, he would not tire easily, not to mention that if he stalled the fight too long, Fred could be in danger, so he would need to finish the fight some other way. Dergonu wasn't particularly fast, but every time FinalChaos moved in to strike at him with his dual blades, it made for a dangerous opening. All it took was one hit from the giant mace to knock him out. He had to play it carefully. Because of that, FinalChaos did not take the initiative, and instead waited for when Dergonu attacked. Then, he moved quickly away from the mace and sliced at Dergonu's exposed side. His swords collided with Dergonu's barrier, bouncing off him. Because the attack was a very swift cut, it wasn't particularly powerful, but it was enough to slightly weaken Dergonu. If he kept that up, he would be able to win.
     
    "You little ... STAND STILL!" Shouting in an agitated voice, Dergonu suddenly lifted his mace above his head and smashed it down in the ground in front of him. As it didn't look like the attack would hit him, FinalChaos made no attempt to avoid the attack, which was a mistake. The mace produced a shockwave, which knocked FinalChaos off his feet. Dergonu followed up with striking at FinalChaos on the ground. It would be impossible for him to dodge it from that position, and so he used his swords to absorb the impact from the attack. He had to use all his strength in order to hold back the giant mace. It slowly but surely started pushing back FinalChaos' swords, inching in towards his chest. There had to be a way out. Still remaining calm, FinalChaos looked for a way out of his dire situation. He could kick Dergonu's legs, making him trip, but that could mean his mace would hit him in the process. Such a blow could be fatal, so that wouldn't work... As he approached his limit, no longer able to hold back the mace, he came to a conclusion. Suddenly letting go of both his swords, he made the surprised Dergonu tip forward. FinalChaos then gripped the approaching mace, stopping it right before it hit his chest. Following up his surprise maneuver, he kicked at Dergonu's leg, as the mace hitting him was no longer a risk. Dergonu fell over, losing the grip on his mace.
     
    "Crap... You annoying pest!" Gradually getting more and more annoyed, Dergonu launched a flurry of randomly directed punches at FinalChaos, who had not been able to retrieve his own blades yet.
     
    "You can have this back." As he said that, FinalChaos threw the mace at Dergonu. Acting on pure reflex, he gripped the mace midair. FinalChaos then snatched up his blades from the ground, and thrust them into Dergonu's wide open chest, crushing the remaining resistance in his barrier.
     
    "Ghhhh..." Letting out a pained noise, Dergonu lost the grip on his mace, and fell to the ground.
     
    "Now... Time to check on Fred." Turning his back on his dead opponent, FinalChaos looked around for his comrade.
     
    ....
     
    Fred the Barber was trying his best to fight off Greenshadow's attacks. He was unable to parry the attacks directly, as all he had was a dagger, however he was able to stab at Greenshadow's side whenever he moved in for an attack. He had landed a few hits, to his own surprise, but he had also sustained a wound to his left arm, making the already difficult fight even harder. Greenshadow's shield was also a problem. Because of it, Fred could only attack Greenshadow's right side, because the shield would make attacks to his left completely impossible. Fred was breathing heavily, and his heart was beating faster and faster. The pain in his arm did not really bother him, but he was starting to get really nervous. He had no real plan of attack, and the only thing he could do was fend off his opponent, keeping him at bay with some sneaky counterattacks here and there. At this rate, he would not be able to win... Would he die? Would he lose? Was this the end?
     
    Greenshadow looked at Fred with a hint of guilt as he moved in for another attack.
     
    I see... So even he knows it, huh?
     
    The blade moved towards Fred. He sidestepped, but just as he moved away, he realized his mistake. He had moved to the left, which meant ...
     
    Greenshadow's shield bashed Fred right in the face, completely impairing his vision, making the world spin around in his head. Then, right after, a cold sensation hit him in the stomach. The feeling of cold steel piercing his skin.
     
    This is the end, huh? ... Maybe it's for the better.
     
    "FRED!" Someone shouting his name made him snap back to reality. FinalChaos jumped between them, striking at Greenshadow. His swords hit Greenshadow's shield, but he managed to force Greenshadow back, making him take the blade out of Fred's stomach. Fred collapsed, and FinalChaos dropped his swords, catching Fred before he hit the ground. Greenshadow looked at the scene, with a pained expression on his face.  
     
    "I'm sorry." With those words, he turned his back on them and walked away.
     
    A hint of a smile appeared on Fred's face.
     
    "S-Seems I did a lousy job of stalling him, huh? ..."
     
    FinalChaos shook his head quietly, and held his comrade in his arms, closing his eyes. Fred had been one of the people on his team he cared quite a lot for. Some of the others were too brutal, too ruthless and bloodthirsty. But maybe ... Maybe those qualities were what one needed on a battlefield like this.
     
    "Rest now ..." Upon hearing those words, Fred nodded ever so slightly, and soon after, the light vanished from his eyes, the smile still present on his face.
     
    Team Kaguya, Dergonu- DEAD END
     
    Team Down, Fred the Barber- DEAD END
     
    ....
     
    Down felt the life force of another one of his warriors vanish, and anger welled up inside him.
     
    Why? Why are we doing this? Why?!
     
    "GAAAH!" Unable to contain his anger, he shouted at the top of his lungs, and struck at Nosebleed with incredible strength. The power of his attack was enhanced by his rage, making Nosebleed's barrier wither.
     
    "Guh..." Surprised by the sudden attack, Nosebleed took a careful step backwards, putting more energy into his barrier.
     
    "No more! NO More!" As Down shouted, he prepared to strike at Nosebleed once again, but was suddenly stopped as a Kaguya moved up next to him and struck at his chest with a fist wrapped in fire. The attack created a massive explosion, sending Down flying. He lost the grip on his sword, and as he hit the ground, it made a giant crater.
     
    Turning around to face Nosebleed, Kaguya struck at his new target. Nosebleed was not caught off guard however, and easily avoided the hits. He then retaliated with a hit off his own. The two struck at each other repeatedly, making waves of fire and energy fly everywhere. Down as still lying in the crater, unconscious.
     
     
     
    About 50 meters away from the GMs, another battle was taking place.
     
    "Nebjula, duck!" Kingdomcome fired a flurry of bolts at Kawasumi, as Nebjula jumped to the side just in time. But, as the bolts were about to hit their target, Babiker moved in and hit every single one out of the air.
     
    "Too slow kid." He said with confidence.
     
    As Kawasumi saw an opening, she struck at Nebjula with her sickle. Nebjula blocked it with his maces, but Kawasumi was much faster, and followed up her attack with a kick to Nebjula's head, making him fall face first into the ground.
     
    "Damnit..." Cursing to himself, Kingdomcome fired more bolts at the team Down members, trying to buy some time for Nebjula to get back up. But, every bolt was hit out of the air by Babiker before they hit.
     
    "Who the hell is this guy?!"
     
    "Keep them coming buddy, I can do this all day!" He answered in a smug tone.
     
    Kawasumi grabbed a hold of Nebjula and lifted him up in the air by his neck.
     
    "Good boy. I'll have some fun with you before I kill you." As she said that, Kawasumi placed her sickle on Nebjula's hand, and cut off one of his fingers.
     
    "AAAAAAAHH!" Screaming in pain, Nebjula kicked at Kawasumi viciously.
     
    "Come on now, be still! You are making this so much harder!" Kawasumi tried to get a good grip on her opponent, but wasn't able to keep a firm hold on him because of his resistance, and eventually dropped him.  
     
    "Look what you did! Your dirty shoes made my armor all filthy..."
     
    Kawasumi kneeled down, once again trying to get a good grip on Nebjula's neck.
     
    "Y-You bitch..." Nebjula suddenly thrust his head upwards, making the top of his head collide with Kawasumi's nose. As she gripped her bleeding nose and staggered backwards, Nebjula got to his feet and picked up one of his maces.
     
    "Payback time." Nebjula then lunged forward and was about to strike at the defenseless Kawasumi. But, right before he managed to attack her, Babiker launched a kick which pushed Nebjula back. Nebjula hit the ground with a loud crash. But, during the second Babiker looked away from Kingdomcome, another volley of crossbow bolts flew towards him with great accuracy.
     
    "... Shit." He had no time to deflect them, and the projectiles hit his body all over, piercing his arms, legs and chest. Warm blood flowed from his open wounds, and his entire body screamed in pain. After just a few seconds, he fell to the ground with a thump.
     
    "Nebjula, let's hurry! Looks like Nosebleed is in a pinch!" Kingdomcome quickly ran up to the fallen Nebjula and helped him up. Nosebleed was in a fight with Kaguya, and it looked like Kaguya was landing quite a few hits. They had to hurry over to their commanders aid.
     
    "Like I'll let you escape after screwing up my nose you little shit!" Kawasumi got to her feet and moved forward quickly, aiming for Nebjula's neck.
     
    "Look out!" Kingdomcome instinctively pushed Nebjula out of the way, and Kawasumi's sickle hit Kingdomcome's neck. The thin blade made a deep cut in Kingdomcome's neck, cutting through his throat, nearly separating his head from his body.
     
    "Whops... Looks like I hit the wrong one. Well, whatever. You're next."
     
    Nebjula did not react to Kawasumi's words. He was completely paralyzed, covered in his teammate's warm blood. He stared at Kingdomcomes body, not knowing how to react.
     
    "... Eh?" Kawasumi suddenly let out a high pitched voice. She had completely stopped moving, and blinked repeatedly, as if she wasn't entirely sure what was happening. She touched her stomach, and her hand was stained in blood. But it wasn't Kingdomcome's blood... It was hers. There was a large hole in her stomach.
     
    "Grgh.." Not able to form actual words because of the blood flowing out of her mouth, Kawasumi collapsed. Behind her stood Gijimu from team Kaguya, his hand covered in red blood.
     
    "I will let you go this time, but once we meet again in battle, I won't go easy on you." Gijimu simply left Nebjula with those words, before he had a chance to reply. Nebjula's legs were shaking violently, and he finally fell to the ground, covering his face in his hands.
     
    Team Down, Babiker and Kawasumi- DEAD END
     
    Team Nosebleed, Kingdomcome (REAL)- DEAD END
     
     
     
    The battlefield was covered in smoke, massive craters and dead combatants. This was the final part of the battle. Team Down and Nosebleed now only had a single warrior left each. Kaguya still had three remaining warriors.
     
     
     
    The battle between Nosebleed and Kaguya had not yet reached a conclusion. Down was unconscious, his body being protected by FinalChaos. Nebjula was still recovering from shock, and Gijimu, Greenshadow622 and Jade had joined in the fight versus Nosebleed. But, despite being in a difficult situation, Nosebleed was keeping his cool, and was not about to give up anytime soon. The fight still wasn't over.
     
    A cloaked figure was looking over the battle from afar, waiting for the winner to be crowned.
     
     
     
    Who would come out victorious?
     
     
     
    To be continued
     
     
     
    ________________________________________________________________
     
     
     
    Deaths this week:
     
     
     
     
     
    Team Nosebleed: Kingdomcome (REAL)
     
     
     
     Team Down: Fred the Barber, Kawasumi, Babiker
     
     
     
    Team Kaguya: Dergonu
     
     
     
    ________________________________________________________________
     
     
     
    List of currently remaining members!!
     
     
     
     
     
    #Team Nosebleed: Members: Nebjula (-1life)
     
     
     
    #Team Down: Members: FinalChaos
     
     
     
    #Team Kaguya: Members: Gijimu, Greenshadow622 (- 1 life) , Jade
     
     
     
     ___________________________________________________________________________
     
     
  2. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to Dergonu for a blog entry, The Last GM Standing - Chapter 5!   
    The last GM standing Q&A:
     
    Link to the thread:

    Would you rather read the chapters in a PDF document? Click here!
     
    Chapter 1:
     
    Chapter 2:
     
    Chapter 3: (Word count, 4439)
     
     
    The Last GM Standing Chapter 4 (Word count, 3984)
    The Last GM Standing
    Chapter 5 (Word count, 4491)

    Eclipsed woke up, feeling a strong sense of weariness wash over him. It was dark and cold, making him long for a warm bed to rest in. But there was no such thing anywhere in sight. He was lying in a cave, completely alone. Outside he could faintly hear the sound of a fierce battle... What was going on? Forcing his body to stand up, he sluggishly moved towards the cave's exit, trying his best not to fall over from sheer exhaustion. His vision was slightly blurry and his hands were aching so badly, it made him want to scream at the top of his lungs. Of course, he did not have the strength for that. The spectacle that waited for him outside was so shocking, it made him completely forget about his own problems...

    ....

    Satsuki and three other members from Team Nosebleed were making their way towards Kaguya's temporary base. They had gotten word that Kaguya's forces had just returned from a battle from their comrade, Valmore. Valmore himself had lost his clone in the same battle, and was now using his real body to join into the ambush. Kaguya's forces were badly hurt in the battle, and since Valmore needed no time to heal because he had taken no damage to his real body, they were able to deploy the ambush nearly right away. It only took them a few hours to locate Kaguya's new base, and they were now really close.

    However, what greeted them once they arrived at the base's location, was not what they were expecting at all.

    ....

    Maxel saw the enemies approaching from a mile away using his improved magical vision. It looked like four members from Team Nosebleed were approaching. On top of that, a few members from team Kaguya were stationed outside the small cave; the location of their temporary base.

    "..." Maxel held up four fingers and pointed towards the horizon, then he held up three fingers and pointed towards the nearby cave.

    "You know, the way you never speak really freaks me out Maxel." Answering his mute teammate, Babiker from team Down raised his weapons and nodded.

    "Alright. You move in first, stay a little away from the cave. Start by attacking them with magic and I'll jump into the close combat battles once everyone has been thoroughly confused." A smile filled with bloodlust appeared on Babiker's face as he tightly gripped his two weapons. They were metal rings, about 40 cm in diameter forming a half circle, with a grip at the back. The sharp metal rings were formed into the shape of the sun and the moon. The moon one was shining in a faint blue light, and the sun in an orange glow.

    "Sound good?" Babiker asked as he looked over at Maxel again.

    "..."

    "I ... I don't know what I was expecting..." Shaking his head, he turned away from Maxel and faced towards the cave before them.

    As the two members from team Down charged towards Kaguya's base, another great battle was about to start.

    _________________________________________________________________

    Team Down, Maxel vs Deep Blue, Valmore, Satsuki and Kingdomcome, Team Nosebleed

    A blinding light shot down from the sky, striking the group of approaching team Nosebleed members. The light was so bright, all four instantly shut their eyes and came to a complete stop.

    "..." Moving his hands around, making different symbols in the air, Maxel quietly chanted a spell. The pillar of light had formed a large cylinder shape around the battlefield, and everyone trapped inside were completely blinded.

    Making several arrows out of pure light, Maxel lifted them above his head and sent them towards his targets.

    Suddenly sensing something approaching from the left, Deep Blue brought his hands up and made a shield of ice around himself and his teammates. He was unable to see, so he crafted the shield like an igloo, forming cover all around them. Just at that moment, something hit the shield hard, and Deep Blue felt his energy drain as the barrier fought back the attacks.

    "What the hell is going on?!" Someone shouted. It was a female voice, belonging to Satsuki.

    Knowing the situation was quite dire, Deep Blue quickly took the command in the battle. Because he was the only one in the group well versed in magic, he would be the only one who could sense oncoming magical attacks.

    "Kingdomcome, shoot as many bolts as you can in this direction, NOW!" Grabbing a hold of Kingdomcome's shoulders, Deep Blue turned him so that he faced towards the location of the mystery attacker.

    "Shoot, NOW!" Doing what he was told, Kingdomcome fired a great deal of bolts from his crossbow out into nothingness.

    "Satsuki, Valmore, run in opposite directions! Just... Satsuki, you move to your right and Valmore, you move your left."

    Doing as they were told, they started moving sideways in a clumsy fashion. Deep Blue was trying to make it as hard as possible for the attacker to both protect himself and attack them all at the same time.

    "HEY! I am seriously just going to keep running? Give me something to kill!!!"

    Ignoring the shouting Valmore, Deep Blue started preparing for a counterattack. Kingdomcome was firing completely blindly, so it would be fairly easy to avoid for the attacker. But, it should at least have distracted him a bit.

    "First we have to do something about this light... I should be able to stop the spell if I manage to wound the caster." Thinking to himself, Deep Blue started preparing a spell of his own.

    It would take a while to prepare it, and so during that that time, Kingdomcome would be a sitting duck. And, sure enough, just seconds later Deep Blue felt an oncoming attack moving towards Kingdomcome.

    A lance of light collided with his chest, painfully cracking through his barrier. The barrier absorbed enough of the blow to not make the wound fatal, but Kingdomcome was knocked to the ground, and was no longer capable of shooting at the attacker.

    "Just a few more seconds..."

    Another attack was just about to hit them when Deep Blue's spell was finally ready.

    "Everyone, GET DOWN!" As he shouted that, he launched the spell. A massive magic circle appeared before him and the air around them instantly fell below freezing. A ray of blue light was launched from the magic circle, and anything in its path was frozen instantly. As the spell reached the attacker, the light blinding them suddenly faded. Once again having regained his vision, Deep Blue quickly tried to get a grasp of what was going on. A large area in front of him had been completely encased in ice. A few meters to his left was Kingdomcome. He was still breathing and it looked like he was still capable of fighting, but he was clutching his left side, clearly in pain. Satsuki was nowhere to be seen, and Valmore was fighting someone from team Kaguya. It seemed the people from Kaguya's team had wasted no time as the light perished, and had attacked them.

    Question was, where had the one who made the light pillar gone?

    ....

    "..." Maxel hurled a spear of light at his opponent, giving away his hiding place in the process. The spear was blocked by a wall of ice, but he just followed up the attack with two more. His opponents were scattered, leaving only one target. No one would be able to protect themselves from the relentless attacks made by the most powerful magician on team Down for too long. The third spear made a massive crack in the wall of ice, and Maxel started running towards his target to finish him off. Forming an axe of light in his hand, he closed the distance in seconds, and struck at the wall of ice. It broke apart, making small shards of ice fly everywhere. Maxel charged at Deep Blue, striking at his chest. Deep Blue dodged and retaliated with a spike of ice aimed at Maxel's leg. It was obvious that Deep Blue was tired from blocking all the previous attacks, and so his own magic was slow and fairly weak. Maxel knocked the ice out of the air and swung his axe at Deep Blue once more. It collided with his left arm, which was cut clean off.

    "BLUE!" Valmore shouted and was running towards the battle, trying to make it in time. He had abandoned his battle with the team Kaguya member in order to come to his comrade's aid. But, it was too late. Maxel lifted his axe and struck at Deep Blue's head...

    Valmore ran as fast as he could, and used the momentum from his charge to strike at Maxel with all his might. The pickaxe Valmore wielded flew through the air and collided with a magic circle created by Maxel. The shield wavered, but didn't break. Blood from Deep Blue's head being cut off was everywhere, and Valmore screamed in anger.

    "You piece of ... Die!"

    "..." Maxel said nothing, but made a symbol with his hands. Shortly after, a small golden magic circle appeared in his hands, and a bolt of light shot out, hitting Valmore in the chest. It wasn't powerful enough to knock him to the ground, but it was enough to make him lose his balance. Maxel followed up with an axe swing. The weapon of pure light moved towards Valmore, who was defenseless because of the previous attack. His throat was wide open, and if the axe hit, he would be dead in seconds. But, right before the axe hit, a blue crossbow bolt collided with the weapon, making it shatter into pieces. Kingdomcome had made it back on his feet, and was aiming at Maxel.

    "..." As Maxel fired several bolts of light at Kingdomcome, Valmore had managed to get his footing again, and jumped up in the air. Maxel was distracted attacking Kingdomcome, and as Valmore swung his pickaxe downwards, it hit Maxel's head with a loud crack. Maxel suddenly stopped moving, as dark red streams of blood trickled down from the top of his head. His body twitched a few times, before it collapsed on the ground.

    The exhausted members from team Nosebleed took a few seconds to catch their breath as they surveyed the battlefield. They had finally taken out one of the attackers, but many still remained. Needless to say, their ambush had been an absolute failure...

    Team Nosebleed, Deep Blue (REAL)- DEAD END

    Team Down, Maxel-DEAD END

    _________________________________________________________________

    Nimbus and Dergonu, Team Kaguya vs Valmore and Kingdomcome, Team Nosebleed

    "Now Nimbus!" Shouting while he charged towards his enemies, Dergonu lifted his giant mace above his head.

    Chanting a few magic words, Nimbus held his hand out towards the mace, and a bolt of deep blue lightning shot forward, enveloping the weapon. The electricity started swirling around the top of the mace, making holding the weapon completely safe for Dergonu.

    "They are attacking again. Kingdomcome, cover me."

    Valmore ran to the left, away from Dergonu, as Kingdomcome started shooting crossbow bolts at his target. Dergonu used his mace to knock the oncoming bolts down before they hit. The mace left a crackling trail of blue lightning when it moved through the air. Dergonu quickly started chasing Valmore, but was interrupted by another wave of projectiles. Valmore made a big right turn and rushed towards Dergonu's back. As Kingdomcome was shooting at his front, it was impossible for Dergonu to block both the projectiles and the attacker from the back. Or so one might think.

    "Don't get cocky!" Shouting in an angered tone, Dergonu spun around quickly. The mace he was holding created a small circle of electricity, which started rotating quickly. Turning his head and looking behind him, Valmore noticed that Nimbus was muttering something to himself, most likely strengthening the power of the magic. The rotating circle of electricity knocked down any oncoming projectiles, and simply being near it made Valmore's skin itch. Dergonu suddenly came to a stop and with a big swing, he struck at Valmore. Valmore still hadn't taken much damage in the previous battle, and was able to dodge the massive mace with the skin of his teeth. Sadly, the magic that was protecting Dergonu still had not dissipated, and made a counterattack impossible.

    "Valmore, get back!" Hearing the voice of his comrade Kingdomcome, Valmore did as he asked and jumped away from Dergonu.

    "Scatter!"As Kingdomcome shouted that, the bolts fired from his crossbow suddenly started detonating mid air, firing smaller spikes all around them. The circle spinning around Dergonu was unable to stop all the small fragments, and several of them dug into his body, damaging his barrier. It didn't seem like the impact was very powerful, so the spikes didn't break his skin, but at the very least his barrier was damaged.

    "You little prick!" Shouting, Dergonu slammed his mace into the ground, and a great blue wave of lightning traced over the ground, moving towards Kingdomcome.

    "Like I'll let you do that!" Valmore, who had been standing a few meters away, jumped in between the attack and Kingdomcome. The electricity hit his body and it felt like his entire body got lit on fire. Fighting through the pain, Valmore shook his head and clenched his pickaxe hard in his right hand.

    "T-This is nothing you bastard..." Trying to shake of the damage done to him, Valmore took a unsteady step forward.

    "Tch." Clicking his tongue, Kingdomcome aimed his crossbow up in the air and fired several shots up into nothing. As the bolts had moved a decent way up into the sky, he snapped his fingers, and a loud explosion made Dergonu and Nimbus look up. From the sky, hundreds of smaller spikes were raining down towards the two. In return, the attack had drained nearly all the remaining strength in Kingdomcome's body. He wasn't very good with magic. The crossbow itself was the thing that let him fire so many bolts without loading in ammo. It was a weapon charged with Nosebleed's energy. But in order to use more flashy attacks, the user had to charge his or her own energy into the weapon, something that completely drained Kingdomcome. In his already wounded state, two such attacks was the limit.

    Meanwhile, the spikes were raining down over the two team Kaguya members. Nimbus managed to make a shield above himself before the spikes hit, but Dergonu was not as lucky. A chunk of the oncoming spikes dug into his skin, making his entire body scream in pain.

    "Guh ...." Letting out a pained sound through clenched teeth, Dergonu fell to his knees, using his mace to keep his body somewhat steady.

    "Raaawr!" Charging at Dergonu, Valmore lifted his Pickaxe up high. As Valmore attacked Dergonu with all his might, Dergonu had no choice but to use his arm as a guard against the attack. The twin-tipped pickaxe bore deep into his arm, and left two gaping holes in the flesh. Blood poured out from the open wound as Dergonu grasped it and screamed in pain. Sadly, after having taken a lot of damage from the attack he blocked for Kingdomcome, Valmore was not able to dodge the lightning bolt approaching from his side. Two thick lightning bolts hit his chest from the side and tore his torso open. He was lifted off the ground and his body split in two, each piece landing a few meters away.

    Kingdomcome, who had almost lost consciousness because of exhaustion, was lying still a little further away. Dergonu had gotten to his feet and moved over to the immobile foe. Lifting his mace awkwardly with one hand, he finished off the team Nosebleed member. After, he once again fell to his knees. Blood loss and pain was pushing him to the brink of losing consciousness.

    Team Nosebleed, Valmore (REAL) and Kingdomcome (CLONE)-DEAD END

    _________________________________________________________________


     
    "Looks like Maxel is out huh? Never thought they would actually manage to take down that mute bastard. Well, whatever. Time to make myself useful."

    Approaching the battlefield quickly, Babiker stealthily moved towards the centre of the action. His feet did not make a sound despite his swift pace, and he readied his weapons for battle. Coming to a stop next to a fallen team Kaguya member, he checked to see if he was dead. It seemed like he was still breathing.

    "Seems like you have had a bad day kid." As Dergonu heard the sudden voice, he instinctively reached for his mace.

    "Left hand - Moon, first strike!" As he shouted that, the blue blade wielded in his left hand shimmered, and he smashed his weapon down into the mace at an incredible speed. The mace was completely destroyed on impact.

    "Right hand - Sun, first strike!" This time attacking with his right hand, Babiker was about to finish of Dergonu, when a blue light coming from his side made him jump backwards. Something hit the ground where he had been standing, and exploded in a mass of blue sparks and black smoke.

    "Heh. Looks like he wasn't alone, huh? Name is Babiker. I'll be severing your spine today. Nice to meet'cha." As Babiker introduced himself, Nimbus fired another set of lightning bolts at his target.

    "Whoa! How rude!"

    "Insolent pest!" Speaking in an angry tone, Nimbus held out both his hands and created a big magic circle, sending several small rays of lightning towards his opponent.

    "Heh. Right hand - sun, fourth strike." The blade on his right hand glowed brightly, and Babiker simply mowed down all of the rays like they were nothing. He then casually cracked his neck and sighed.

    "You know, I've been waiting for my turn to fight for days now. But now that I am out here, I have to say ... This is kind of boring."

    "Well then, let me end your boredom quickly." Moving his hands around in the air in a skillful manner, Nimbus drew a sigil in the air in blue writing. The sigil started glowing, and soon after, a crack in the air itself appeared in its centre. Holding his hand up towards the sigil, Nimbus' hand was enveloped in blue lightning that oozed out from the cracks. After a few seconds, Nimbus pulled out a longsword made out of pure lightning from the air, and the sigil disappeared right after.

    "I'll use this to turn you into dust."

    "... You might not want to fight me in close combat buddy."

    Ignoring Babiker's taunting words, Nimbus charged, holding the sword out in front of him. The blade was light as air, and created out of pure energy, making it a very strong weapon. Nimbus struck at his opponent a few times to test out the weapon. It was so light, wielding it was almost a task in itself. But in return, attacking with extreme speed was a simple manner. Launching a flurry of attacks against Babiker, Nimbus advanced forward. The weapon made a crackling sound as it moved through the air. Each time he struck at Babiker, he moved a little faster as he got used to wielding the weapon. Babiker started parrying using only his left hand, but after a while, he started using both weapons to deflect the onslaught of sword strikes. The two clashed against each other for a good minute without either landing a decisive hit.

    "Eyyy, not bad! But still. You're kind of slow." Babiker avoided the oncoming strike by moving backwards, and then readied his left hand for a counterattack.

    "Left hand - moon, eighth strike!" As his left weapon glowed with incredible intensity, Babiker struck at Nimbus, the blade moving so fast, it was pretty much impossible to see it. Still, Nimbus just barely had time to react, and held up his own weapon to parry. But even though the attack seemingly came from the front, suddenly a strong impact to his side made Nimbus scream in pain. He walked back a few steps and looked at his opponent in surprise.

    "An afterimage. My attacks are ranked from one through ten. The one's above seven are usually so fast, most people can't see them. I have to give it to you though, you almost got it."

    Nimbus' side was throbbing, and warm blood was slowly oozing from a cut left from the attack.

    "Well then, let's see if you can get this one." Bringing his right hand forward and closing his eyes, Babiker prepared for another attack.

    "Like I'll let you do that!" Nimbus leapt forward and swung his sword at Babiker with all his might. Babiker simply moved to the side and retaliated.

    "Right hand - sun, ninth strike."

    An overwhelming force pushed Nimbus forward, as something heavy struck his back, despite the fact that Babiker was right in front of him just a second ago. His entire body was screaming in pain, and he was completely unable to do anything as he was thrown forward. The sound of bones cracking and his own screams were the only things he could hear. Nimbus never got up again...

    Meanwhile, Babiker was clutching his own chest, barely able to stand upright.

    "H-Heh... Guess I forgot to mention that my own body can barely handle more than one attack above eight..." As his knees gave in, he lost the strength in his body and hit the ground with a thump.

    Team Kaguya, Nimbus-DEAD END

    _________________________________________________________________

    Satsuki had gotten separated from her teammates after the pillar of light went out, and had ended up right outside the cave where Kaguya had set up a temporary base. The entire battlefield was consumed in chaos. Ice, lightning, screams and explosions. Satsuki simply sat in silence looking at the spectacle, uncertain of what she should do.

    "For starters, let's try to find Deep Blue and ..." Before she could finish the sentence, she sensed a presence behind her. Spinning around and facing its origin, she saw a male warrior from team Kaguya. He was using the wall of the cave for support, and looked quite weak.

    "Huh... Guess I'll deal with you first." Drawing one of her hatchets, she moved towards the opponent and tried to hit him with her axe. Surprisingly though, as the axe was about to hit, a thin layer of fire blocked it, and a sudden increase in heat made Satsuki take a quick step back. As she once again looked at her opponent, she noticed that his eyes were completely red; blazing, like a fire was lit in them.

    "Seems you won't go down that easy. Wait ... whoa..." As she glanced at his hands, she noticed that they were badly burnt. In fact, the entirety of his arms were completely charred... How had he been able to deflect her attack in such a condition?

    "Did you get lucky..?" Trying to attack him once more, the same thing repeated itself. She got close and was about to hit him, when a sudden increase in temperature made her jump backwards. It was as if he was literally on fire...

    "It... Burns..." He muttered, and lifted his hands before his own eyes.

    "The ... Contract... Is... Not... Over..." Suddenly, his upper body erupted in flames.

    "W-What the hell?!" Taking another step back, Satsuki looked at the scene in shock.

    ....

    Something was clawing at Eclipsed's sanity, forcing him to move against his will. His upper body was enveloped in flames, but for some reason, it didn't hurt. What was going on?..

    His right arm started moving even though he wasn't doing anything. A fireball flew towards Satsuki, and she was barely able deflect it with her axe. Two more followed, and she repeated her previous defense. Now, both of Eclipsed's hands were moving, and the fireballs were more frequent, sending four or five at a time. Satsuki was having trouble deflecting all the attacks, as they increased in numbers. Feeling his legs move, Eclipsed started approaching her and struck at her with his charred left arm. She sidestepped, and cut at his extended arm with a hatchet. Despite the fact that the weapon hit, he felt nothing. A small cut was made in his charred arm, but no blood came out.

    "Seems your barrier isn't working anymore." As Satsuki said that, she struck at Eclipsed several times. Some of the attacks hit his torso, some hit his arms, and some hit his shoulders. Still, the cuts did not draw blood.

    "Just ... Just die you monster!" As Satsuki took a big step forward, she used all her strength to strike at Eclipsed's neck. The hatchet approached with great speed, but before it hit, it caught fire and melted in her hand.

    "T-This is just insane..."

    "Must ... Honor... The ... Contract..." As Eclipsed said that, he took a step forward and wrapped his arms around Satsuki. As the scorching heat started burning her skin, she screamed at the top of her lungs. But, there was no escape from the death grip. Slowly but surely, her body caught fire, and she started losing consciousness.

    As they stood there, the flames flickering like a bonfire, Eclipsed opened his mouth and chanted:


    "Shimmer, spear of Helios!

    Flicker, and pierce all that stands before you,

    burn down all resistance and turn flesh to ashes!"


     
    As the chant was finished, the ground under his feet broke apart, and a spear of pure fire erupted from below. Enveloping both people in the blazing heat, the spear lasted for several seconds, and once it perished, nothing was but a pile of ashes.

    Team Nosebleed, Satsuki (REAL)-DEAD END

    Team Kaguya, Eclipsed-DEAD END

    ....

    "Seems the fire spirit truly did drive the kid mad, huh?" Kaguya muttered to himself as he gazed at the battlefield below. He was sitting on a throne in the air; the throne was simply floating there, not supported by anything.

    He had lost two of his warriors in the battle today, but was not able to do anything. If he attempted to approach the battle, a hooded creature with yellow eyes would stop him.

    "So the rules at the start were complete bullshit..? All that about letting us fight in any way we want..? Seems we are being saved for the big finale, huh?"

    As the sun set on the battle, and the moon peaked out, a cold breeze swept across the battlefield. Another day had passed. Many had already lost their lives, at the end was drawing near...


     

     
    ________________________________________________________________
     

    Deaths this week:

     

     

     

    Team Nosebleed: Valmore (REAL), Satsuki (REAL), Deep Blue (REAL), Kingdomcome (CLONE)

     

     Team Down:Maxel

     

    Team Kaguya: Nimbus, Eclipsed,
     
    ________________________________________________________________

     
    List of currently remaining members!!

     

     

    #Team Nosebleed: Members Nebjula (-1life)  , kingdomcome (-1 life)

     

    #Team Down: Members, Babiker, Fred the Barber, FinalChaos , Kawasumi ,

     

    #Team Kaguya: Members, Dergonu, Gijimu, Greenshadow622 (- 1 life) , Jade

     

     ___________________________________________________________________________

     
     
    TO BE CONTINUED!

     
  3. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to Dergonu for a blog entry, The Last GM Standing - Chapter 4!   
    The last GM standing Q&A:
     
    Link to the thread:

    Would you rather read the chapters in a PDF document? Click here!
     
    Chapter 1:
     
    Chapter 2:
     
    Chapter 3: (Word count, 4439)
     
     
    The Last GM Standing Chapter 4 (Word count, 3984)
     
    The fires of hell
     
     
     
    The air was scorching hot, making breathing in itself a task. Large amounts of pitch black smoke rose from the inextinguishable fires that raged throughout the battlefield. The ground was stained in fresh blood, and the corpses of several brave warriors were spread around in the burning hot sand.
     
    ......
     
    Eclipsed was making his way towards the sound of a woman screaming. Just seconds ago he had been searching for his wounded comrades when he could hear the sound of blades clashing and people shouting. Then, a terrible scream resounded throughout the desert, followed by silence. And there, standing over the corpses of two figures dressed in Nosebleed's robes, stood a member from Team Down. The man was holding a blood stained katana. His green garb was also showered in fresh blood. The dead man at his feet was headless, and the woman lying a few feet away was submerged in a great pool of blood.
     
    The man turned his head towards Eclipsed and stared right at him.
     
    "Tch..." Eclipsed clicked his tongue over being discovered. It had been such a great opportunity to perform a surprise attack. But it did not matter. Eclipsed did not waver and kept on approaching his enemy, Tiagofvarela. Seeing as the man was a general, he was not an easy opponent. Eclipsed had to attack with all his strength in order to win. He had to use... That.
     
    "O keeper of flame, creator of light,
     
    thou who maintains life itself,
     
    lend me the power to set ablaze a thousand enemies,
     
    bestow upon me the strength of thee,
     
    O keeper of flame, creator of light."
     
    Coming to a sudden stop mere meters away from his target, Eclipsed chanted such words of power and brought his hands together, as if praying. Upon hearing his opponent chanting, Tiago launched an attack, but Eclipsed's body was enveloped in a vortex of fire just as the blade was about to connect. The katana bounced of the flames as if they were solid, and a deep red flame started burning though the metal. The tip of the blade started melting quickly upon being scorched by the immense heat.
     
    "W-What the ... You little..." Expressing his irritation and surprise at the sudden turn of events, Tiago took a step back and picked up the spear of the fallen Mitchhamilton. The weapon was stained in wet blood, but otherwise in good condition.
     
    A few seconds later, the vortex of flame subsided. In the spot where Eclipsed was standing, a massive sword had appeared out of nowhere. The blade was completely orange, glittering like the coal at the bottom of a fire. The blade was more than two meters long, and looked almost impossible to handle. The hilt was formed like a claw of some monstrous creature, and the entire weapon was shining so brightly it almost hurt Tiago's eyes just looking at it. It was a scary sight indeed. Fighting against such a weapon on his own would be reckless. Eclipsed raised the massive greatsword over his head and brought his arms down. The simple motion created a giant wave of flame that washed over a big area in front of him. Tiago swiftly sidestepped, but a part of his leg was caught in the scorching heat. The energy still left in his barrier withered and faltered, leaving his leg badly burnt.  
     
    "Kuuh..." Wielding another person's weapon and facing off against an immensely powerful flame incarnation, Tiago was truly in a tough spot. There was no choice. He had to call for help. Bringing his hands to the warm sand below, he quickly drew two symbols with the tips of his fingers. Because the weapon Eclipsed was wielding required such an immense amount of power, he was not able to attack again right away, and Tiago was able to finish creating the two summoning circles. After uttering a few words in order to activate the spell, the two circles erupted into pure light and tore a hole in the earth itself. Tiago's intent was to summon three of his warriors to the battlefield, but right as he started calling for them, Eclipsed was ready to attack once more. Failing to keep his concentration as another wave of flame approached him, the summoning spell went out of control and pulled several unwanted people into the battle...
     
    ...
     
    "Ahh, what the hell just happened? I was just about to kill some idiot from Nosebleed's army... Ohhh, wait a minute. Looks like I still get that chance after all."
     
    Gijimu, Team Kaguya.
     
    "... Hey, Tiago, are you the one who called us here?.. And here I was thinking I'd get a day off from this fighting..."
     
    Turnip Sensei, Team Down.
     
    "Hmm... Well, I have nothing better to do. Might as well join the party."
     
     Valmore, Team Nosebleed.
     
     
     
    Because of the chaotic summoning spell, several people from different teams were pulled into the fight.
     
    Looking at the spectacle in front of him with a carefree expression, Valmore lifted up his pickaxe and faced towards the closest enemy. Valmore's weapon of choice was rather peculiar; a miner's pickaxe with two spikes at each end instead of one.
     
    "Well then, time to crack some skulls open." Performing a big swing with his pickaxe, Valmore smashed the weapon into the ground where Turnip Sensei from Team Down had just been standing. Barely avoiding the strike, Turnip Sensei retaliated with a hard punch. The attack didn't reach Valmore, so he did not even bother dodging it. But as Turnip Sensei's fist stopped, a powerful shockwave connected with Valmore and threw his body several meters back. The punch had been mixed with magic, and had created a really strong shockwave.
     
    "Huh. Now that's a cool trick." Suddenly hearing a voice coming from right behind him, Turnip Sensei brought back his elbows with great force, trying to hit the person who spoke. But both blows hit nothing but air.
     
    "Hah. Can't hit me with something so simple I'm afraid." The figure of a person dressed in red appeared before him. It was Gijimu from Team Kaguya. He held no weapons, just like Turnip Sensei, and was standing ready in a battle stance. His left arm was held in front of his body in a guarding position, and his right arm as resting right next to his waist, ready to strike at his opponents.  
     
    "Now you've done it!!!" Valmore had gotten back on his feet and was once again rushing towards Turnip Sensei.
     
    "A free for all huh? This should be fun." As Gijimu commented on the situation, Valmore reached their location. With violent movements, he attacked both Gijimu and Turnip Sensei. The pickaxe moved swiftly through the air, and was actually a little hard to dodge for Turnip Sensei. Gijimu on the other hand, nimbly jumped away from the weapon and brought his fist into Valmore's side. The punch bounced off Valmore's barrier, but cracks started forming in the pink shield, indicating that it was running out of energy. It looked like Gijimu was skilled in hand to hand combat. Valmore was trained in fighting with a weapon and lastly Turnip Sensei used magic in the form of shockwaves. A rather obscure mix.
     
    The three clashed once again, and the ground shook as several battles unfolded at the same time in the blazing hot desert.
     
    ...
     
    Kingdomcome Team Nosebleed vs Flutterz Team Down vs Duyy Team Kaguya.
     
    Flutterz was running away from the relentless rain of crossbow bolts. His enemy was positioned nearly 50 meters away, and it was impossible to get close to him. Flutterz used a sword, and although he was fairly well versed in magic, it was difficult to find any openings to cast spells due to the constant onslaught of bolts. His opponent, Kingdomcome from Team Nosebleed, must have been using magic to operate the crossbow, as the bolts were fired nonstop with great accuracy. Also caught in the crossfire was Duyy from Team Kaguya. She was doing a good job of dodging the crossbow bolts, but she was also incapable of getting any closer to the attacker.
     
    "Come on .... Is there no way to get an opening?!" Cursing to himself, Flutterz knocked down two oncoming projectiles with his sword. The entire desert was enveloped in a blazing heat, created by both the hot sun and the gigantic sword of fire that Eclipsed from Team Kaguya was using. Eclipsed was quite a distance away, fighting a battle of his own, but the heat still reached all the way over to Flutterz.
     
    Suddenly, a loud rumbling made Flutterz' body jump in surprise. As he turned over to see what was happening, a massive wall of solid rock had erupted from the earth, and was blocking the path between himself and Kingdomcome. It seemed that the person who made the wall was none other than Duyy. How did she find the time to summon such a powerful protective spell with the relentless attacks constantly interrupting her? Well, no matter. This was his chance.
     
    Firmly grabbing his sword, Flutterz started rushing towards the massive rock wall. Kingdomcome had started moving as well, and leapt up in the air, running up the wall. He must have been using magic to make his feet stick to the surface.
     
    "Tch. At this rate, he'll get an even better sniping position." The wall was a good 20 meters tall, and if Kingdomcome got up there, he would have a perfect location to snipe everyone on the ground. Knowing he had to stop him, Flutterz finally had a few seconds to cast a spell.
     
    Stopping in his tracks, Flutterz closed his eyes and aimed his arms at the top of the rock wall, where Kingdomcome was headed. Gathering his energy and focusing it into his fingertips, he cast a quick but powerful spell.
     
    A big magic circle appeared before him, and hundreds of tiny pellets of pure energy were fired at Kingdomcome with immense speed and power. The perfectly circular pellets were shining brightly in a pink light. A massive cloud of smoke erupted from the stone wall as it broke apart from the attack. Large chunks of rock fell from the wall and crashed into the sand. Focusing on maintaining the spell, Flutterz did not move from his spot, shooting down any rubble that fell towards him with the energy pellets. The spell lasted for a good minute. As nearly nothing was left of the great rock wall, Flutterz let go of the spell, and the magic circle vanished. The feeling of a massive amount of energy leaving his body made Flutterz feel tired. Because of the smoke and rubble, it was impossible to see if Kingdomcome had survived the attack. Before Flutterz had time to scout the area though, Duyy suddenly jumped him. Throwing four great boulders from the rubble at Flutterz, she was trying to use the opportunity to take him out right after he cast a spell. Sneaky move.
     
    There was no way he had time to cast another spell, and so he had to use his sword to slice the stones in two. His blade was sharp and imbued with magic, so it was no trouble. Problem was, Duyy was only using the rocks as a distraction, and had been charging a new spell during the time Flutterz used to deflect the boulders. Duyy brought her hands together and chanted a spell, then smashed them both into the sand below. Because she was still quite some distance from Flutterz, he was incapable of hearing her chant and had no idea what kind of spell was coming. Right after, a great deal of big spikes made out of rock sprouted from the ground. The spikes started right in front of her and quickly moved towards Flutterz.  There was no way for him to avoid them on the ground. He had to grow wings and fly away to get away from them, something he obviously couldn't do.
     
    "... Crap."
     
    As the wave of rock spikes reached his feet, the sensation of his own bones being crushed to bits made him want to throw up. An unbearable pain welled up from his legs as the rock smashed through his knees.
     
    "GRUAAAAA!" Letting out a feral scream, Flutterz tried to move from the spot but was completely immobilized. The last thing he saw was a blue light; the flickering of a crossbow bolt moving towards his face from a distance.
     
    So he did surivive huh? ... With that thought, Flutterz' consciousness faded.
     
    ....
     
    Duyy was looking at the impaled body of Team Down's flutterz. Her surprise attack after Flutterz cast a spell had been successful, and he had been crushed to death by her spikes. Or so she thought.
     
    "Game over sweetheart." As a voice coming from behind made her spin around awkwardly, five crossbow bolts ripped through her barrier and pierced her chest.
     
    "Kuuh..." Warm blood was running down her body as her legs gave in under her.
     
    "Y-You... B-Bastard..." As she let out her final words through clenched teeth, she collapsed.
     
    After confirming that both targets were indeed dead, Kingdomcome sat down in the sand and started treating his wounds. A large amount of the energy pellets had hit his body earlier, and he had broken several ribs, as well as his left arm. He had barely been able to fire his crossbow after. Lucky for him, the two enemies had thought him dead, and he had gotten a chance to shoot them from a distance.
     
    "Guah... This hurts more than I thought it would ... Just going to take a quick rest." Talking to himself in a strained voice, Kingdomcome let his body fall backwards into the soft sand and took some time to collect his strength.
     
    Team Down, Flutterz- DEAD END.
     
    Team Kaguya, Duyy- DEAD END.
     
    _________________________________________________________________
     
    Dergonu and Eclipsed Team Kaguya, vs Totodile and Tiagofvarela Team Down.
     
     
     
    Totodile was standing next to Tiago, creating a shield to protect both himself and his general. Totodile was a great magic user, and had been summoned by Tiago in order to protect him against the scorching hellfire that Eclipsed was wielding. The power inside the blade Eclipsed had summoned went completely out of control, and Eclipsed was no longer capable of containing it, sending massive waves of fire in all directions. Dergonu, Eclipsed's teammate, was also having trouble staying away from the flames due to their chaotic nature.
     
    "Totodile, I'm going in for another attack, back me up."
     
    "Gotcha." Bringing his hands together and concentrating on his surroundings, Totodile made waves of water appear from magic circles positioned throughout the battlefield. The weapon Eclipsed was using was a truly powerful fire incarnation, meaning mere water wasn't able to extinguish it, but it could at the very least weaken it temporarily. Sending the water in a giant wave towards Eclipsed, Totodile focused his attacks on the massive blade. As the water collided with the flaming weapon, a deafening hissing sound followed by big puffs of smoke were produced. Tiago rushed towards his enemy, spear in hand. He got up close to Eclipsed and jabbed at his chest. The spear made contact with Eclipsed's skin and pierced it, leaving a small hole. Eclipsed jumped backwards just as the spear hit, and because of that he had avoided a lethal hit. Still, the wound was bleeding quite badly.
     
    Taking advantage of the opportunity, Totodile prepared another magical attack. He focused on the two nearest magic circles and created large arrows out of water. But ...
     
    "Raaaaaawr!" Suddenly, a shout coming from his left made him lose control of the magic. Then, a strong impact to his entire left side made his body scream in pain. His barrier was crushed and several bones were broken as Dergonu's massive mace hit him by surprise. Totodile was thrown backwards, but somehow managed to land on his feet.
     
    "Y-You ..." Pointing his still functional hand at Dergonu, Totodile started charging another magical attack. He knew there was no time for something too powerful. Firing a small blade made out of water at his opponent, he tried to push Dergonu back. Sadly, the giant mace knocked the magic out of the air fairly simply, and Dergonu rushed in for another attack. Totodile tried to jump to the side, but his left leg wouldn't budge. The giant mace collided with his head, and the world around him went pitch black...
     
    ....
     
    Tiago was doing his best keeping Eclipsed in check. The massive weapon of hellish fire was completely out of this world, and every attack sent massive waves of flames towards his body. He had been able to diminish its effect with Totodile's magic, but for some reason it had suddenly stopped. The situation did not look good... Tiago had managed to wound Eclipsed two times, cutting his right arm and his chest, but neither of the wounds were fatal. It was clear that Eclipsed was almost out of energy from using the weapon for so long, but Tiago couldn't let his guard down for a second. One single direct hit, and he would be turned into ashes right then and there.
     
    "Kuh..." Trying to fend off the immense heat, Tiago clenched his teeth and focused all his remaining strength on simply staying upright. Eclipsed was moving really slowly... All Tiago needed to do was land one more hit ... Just one ... More...
     
    "Damnit..." It was too late. Tiago's barrier had already been broken earlier in the fight, meaning he had essentially no protection against the heat without Totodile there to help. His body was completely burnt, and he was no longer capable of standing.
     
    "T-This is how it ends, huh?" Looking up at the sky, a bitter smile spread across Tiago's face.
     
    "I-I served you well, right Lord Down?.." As he asked that question, the giant flaming sword moved towards his defenseless body and a massive explosion of fire and smoke enveloped the area.
     
    ...
     
    Team Down, Tiagofvarela and Totodile- DEAD END
     
    ....
     
    "Good job Eclipsed. You outdid yourself." Looking up at the source of the sudden voice, Eclipsed slightly raised his head. His entire body was aching. He was unable to move much, and his eyesight was completely blurred. All he saw white haze.
     
    "K-Kaguya...Sama?..." Squeezing out those words, Eclipsed felt his consciousness slowly fade away.
     
    Kaguya caught Eclipsed as he lost consciousness.
     
    "You there, take him back to base." Speaking to Dergonu in an indifferent tone of voice, Kaguya handed Eclipsed's body over. Then, he turned around and gripped the giant greatsword lying a few feet away. Because the summoner had lost control over it, it would soon explode unless someone sent it back to hell form which it came. Gripping the hilt tightly, Kaguya closed his eyes and funneled some of his energy into the blade. The scorching flames meant nothing to him, and soon after, the blade vanished in thin air. Eclipsed had done something extremely reckless, summoning such a might weapon on his own. Even someone like Kaguya would struggle if he wielded it for too long.
     
    "Well then... Let's go take a nap." Not caring about the fights still going on around him, Kaguya created a portal in front of him and walked through it, appearing back into his base.
     
    _________________________________________________________________
     
    Valmore Team Nosebleed vs Turnip Sensei Team Down vs Gijimu Team Kaguya
     
    Turnip Sensei blocked an oncoming fist and retaliated with a shockwave. The magical attack was dodged by the swift melee fighter Gijimu, but the more sluggish Valmore was struck in the chest. With Valmore knocked to the ground for the time being, Gijimu and Turnip Sensei traded blows. Gijimu was much faster, but in return, his attacks did not contain as much strength as Turnip Sensei's. In addition, Turnip Sensei was a magic user, where as Gijimu used only physical attacks. Twisting his body in mid air, Gijimu brought his leg back and hit Turnip Sensei in the face. Gijimu followed up by performing a perfect backflip and landed calmly on his feet. Sadly for him, right after, a pickaxe dug into his foot.
     
    "Hahaha! Got you, you stupid ninja!" It seemed Valmore had pretended to be down in order to get a sneak attack in against the swift Gijimu. The pickaxe had gone through his barrier and dug a deep hole his foot. Gijimu said nothing, and simply kicked Valmore's head with his good leg.
     
    "OW! What the ... How the hell are you still standing you little..." Before Valmore could finish his sentence, a shockwave approached from the left. Since his leg was caught by the pickaxe, Gijimu was also unable to dodge it. The shockwave blew both Valmore and Gijimu over, making them collapse in the warm sand. Turnip Sensei sprinted towards Valmore and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him up in the air.
     
    "L-Let me go you big brute..."
     
    "Shut up!" Turnip Sensei shouted as he smashed his own forehead into Valmore's face. A loud crack could be heard, signaling that Valmore's nose broke.
     
    "OWW!" As Valmore screamed in pain, Turnip Sensei lifted him above his head and threw him away. Valmore, who was flying through the air, suddenly smiled. There was blood streaming down his face due to the broken nose, making his smile seem even more crazy. Turnip Sensei suddenly realized why he was smiling. As Valmore was tossed, he had brought his hand holding his pickaxe upwards. Because of the velocity of the throw, the arm had moved quickly, and the pickaxe dug into Turnip Sensei's throat. As Valmore flew away, the pickaxe ripped out a chunk of Turnip Sensei's trachea, making large amounts of blood spew out. Valmore hit the ground a few meters back, looking at his blood stained pickaxe.
     
    "Well, one down, one to g..." Before he could finish the sentence, a fist approached his face and hit him right in the nose.
     
    "AAAAHHH! FOR THE LOVE OF..." Holding his already broken nose, trying to stop the bleeding, Valmore shouted. Gijimu threw three more punches towards Valmore, who was unable to dodge. They hit him hard, and made his feet give in beneath him. But, because Gijimu had a big hole in his foot, he wasn't able to move too fast himself, and Valmore hit him hard in the side with his pickaxe, just as he fell. Blood shot out from the wound.
     
    "Nod tho tchough tnow arthe you?" Trying to speak with his beat up face, Valmore looked up at Gijimu. The pickaxe had made a deep wound in his chest, and Gijimu was covering it with his hands, trying to stop the bleeding. Preparing his pickaxe for a finishing blow, Valmore got ready to attack again. As he moved his arm in an arc approaching Gijimu, he felt a strong pain in his chest. As he looked down, he saw a hand covered in blood that had pierced through his rib cage, and was inside his chest. The pain was unbearable and he let out a pained scream. Gijimu pulled his hand out of Valmore's chest and staggered backwards.
     
    Unable to speak properly because the attack had destroyed parts of his lungs, Valmore thought to himself...
     
    "I'll be back you bastard... Just you wait..."
     
    With that, his heart stop beating and darkness enveloped his world.
     
    Team Nosebleed, Valmore (CLONE)-DEAD END
     
    Team Down, Turnip Sensei- DEAD END
     
    _________________________________________________________________
     
    Deaths this week:
     
     
     
    Team Nosebleed: Valmore (CLONE),
     
     Team Down: Tiagofvarela, Totodile, Flutterz, Turnip Sensei
     
    Team Kaguya: Duyy
     
    ________________________________________________________________
     
    List of currently remaining members!!
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    #Team Nosebleed: Members, Satsuki (-1 life), Valmore (-1 life) , Deep Blue (-1 life) , Nebjula (-1life)  , kingdomcome
     
     
     
    #Team Down: Members, Babiker , Maxel , Fred the Barber, FinalChaos , Kawasumi ,
     
     
     
    #Team Kaguya: Members, Dergonu , Nimbus, Gijimu, Greenshadow622 (- 1 life) , Eclipsed, Jade
     
     
     
    ___________________________________________________________________________
     
     
    TO BE CONTINUED!
     
     
  4. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to Dergonu for a blog entry, The Last GM Standing - Chapter 3!   
    The last GM standing Q&A:
     
    Link to the thread:

    Would you rather read the chapters in a PDF document? Click here!
     
    Chapter 1:
     
    Chapter 2:
     
    Chapter 3: (Word count, 4439)
     
    The last GM standing chapter 3:
     
    On the third day of battle, the sun was blazing hot.  The dark clouds that had been hovering over the battlefield for two days straight were nowhere to be seen. The base of team Nosbeleed, which was turned into a charred wasteland after the previous day's battle, was abandoned. The battle had been pushed further and further away from the forest and open plains, and a group of warriors found themselves in a harsh desert, being tormented by heat under the scorching sun.
     
    ...
     
    Trying to get away from their pursuers, Kiriririri and Nebjula from team Nosebleed were running through the desert at full speed. Because of the protective shield granted to them by their commander, the heat didn't mean too much, but fatigue was taking its toll on their bodies. They had been running for hours already, and it was only a matter of time now; their tail would soon catch up to them, and they would have to fight. And sure enough, after a few more minutes, the outline of a person could be seen appearing in front of them. Coming to a complete stop, the two team Nosebleed warriors prepared for battle. Their pursuers soon came to a halt as well, their weapons shining brightly in the sun.
     
    "Ohh, I see our prey has stopped running. What's the matter, tired?" Pouting her lips whilst making an intimidating face, the woman in the group presented her weapon in a taunting manner; a sickle. The curved blade of the weapon was forged in a deep black metal. The tip of the sickle was jagged, with several small razor sharp edges that were there in order to inflict as much damage as possible. It allowed the weapon to function as a stabbing tool as well as a cutting blade. The woman was wearing the green garb standard for Down's army. Interestingly enough though, behind her, two more warriors were approaching, but they were clad in the red armor of Kaguya's army. To her left was another one of her teammates. Had Kaguya's soldiers been sent after Down's soldiers?.. There was also one more person who had appeared in front of Kiri and Nebjula, another one of Kaguya's men. In order to cover both their sides, Nebjula and Kiriririri stood back to back, weapons at a ready. The situation was quite chaotic, and the only way to identify who was who, was by the color of their armor.
     
    The female soldier from team Down took a step forward and smiled at Kiriririri.
     
    "So, which one of you will be my playmate? Oh, wait! I haven't introduced myself yet, how rude." Taking a step back again and bowing gracefully, the woman's hair swayed in the harsh wind. She was paying no mind to the two enemies who had appeared behind her.  
     
    "My name is Kawasumi. It's a pleasure to meet you gentlemen. Now, I'll start by cutting up you!" Just as she finished her sentence, Kawasumi charged forward, her sickle heading for Kiriririri's neck. Kiri quickly parried the attack by charging his fist with energy and striking at the approaching weapon. The sound of his fist colliding with the steel was deafening, but neither party cared. They launched attack after attack at each other, completely ignoring their surroundings. Kawasumi laughed joyfully during the fight, seemingly having a fun time. Kiri was focused, not saying a word.
     
    Nebjula, who was standing behind Kiri as Kawasumi attacked, quickly got his weapons ready and struck at the opponent in front of him. Zebhra from team Kaguya who was holding a sword, blocked the first mace hit, and jumped to the side to retaliate. The thin blade moved quickly, and Nebjula barely managed to stop it with his maces. Unleashing a flurry of attacks at Nebjula, Zebhra moved forward, not giving Nebjula a chance to strike back. At the same time, one of the men in the back came forward, joining the fight. The desert was soon turned into a big mess of a battle; green, pink and red clashing in an epic fight.
     
    A shadow quickly moved towards Kiririri, and he only managed to dodge it by a hair. Looking to his left, Kiriririri spotted a man in red armor with his hand extended towards him. A big red magic circle was floating in front of his hand, and the shadow that had attacked him appeared to have been made by it. Beside him was a another one of Kaguya's soldiers, standing with his arms crossed. Was he not going to attack?
     
    "Hahaha, this is magnificent!" Shouting in a wild voice, Kawasumi rapidly struck at Kiri with her sickle, each blow being blocked by Kiri's fists. Then several knives made out of shadow quickly flew towards him again, sent out by the magician standing in the back.
     
    He was able to hit them in mid air, stopping them from doing any damage, whilst still fending off Kawasumi's sickle.
     
    "You really are good. I'll make sure I kill you slowly as a reward." A wicked smile spread across her lips, and she took a few steps backwards, distancing herself from her foe. Then she readied her sickle again and leapt forward.
     
    Meanwhile, Nebjula was busy fighting off an onslaught of magical attacks as well as a flurry of sword cuts. The attackers from Kaguya's army who had appeared behind him both seemed to use magic. The shadow user who was fighting Kiri and Kawasumi was Jade, and the one attacking Nebjula was Nimbus. One of the oncoming lightning bolts got past Nebjula's guard and struck his chest. It was blocked by his barrier, but it had been worn down by running in the blazing sun for hours, and it still hurt quite a bit.
     
    "Damnit..." He needed a way to get some distance from the sword-wielding Zebhra in order to attack Nimbus who was attacking with lightning magic. This was easier said than done though ...
     
    "Wohoooo! YEAH!" Suddenly, a surreal voice came from behind, and a man wearing a green garb ran past Nebjula at a crazy speed and rushed through the oncoming magic attacks. He brushed them off like they were nothing and quickly reached the two long range attackers. In his hand was a cleaver, stained with dried blood. It was the man who had been standing next to Kawasumi earlier.
     
    "Nohman has arrived!" Loudly declaring his name, he swung his weapon violently at the two, making them scatter. Still fending off Zebhra's sword, Nebjula tried to get a closer look at the battle between Kawasumi and Kiriririri.
     
    Kiriririri was still fighting off the relentless attacks with ease. Kawasumi's sickle moved through the air so fast, it was hard for Nebjula to follow it, but Kiri was still able to parry and retaliate using his fists. Now that Jade's magic had been interrupted, it was easier for Kiri to move around freely.
     
    "Take this, and this and this and this and this!!!" Striking at the barrier protecting Nimbus, Nohman brutally attacked it again and again. His battle style was vicious and reckless, but it was quite effective. In seconds, Nimbus' barrier shattered, and he had no way to stop the cleaver. Just as Nohman lifted his weapon in order to finish off his victim, Jade fired several knives made of shadow at him. Quickly turning around and hitting every single one of them out of the air, Nohman shook his head.
     
    "Two against one... Hm. Well, whatever. This will be fun." Smiling from ear to ear, Nohman advanced on Jade this time. Jumping slightly in order to avoid the lightning bolt coming from behind, he turned his body mid air and struck upwards, hitting Jade's right arm. A barrier blocked the hit, but he still did some damage. As he landed, Nohman spun around swiftly and launched at Jade again. But this time, the lightning bolts were moving a little too fast, and two of them pierced Nohman's chest, sending waves of pain through his body. Nohman lost his balance and tumbled to the ground. Still, he wasn't done yet. Violently striking at the foot in front of him, Nohman's cleaver made a deep cut in Nimbus' foot.
     
    "GHAAAA!" A loud scream was heard throughout the blazing hot desert.
     
    "Damn you!" Shouting at the fallen attacker, Jade fired several knives at his exposed back. But, before they hit, something hard hit him in the side. Missing his target ever so slightly because of the sudden attack, Jade stumbled backwards and slowly got back on his feet. Nebjula was standing in front of him, clutching his two maces.
     
    ...
     
    Team Nosebleed, Kiriririri vs Team Kaguya Zebhra and team Down Kawasumi
     
    Suddenly feeling oncoming danger from behind him, Kiri turned his body sideways in an awkward manner. Then, a sword struck in the place he had just been. The sickle that Kawasumi was swinging around like a lunatic also swept right past him, missing his arm by mere inches. Kicking the ground behind him hard, Kiri leapt forward and hit Zebhra in the chest. He attempted to block the sudden attack with his sword, but Kiri's fist was faster. Lifting his right arm slightly, Kiri then caught the sickle quickly advancing towards him in his palm, strengthening his skin with energy in order for it not to cut him. He then kicked at Kawasumi's legs, making her fall over. Kiri was currently fighting two enemies, one from team Down and one from team Kaguya. Nebjula had gotten wounded in the fight against Zebhra, and Kiri had taken over for him. Instead, Nebjula had moved over to the fight where Nohman was on the verge of being killed by the two magicians from Kaguya's team. He would be of more use there. He had sustained a deep cut over his back, making sudden movements really difficult. But in a close combat situation versus magicians that liked long range battles, he would hopefully be fine. It seemed impossible for him to retreat in the chaotic situation, and so he had instead moved over to a different battle. It was becoming difficult for everyone to determine friend from foe, and a wild free for all like battle was underway.
     
    Zebhra and Kawasumi were both standing again, and charged at Kiri; it seemed they had decided, he was the biggest threat. Nimbly dodging the oncoming blades, Kiri turned his body around and preformed a roundhouse kick that struck Zebhra in the chin, bringing him to the ground. He didn't have time to let his guard down though, with two attackers being present, and paid the price for it. Lightly jumping up into the air, he brought his hardened fist down towards Zebhra's head, but before it hit, Kawasumi moved in. Her sickle cut through Kiri's barrier and left him with a small wound on his left side.
     
    Stepping on Zebhra wo was still on the ground, Kawasumi moved in closer.
     
    Zebhra angrily made it back to his feet and approached as well, but he still did not attack Kawasumi. He was dead set on taking out Kiri.
     
    In order to win Kiri had to act fast. Seeing as the two weren't actually teammates, their attacks weren't very well synchronized, and they would still be wary of each other. He had to use this to his advantage. The two of them raised their weapons and approached Kiri.
     
    "... Now!" Moving forward and grabbing both weapons in mid air, Kiri used the rest of his strength to protect his palms from the sharp blades. He then moved forward, advancing past the two attackers, turned around and brought his fist forward with all his might. It struck Zebhra in the neck, and an ominous snap sound followed. Zebhra fell to the ground, his head dangling about without the proper support from his broken spine.
     
    "Haha, look at it wobble!!!" Laughing sadistically whilst looking at the spectacle, Kawasumi yanked her blade out of Kiri's hand and cut at his chest. No longer able to summon any strength, Kiri had no way to defend himself. The blade cut through his chest, destroying his lungs. Kawasumi pushed him to the ground and got on top of his bleeding chest, bringing her face close to Kiri's.
     
    "Sleep well sweetheart." Placing the tip of her blade on Kiri's temple, she slowly put pressure on it. The jagged spike started making its way through the skin and after a few seconds of intense pain, Kiri closed his eyes for good.
     
    Team Kaguya, Zebhra- DEAD END
     
    Team Nosebleed, Kiriririri (REAL) - DEAD END
     
    Team Kaguya Nimbus and Jade, vs Team Down Nohman and Team Nosebleed's Nebjula
     
    "Whooohooooooo!" Swinging his cleaver at Nimbus like a madman, Nohman charged forward. Nimbus was having trouble moving because of his wounded foot, but managed to dodge the attacks. Nohman had sustained quite a lot of damage previously as well, and so he wasn't moving as fast anymore. Still, he didn't seem to care one bit.
     
    "I'm going to cut your throat open and watch the blood soil the sand!" Nohman shouted as he switched between deflecting magic and striking at Nimbus. Meanwhile, the wounded Nebjula was fighting Jade, who had sustained a broken arm from Nebjula's earlier attack. Finally, Kawasumi was busy cutting Kiri's corpse open, not caring about the fight going on behind her. Her green armor was stained completely with fresh blood.
     
    Jade was using his magic to both deflect attacks and retaliate, making his energy drain at a rapid pace. Lucky for him, Nebjula's back had sustained a serious wound, and he was moving rather sluggishly.
     
    I'll have to finish this in a few attacks, or I'm going to run out of energy. Jade thought to himself.
     
    Sending two large spikes of shadow towards Nebjula, Jade took advantage of the time Nebjula needed to dodge, and started chanting in order to strengthen his next, final attack.
     
    "Make those who oppose your ways,
     
    wither before your gaze...
     
    Eyes of evil, hands of darkness, gazing, clawing...
     
    Continuing his chant, Jade brought his hand together and aimed them at Nebjula, who was running towards Jade with his maces raised. A magic circle appeared between the two and black light particles started forming around Jade's hands.
     
    "Turn their bones to dust and their heart to sand,
     
    become their nightmare,
     
    ...the bane of man."
     
     As he finished chanting, a wave of darkness washed over the place where he stood, and the ground beneath Nebjula's feet split open. A large hand made of pure darkness gripped his entire body tightly, and held him in place. The pain of having pressure put on his open wound rendered him defenseless, and there was nothing he could do against the overpowering magic.
     
    Several red eyes appeared from the darkness below, probably belonging to whatever creature had seized Nebjula. Slowly squeezing the life out of its prey, the hand gripped Nebjula tighter, and the sound of bones breaking made a chill go down Jade's spine. It didn't take long for the monstrous hand to crush every bone in Nebjula's body. After releasing the magic, Jade collapsed on the spot, having used up way too much energy. As his consciousness faded, he caught a glimpse of the fight still taking place some distance away, between Nohman and Nimbus. Both parties were still standing. As for Nebjula, the remnants of his body was brought back into the shadows by the devilish hand, and he was never to be seen again...
     
    Team Nosebleed, Nebjula- (CLONE) DEAD END
     
     
     
    "Die, you glorified light bulb!" Shouting at Nimbus, Nohman chopped vigorously at his target with decreasing accuracy. The two gaping holes in his chest had started to really slow down his movements, but in return, Nimbus had also received a long cut to his left arm, leaving him with only one functional arm and leg. No longer capable of moving much, he had resorted to using his energy for making his own shields as well as attacking his opponent with electricity.  Each time Nohman struck Nimbus' shield, Nimbus felt that the strength in each blow was decreasing. He only had to hold out longer than his opponent. Probably realizing his dire state, Nohman gritted his teeth.
     
    "You little ... If I am going down here, I'll make damn sure you die as well." Suddenly throwing his cleaver onto the ground, Nohman reached inside his garb and brought out a small dagger.
     
     What could he accomplish with that? Nimbus wondered.
     
    Getting ready for a possible surprise attack, he strengthened his shield. Then, Nohman did something quite surprising. Turning the dagger around, he thrust it into his own chest. Then, he uttered a small chant in a weak voice:
     
    "I will be, the one who makes...
     
    a world of pain, where no one wakes...
     
    Once they hear, the voice of death,
     
    the two will draw, their final breath..."
     
     
    When Nimbus realized what Nohman was doing, it was already too late. Nohman's skin started glowing, and soon it started breaking apart. A green light shone through the cracks, and after a few seconds the battlefield was enveloped in a massive explosion.
     
    It was a spell that, in return for giving up one's own life, granted massive amounts of energy for a final attack. Such an attack was designed for one simple purpose: to take out whoever else it can in the process losing your own life.
     
    A massive crater was the only thing that remained of Nohman, but...
     
    "Tch, what a pain." Holding his passed out teammate under his arm, Nimbus looked at the crater. He had moved quickly, snatched the unconscious body of Jade, then he had escaped before the explosion went off. It was an act impossible for most people, but Nimbus had used a last resort given to him by Kaguya himself; a way to stop time for a couple of seconds. Once used, he was no longer capable of repeating it. It was a gift granted to Nimbus because he excelled at magic, and so he was the one best suited for using it. And it had ended up saving the lives of himself and his teammate, Jade. The violent explosion that Nohman had set off would destroy anything in its path.
     
    "Did that crazy bitch make it out alive?" Looking down at the crater from afar one last time, Nimbus started making his way back to Kaguya's base.
     
    Team down, Nohman- DEAD END
     
    Team Down, Kawasumi- ???
     
    _________________________________________________________________
     
    Walking along the outskirts of the desert, Mitchhamilton and Satsuki were looking for their teammates, Kiriririri and Nebjula when they saw a massive explosion. A figure clad in pure red was making its way out of the chaos, and was headed in their direction. Mitch reacted quickly, recognizing the figure as someone from Kaguya's army. He grasped his spear and hurled it at the rapidly approaching target. The person, who Mitch had first mistaken for a team Kaguya member, was actually wearing Down's garbs, but they were completely stained in wet blood. The woman managed to nimbly avoid the spear, and kept running. Following her general's example, Satsuki moved towards the enemy.
     
    "Tch, can't a lady get a second of peace around here?" The team Down member was a woman, completely covered in blood from top to toe. Whatever had happened could have been linked to her own teammates, and so Satsuki wanted to interrogate the woman. But, in order to do that, she first had to defeat her. Preparing for combat, Satsuki drew both her twin axes from behind her back. The axes were small and compact, like hatchets used for chopping down trees, but they were solid steel and sharp as could be.
     
    "Little lady, I am in a hurry, so please move."
     
    Not listening to the woman, Satsuki charged just as her general Mitch was making his way over to join the fight. Satsuki jumped up in the air and swung her hatchet down towards the woman's head, but instead of hitting her flesh, a powerful force threw Satsuki back. Mitch, who had arrived at the scene as well, was also blown back by a sudden invisible force.
     
    "Kawasumi, go back to base. I'll handle these two."
     
    Satsuki could hear the voice of a man through the ringing in her ears. Lifting her chin up, she spotted the retreating figure of the woman. It seemed someone from her team had shown up in order to help bring their wounded back to base.
     
    "Tch. Mitch, what do we do? Do we chase her?" Turning to her general for advice, a sudden shiver went down Satsuki's spine.
     
    "LOOK OUT!" She shouted and jumped forward, grabbing a hold of Mitch. Barely managing to push him to the ground in time, several kunai knives flew past their heads and hit the ground behind them. Right after, an approaching enemy in a green garb rushed forward with a katana. Clutching her axes, Satsuki stood up and blocked the blade, staring straight into the face of Down's general, Tiagofvarela. Mitch quickly got to his feet and struck at Tiago's body with his spear. Sidestepping in order to avoid the attack, Tiago let go of his katana for a second, then snatched it out of the air before it hit the ground. Striking at Satsuki with great force, he swung his katana up in an arc. The blade made a whistling sound as it cut through the air, and the impact from the blow made Satsuki's arms burn. She managed to block it, but this was an enemy she was not capable of fighting on her own; that much was obvious. Luckily, it was two against one. The two started attacking Tiago in rapid succession. Every time one attacked, the other one would strike from a different direction, making it hard to block the oncoming attacks. Also, Mitch's spear made for a great medium ranged weapon, where as Satsuki was striking from close range, making the attacks even harder to predict. As a spear thrust was blocked, two chops from Satsuki's axes followed. Still, Tiago spun around swiftly, his katana moving so fast, it was like it became one with the air itself. The sound of steel clashing with steel and the constant footsteps of the three was all that one could hear. Tiago ducked in order to avoid the approaching axes, and used his katana to knock the spear thrust out of the way, then he launched his body forward. Pointing his katana at Mitch's chest, he took advantage of Mitch's poor close combat compatibility and the katana dug into Mitchhamilton's shoulder as Mitch did his best to steer the blade from his heart.
     
    "GRAAHH!" Mitch screamed as he clutched his bleeding shoulder, and Satsuki quickly ran up to him to check on his condition. Tiago followed up with another attack, this time a diagonal cut, but Satsuki's axe parried the strike. She tried retaliating, but Tiago was able to keep her at a distance. Without the aid from Mitch's spear keeping him at bay, getting close to Tiago was a challenge for Satsuki. Every time she tried advancing, he would swing his katana quickly towards her body, forcing her to retreat or dodge.
     
    "Time to end this." Tiago suddenly sped up his movements, stepping forward and clutched his katana with both hands. He then preformed another cut from above, but with much more force than before. The heavy attack made Satsuki's hands falter, and the sharp edge of the katana cut a deep gash in Satsuki's face, slicing all the way from her left eye down to her cheekbone.
     
    "Satsuki!!!" Panicking, Mitch charged back into the fight, wielding his spear with only one hand.
     
    "RAAAAAAARGH!" He Thrust at Tiago with all his might in the hope of pushing him back, but instead Tiago moved his body to the left, avoiding the spear, and stabbed at Mitch with his katana. Mitch, who was approaching at a great speed, was incapable of stopping and was impaled on the blade. Tiago started turning the katana around inside of Mitch's chest, making large amounts of blood spill out from his mouth and from the open wound.
     
    "D-DAMNIT! DIE!" Charging towards Tiago whilst clutching her wounded eye, Satsuki tried to hit Tiago with her hatchet, but it was a futile effort. Tiago grabbed her arm mid air, not even needing a weapon to stop the attack, and snatched her axe out of her hand. He then used her own weapon to cut open her throat. Mitch, who still wasn't dead, tried to summon some strength to use magic, but before he could do anything, Tiago pulled his katana out of Mitch's chest and spun around. The blade flew through the air and connected with Mitch's neck, separating his head from his shoulders...
     
    Team Nosebleed, Satsuki (CLONE) and Mitchhamilton (REAL) DEAD END
     
    ...
     
    Satsuki had slowly bled out on the ground, and Mitch could not be brought back because he already lost a life the previous day. Nosebleed was looking at the figures of his four fallen soldiers. Nebjula and Satsuki had been clones, but it was still a tough loss. Kiriririri and Mitchhamilton had been two of his best fighters, and both were gone for good. Clutching his fists tightly, Nosebleed looked up at the sky; starting right at the shimmering sun.
     
    The figure of a reaper holding a scythe was barely visible on the horizon. It was watching him from the distance, it's yellow eyes glowed faintly. It was the same creature that had stopped him previously when he fought with Down. He had noticed it then, this ... thing, used to be 12Kami, the member who disappeared on the first day of battle. For what purpose was he created? For what reason was here there, watching Nosebleed's every move?
     
    Turning his back to the reaper, Nosebleed brought the corpses of his comrades back to his new base, preparing himself and his soldiers for the next day of battle. The coming days would be even harsher and more grueling than ever before, that he could tell...
     
    _________________________________________________________________
     
    Deaths this week:
     
     
     
    Team Nosebleed: Nebjula, (CLONE), Satsuki, (CLONE), Mitchhamilton (REAL), Kiriririri (REAL).
     
     
     
    Team Down: Nohman
     
     
     
    Team Kaguya: Zebhra
     
    _________________________________________________________________
     
     
     
    ___________________________________________________________________________
    List of currently remaining members!!
     
     
     
    #Team Nosebleed: Members, Satsuki (-1 life), Valmore , Deep Blue (-1 life) , Nebjula (-1life)  , kingdomcome
     
    #Team Down: Members, Tiagofvarela (- 1 life) , Babiker , Maxel , Fred the Barber , Totodile , FinalChaos , Kawasumi , Flutterz , Turnip Sensei 
     
    #Team Kaguya: Members, Dergonu , Nimbus, Gijimu, Greenshadow622 (- 1 life) , Eclipsed, Duyy , Jade
     
    ___________________________________________________________________________
     
    TO BE CONTINUED!
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  5. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to Dergonu for a blog entry, The Last GM Standing - Chapter 1!   
    The last GM standing Q&A:

    Link to the thread:

    Would you rather read the chapter in a PDF document? Click here!
     
    Chapter 1:
    20/03-2016, Location: Fuwanovel headquarters

    Nayleen and Tay were relaxing in their seats, exhausted after a long day of work.

    The past few weeks had taken a toll on them, but they were staying strong, keeping Fuwanovel safe from DDOS attacks and global mods breaking stuff.

    As they fall asleep, gathering their strength for another day of defending the forum, a shadow glides into the room. The shadow moves quickly, slithering across the floor, sneaking up behind Nayleen's chair.

    The shadow splits in two as it reaches its target. One part wraps itself around Nayleen, the other moves over to Tay and wraps itself around him.

    ...

    The next day.

    Nayleen looks over at Tay with a mischievous smile on his face.

    "The global mods have gotten too soft lately. I think it's time we taught them a lesson."

    Tay turns his head, meeting Nayleen's gaze.

    "What exactly did you have in mind?"

    Nayleen looks down at the chess board in front of him. This was no ordinary chess board. Each piece on the board represents certain members of the Fuwanovel forum. In addition, there was three sets of pieces, meaning there was a total of three kings.

    Picking up two of the kings with the tip of his fingers, Nayleen breaks them in half.

    "Three global mods, only one can remain in their position."

    Tay nods, letting out a subtle, evil laugh.

    "Who will come out alive?"

    Nayleen joins in.

    "Who will come out as the winner?"

    He turned his gaze towards the broken chess pieces that had fallen to the floor.

    "Now then... How will this end?"

    Their laughter continued into the night, as the two made preparations for the fight that was to come.

    ..........

    Chapter 1

    The three armies


     
    It was a cold day. A dark sky filled with clouds that never seemed to disappear was hanging over the battlefield. It was quiet; so quiet that one could hear the heartbeats of the people around you. The battlefield was a huge piece of land that went on for miles and miles. With terrain ranging from harsh deserts to big forests and steep waterfalls, it was truly an overwhelming place. Standing in a line in front of their commander, Kaguya's forces were prepared for battle. It had been four hours since the battle had started, and yet no one had reached Kaguya's base yet.

    He thought it was a good idea to remain in his base and wait for someone to attack, instead of wasting his fighter's energy by charging through the huge landmass. It was possible that the other moderators were thinking the same, and if that was the case, the day would end without a drop of blood being spilled. Thinking back on the previous day, Kaguya rubbed his temples in anger and exhaustion.

    The three global moderators had suddenly been summoned by the admins. They had no idea what was going on, and they did not have the time to ask. The second they were teleported to the administrator's location, they realized something was amiss. In front of them were huge racks filled with weapons, armor and the likes. Ranging from big swords, crossbows, shields and kunai knives, it was quite a scary sight. Next to the equipment there was a grand, black stone tablet with red letters written across it. It read:

    "The time has come.

    Three global moderators, only one can remain.

    Recruit those you can from the forum within the next hour, prepare for battle with the equipment before you and then ...

    Go to war.

    Good luck."

    Neither one of the moderators knew what to do. They stood still, immobilized by confusion and fear. They were sure this had to be some kind of a twisted joke.

    "Alright, this is stupid. What the hell is going on?" Breaking the silence, Kaguya shouted that as he surveyed his surroundings.

    A dark voice suddenly echoed through the area. It was impossible to tell where the voice came from; it was a thundering roar that made all the moderators flinch.

    "Select your fighters, or face the consequences! This is not a joke. This is a matter of life and death!"

    The sudden overpowering voice made the mods even more uneasy, but they still didn't act. This was a mistake.

    Suddenly, a strange black sphere appeared before them. It was about the size of a football, and for a few seconds it merely floated in mid air. It gave of a strange crackling noise, similar to an electric current. Slowly but surely, the sphere started increasing in size, until it was big enough to fit a small car. Then, a big rift of pure white light split the sphere in two, and the figures of two people suddenly appeared in its stead. It took a few seconds for the moderators to recognize the people in front of them, but they soon realized, they were Fuwanovel members; 12kami and XionsProphecy. They both look terrified, as if they had just seen the devil himself.

    XionsProphecy took a step forward and approached Kaguya.

    "W-What is going on?! Where am I?!"

    Before Kaguya had the time to respond, the overpowering voice once again erupted throughout the area.

    "You will do as we say, or the consequences will be grave!"

    And with that, a red magic circle appeared under the feet of XionsProphecy and a pillar of fire burst out beneath him. The sound of his screams and the smell of burning flesh made all the people present stare at the spectacle in shock. Terrified he would be next, 12Kami tried to run away, but chains sprouted from the ground and wrapped around him violently.

    "Now, what will you do?"

    "S-Stop it!" Nosebleed shouted.

    "... Very well. If you are ready to begin, let me explain the rules. Each one of the moderators can recruit members from the forum to join their ranks. The moderators can use their own powers any way they want. Make your own fighters stronger by lending them your strength, directly attack your opponents army, make shields protecting your warriors. The game will be over once only one global moderator remains. Oh, and one last thing. You can name one of your fighters a general. This person will have ... A second chance at life, should something tragic occur." As the voice finished explaining the rules, an evil laughter followed. Soon after, all that was left was dead silence.
    ___________________________________________________________________________


     
    "That was four hours ago, huh..." Kaguya whispered to himself as he looked at the quiet battlefield.

     In the end, no one knows what happened to 12Kami. Was he killed too? Was he released?

    When the moderators chose their armies, only a handful of the forum's members were selected. It seemed that only the ones who volunteered for the battle could be picked.

    Looking over the warriors in front of him, Kaguya made a decision; he had waited long enough.

    "You two, move out!"

    The two soldiers saluted, and then they sprinted into the darkness of the forest ahead.

    ........

    Eight warriors were scattered across the battlefield on the first day. Among them were team Down's soldiers Nashetania, Funyarinpa, Fred the Barber, their general Tiagofvarela and Moekyun. From team Kaguya, Dergonu and Velociraptor were deployed, and from team Nosebleed, only < ?? >was sent out to fight.

    ........


     
    In a forest, 2 km from Kaguya's base

    Dergonu and Velociraptor were headed for Down's territory, when a sudden fireball shot out from the depths of the forest. Barely dodging it by a hair, the two were separated from each other. Losing track of Velociraptor, Dergonu turned to face the person who fired the fireball. He was protected by Kaguya's armor, but the amount of energy put into each warrior's shield was small, meaning he couldn't take more than one or two of those attacks. Who had fired it? Was it someone from Nosebleed's team or Down?

    "Who's there?!" Calling out for the person hiding in the darkness, Dergonu readied his mace. The weapon of his choice had been a huge metal mace, almost as big as himself, with menacing spikes. It was a weapon he couldn't dream of lifting without the strength given to him by his commander, Kaguya.

    A shadow suddenly burst out from the forest. Before Dergonu could react, two throwing knives collided with his armor. Both of them hit right around the heart, but they were stopped by the thick, red armor. Not wasting any time, the attacker nimbly closed in the distance. It took a second for Dergonu to recognize the attacker due to their speed, but he soon saw that is was MoeKyun from Down's army.  The shimmering green garb he wore had several chains filled with throwing knives. Reaching for two more, MoeKyun made sure to stay so close to Dergonu that swinging his mace was impossible. Taking the opportunity when Dergonu was unable to do anything, MoeKyun stabbed at Dergonu's armor repeatedly. It didn't take long for the attacks to completely remove the protective shield made by Kaguya, and the knives started poking small holes in Dergonu's armor.

    "Tch." Clicking his tongue, Dergonu tried to think of a way to get out of the situation. But before he could think of anything, one of MoeKyun's knives hit Dergonu's collarbone, sending a sharp pain through his body. Taking a step back and readying his knife, MoeKyun was preparing to deliver the final blow, when he suddenly froze up. Turning his head to depths of the forest from which he came, his mouth dropped open in surprise.

    "N-No way ... G-General..."

    Not wasting any time, Dergonu used the chance to take a step backwards and swung his mace straight at MoeKyun's chest. A green barrier deflected the hit and made sure the mace didn't break the skin, but MoeKyun was knocked down from the impact. Landing on the ground with the air knocked out of his lungs, he never stood a chance. The giant mace came down, hitting his head. Once again, Down's protective barrier blocked the attack, but every part of Moekyun's body felt like it was lit on fire from the pain.

    "This time..." As he said that, Dergonu lifted the mace over his head one last time and brought it down on MoeKyun. What followed was a gruesome crack like sound, like breaking a branch of a tree.


    Team Down MoeKyun- DEAD END

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    A few minutes earlier, 100 meters from Nosebleed's base.

    Down's general, Tiagofvarela, was making his way towards Nosebleed's base. Compared to Down and Kaguya, Nosebleed had a significantly smaller army, and so Down thought it was best to target him first. Because of this, Down had sent his strongest fighter in an ambush. If Nosebleed wanted to participate in the fight, he had to send several of his forces out into the battle, meaning his base would be exposed. It would be a fast, quick attack. Take out whoever is there and get the hell out. For his weapon, Tiago had chosen a long katana, which rested in a sheath strapped to his left side. He was wearing a green garb, woven by powerful silk threads imbued by Down's own energy. His garb was slightly different from the others in Down's army. This one was specially created for the general. The biggest difference was the big crest on the chest and back, with the word leader written in kanji.

    As he spotted Nosebleed's base, Tiago took a deep breath and drew his katana. The blade was about a meter long, with beautiful markings.

    "Let's do this."

    Preparing for his attack, Tiago steeled his nerves and readied his blade. Then, he charged.

    "Perish."

    A soft whisper suddenly reached Tiago's ear, and a strong sense of despair washed over him. The voice sent a chill down his spine. It was as if the voice literally grabbed a hold of him, preventing him from moving. Before he could do anything, a man in a pink and black cloak stood before him. It was impossible to identify who it was, as the large cloak covered his head and body completely. The man simply snapped his fingers, and a huge explosion knocked Tiago several meters back. He felt his barrier slowly draining. Whoever attacked him was truly powerful.  

    "How did he notice me?!" He asked himself, trying to calm his hammering heartbeat.

    "Game over." Suddenly, a different voice could be heard behind Tiago, and something cold cut through his chest. Looking down at his own body, he saw a long spear sticking out of his stomach.

    "W-Who..?"

    He never got the answer to that question. Tiago's body fell to the ground, lifeless.


     
     
    Team Down, Tiagofvarela- DEAD END

    ___________________________________________________________________________


     
    The volcanic region, 3 km from Down's base

    Fred the Barber from team Down was positioned behind a large rock. The area around him was filled with smoke, ash and fire, and the only thing stopping him from being burned alive was his commander's protective garb. This was a volcano located a few km away from Down's base. Fred had been in a battle with one of Nosebleed's men for several minutes, when he suddenly felt it. His general, Tiagofvarela, had fallen. Hit by the sudden shock of losing one of his leaders, he fled from the battle in order to gather his thoughts. It was a strange feeling. Tiago had been his friend, and in this crazy battle, he had been his general. A powerful sadness welled up in him as he shook his head, holding back his tears.  Why? Why was this happening? Just a day ago they were messing around on the forum, having fun like any other day. And now? Now they were here, caught in some insane death game.

    "I ... I want this to be over." He whispered as he placed his hand on his forehead and closed his eyes.

    "Then die."

    A sudden hostile voice made Fred jump backwards, and just as he opened his eyes, he saw a fist slam into the rock he was leaning against, crushing it into small rubble. It was him; the fighter from nosebleed's army that he had been in a scuffle with a few minutes ago. Because of his cloak which covered every part of his body, it was impossible to identify who the attacker was. The cloak was black, with pink markings all over. The attacker was unarmed, but his hands glowed in a bright purple light. Clearly, he was using his energy to make his punches stronger. Whoever this person was, he was powerful. Had they underestimated team Nosebleed? Fred's general had fallen in nosebleed's territory, and this person was clearly using energy to make his fists into lethal killing machines. How could Fred fight such a fearful foe in his current state?

    "No... I can do this. I have to avenge Tiago!" Encouraging himself, Fred got to his feet and readied his weapon. It was dagger with a fairly long, curved blade. The tip was emitting a faint green glow and the blade itself was black as the night. Of all the weapons on the weapon racks, this was the only thing Fred felt comfortable wielding. Carefully taking a stance preparing for the fight, Fred calmed his breathing and grasped his dagger tightly.

    The attacker moved first. His movements were really fast and precise. Fred managed to dodge the first punch, but the second one followed right after. The assailant's fist hit Fred in the left flank, causing him to fall backwards. But as his body fell to the ground he moved his arm holding the dagger downwards and cut a deep gash in the attacker's cloak. It didn't look like the blade pierced his flesh, but Fred felt the resistance of his opponents barrier. He had done some damage to it at the very least. The problem was that he had taken a strong hit himself, and wasn't able to move very well. His opponent quickly regained his posture and moved in for the kill. Just then, an arrow flew past Fred's cheek and hit the attacker in the stomach. The impact of the arrow sent him flying.

    "You okay Fred?"

    Turning his head to see who had come to help him, he was met by Funyarinpa's gentle smile. In his hands was a beautiful green longbow.

    "Come on. Let's retreat for now. Whoever that guy is, he isn't normal."

    As he said that, Funya reached out for Fred's hand and helped him up.

    Tilting his head slightly, Fred wondered what Funya meant.

    "Isn't normal? I think we can take him if it's the two of us."

    Funya simply shook his head in response.

    "I got word from Down to come and get you. There is something wrong with Nosebleed's army. We have to go back to the base and ..." Before he could finish his sentence, a purple light flew past Fred's field of vision and collided with Funya. His bow was crushed into pieces and Funya was knocked down, his barrier broken.

    "FUNYA!" Screaming for his fallen comrade, Fred turned to face the attacker. It was the same cloaked man from before. The arrow was still sticking out of his chest but he moved around like it was nothing.

    "..." The man said nothing, but approached Fred with his fists raised. The purple light which surrounded his hands flickered about intimidatingly.

    The man jumped at Fred, knocking him to the ground. After that, he made sure to grab Fred's blade and throw it away.

    "..." The man still didn't say anything, but Fred could see a hint of an evil smile under the darkness of the attacker's hood.

    Raising his fists above his head, he prepared to bash Fred's head in. But he had made one miscalculation. The arrow that was sticking out of his chest was within Fred's reach. Fred had merely pretended to be defenseless when he lost his dagger to get an opening. Grabbing the arrow with all his might, Fred pulled it out of the man's chest and thrust it upwards into his throat. The arrowhead pierced his Adam's apple and blood started spewing out from the open wound.

    Making a disgusting gurgling sound, the man slowly lost all strength in his body. The endless stream of blood poured out, staining Fred's clothing in red.

    After defeating his opponent, Fred checked on Funya. He was too late. The attacker had crushed his entire rib cage, and one of the bone splinters had hit his heart.

    "Who ... WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Screaming in anger, Fred ripped off the attacker's hood. All he could do once he removed the hood was gasp, and fall to his knees.

    "W-What the fuck..?"

    Lying on the scorched ground in front of him was ...


     
    Team Down, Funyarinpa- DEAD END.

    Team Nosebleed, < ?? > - DEAD END.

    ___________________________________________________________________________





     
    Meanwhile, at Nosebleed's base


    "Hmm, it seems our puppet has been destroyed."

    "Aww, I thought it would at least take out a few more enemies before it broke."

    "Hmph. It doesn't matter, it did its job just fine. Now we know ... They work."

    Three men were sitting around a fire with their weapons next to them. They wore black cloaks with pink symbols; the armor given to them by their commander, Nosebleed.

    The three men were chosen as guards, and were protecting the base of Nosebleed. Nosebleed's army consisted of about half the number of warriors that Down and Kaguya had, but Nosebleed had a trick up his sleeve.

    Using the life force of the fallen general from Down's army, Tiago, he had created clones of his own warriors. These warriors were as strong as Tiago himself, and took the place of his own fighters on the battlefield. They didn't have the extra life that came with the role of general, but other than that, they were powerful and loyal. Each clone was linked to one of Nosebleed's soldiers.

    The one that had been killed in battle had been the clone of Kiriririri, but Nosebleed had made the clone itself wear the face of Tiago. That would assure him an edge in any fight versus a team Down member. Sadly, that trick only worked once, as the body of Tiago himself had been used to create the clone. All the other clones were identical to the person they copied. Basically, it was as if nosebleed literally had two of each of his fighters, except for Kiriririri who had just lost his clone.

    With this, the difference in numbers between the three armies meant nothing.

    A sly smile spread across Nosebleed's face as he looked at his own general, Mitchhamilton. He held a long, golden spear stained with blood.

    "Now... Who is next?"

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    * Quick note, the clones in Nosebleed's army works just like a normal fighter.

    This was done so that each commander has the same amount of fighters, making the first week of the RNG rolls completely even. Each clone will die just like a normal team member, though the person won't get a DEAD END unless he has lost his clone already. (Like Kiriririri has now.)

    Mitchhamilton, Nosebleed's general, does NOT get a clone, as he is a general and already has 2 lives.

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    A forest, about 2 km from Kaguya's base

    Having lost sight of his comrade, Dergonu, Velociraptor was making his way through the forest. Who had attacked them? Was it an attacker from Nosebleed or Down's army? Well, it didn't matter. All he could do now was search for his opponent and hope that Dergonu hadn't fallen in the time they were separated.

    "Hm?" As he was running through the dense forest, Velociraptor spotted a strange light about 30 meters away. Was it an enemy? The light seemed to be flickering ever so slightly, though because of the tree cover it was hard to see what it was. Preparing for a potential fight, Velo readied his weapon and ran towards the source. He was surprised to find a member of Down's army sleeping near a fire. Was he for real..? Not only had he approached Kaguya's territory, he had lit a fire and then he went to sleep?! Who the hell was this guy?!

    Taking a step closer, he saw that the fighter was Nashetania.

    "Hmph... A free kill I guess." Whispering to himself, he readied his weapon. It was an extension of his hand; a glove with long, sharp claws. Each claw was at least 10 cm long. The glove itself was made out of tough leather, and the claws were metal. Lifting the glove above his head, he brought it down on Nash, who was sleeping peacefully. Or so Velo thought. As the glove was about to make contact with Nash, he quickly spun around and brought his fist upward. It hit Velo right in the face, making him stagger backwards.

    "Well would you look at that. Like a moth to a flame." Nash moved his hand behind his back and brought out a large battleaxe from inside his garb.

    "RAAAWR!" Jumping forward, Nash struck at Velo with full force. Barely dodging the attack, Velo sidestepped and cut at Nashetania's exposed back. The claws hit, but something tough was stopping them from doing any damage.

    "Damnit, a barrier?"

    Putting some distance between them, Velo ran a few steps backwards, positioning himself behind the fire Nash had lit.

    "You can't cut me! Down gave me the strongest barrier among all his men! No matter how many times you hit me, a blade won't ever cut through it!"

    After taunting Velo, Nash launched another attack, swinging his battleaxe around like a madman. Velo was faster and had a lighter weapon, but just like Nash had said, his attacks were useless against the barrier.

    Had this been Down's tactic? Draw someone in close to his soldier, then have him crush the attacker when he least expects it? Seeing has he had put so much energy into the barrier protecting Nash, it must have been the plan all along.

    "Damnit..."

    If only Dergonu was with him they would have the upper hand, but because of the attack earlier, they were separated in the forest. 

    "What's the matter? Tired?" Smiling from ear to ear, Nash relentlessly attacked Velo with his battleaxe. A few of the attacks hit, sending strong waves of numb pain through Velo's body.

    "Think! THINK!!! How can I beat him?!" Trying to figure out a way to win, Velo looked around.

    "An opening!" As Nash yelled that, he spun around quickly and his battleaxe hit Velo in the chest, sending him flying over to the fire. He landed hard, most likely breaking a few bones in the process.

    Had Nash been the one who attacked them earlier? Was his plan to split them up, then draw them in one by one with the use of the campfire? ...

    Wait a minute... Fire! Nash had said that no blades could cut through his barrier. Could that mean it had little defense against magic? Was that the reason he was trying to lure his attacker into close combat?

    "DIE!" Running towards Velo who had fallen to the ground, Nash prepared to crush his defenseless prey with a final attack.

    "Now or never!" Velo brought his hands together and focused all his remaining strength on tapping the flames from the campfire besides him. Just the act of moving his arms hurt like hell, but he had no choice but to fight through the pain. As Nash was about to strike, Velo released all the flames in a vortex that wrapped itself around Nash. The flames ate through his barrier like it was nothing, and soon started burning away his flesh. Screaming and swinging his battleaxe around like a lunatic, Nash moved around desperately. In order to not get caught in the frenzy, Velo crawled away, sinking his glove's claws into the soft ground and pulling his body forward.

    "I ... Lost..." With those final words, the burning figure collapsed.

    Team Down, Nashetania- DEAD END


     

     

     

     

     

     
    ___________________________________________________________________________

    Deaths this week:

    Team Nosebleed: Kiriririri (clone)

    Team Down: Nashetania, Funyarinpa, Tiagofvarela, Moekyun,

    Team Kaguya: None

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    To be continued ...



  6. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, World Election   
    Here it comes, a possible VN of the Month!!!  Seriously, I hadn't expected that Whirlpool's ten year anniversary game would be this good.  It is written by the same person who wrote Koisuru Doll to Omoi no Kiseki, and it feels in many ways like a return to the better of Whirlpool's two distinct styles.  Whirlpool's two styles are:
    1- A straight moege/charage that makes a vague attempt at seriousness on occasion and inevitably falls into the habit of producing endlessly repeated 'ongoing jokes'.
    2- A VN that seems like a pure charage at first but develops a more serious and involved story with great drama as the game goes on.  Most of these have a 'true ending', and the characters in general are better designed than in the first type's case.
    This one is based in a world where five different parallel Earths merged into one.  One was the human world, a second was the Goumakai (demon world), the third was the world of the divine (angels and gods), the fourth was the world of the beastpeople, and the fifth and last was the world of machines.  Twenty years before the story began, this event caused a lot of conflict and chaos, and it was only resolved to an extent right before the protagonist's birth.  At the same time, humans with special powers started to be born, and the protagonist was one of them. 
    The protagonist of this story, Kei, likes to believe he is a 'normal' guy and will say he is to anybody and everybody if they ask... but no one seriously believes it.  He is one of those 'metsuki warui' protagonists who appear frightening naturally, and his power makes him even more frightening, especially since he had the bad taste to get into a battle with Sofia, the most powerful being in the world (and bring her to a draw) on her first day at school.  As such, he is somewhat isolated.  He is also unbelievably dense (standard VN protagonist quality) and kind-hearted, lol.
    Anyway, in order to avoid being dragged back to the human part of the world, where he would normally have spent his entire life being watched and studied (he is the most powerful human 'Neos', and as such, he grew up basically being researched and watched), he decides to run for Student Council President.  The common route of this VN is entirely taken up by the election and his efforts to convince the student body he is worthy of the presidency.  The common route is pretty well-paced, and it gives you an opportunity to get to know each of the five main heroines (there are also eight sub-heroines with mini-routes).
    The main heroines are Kururu (the true heroine), Sofia (the daughter of the former Demon King and the most powerful being on the planet), Faura (the wolf-girl and leader of the school's beastpeople), Papheel (a loli angel), and Iori (the protagonist's tsundere little sister).  Except for Kururu's routes, most of them have a standard fall in love>brief ichaicha>conflict>resolution>ichaicha>ending resolution that has a nice pace, not wasting your time with endless dating or giving you pathetic 'we are still in school' endings.  In fact, I was quite satisfied with the four main heroine routes other than Kururu's, and I didn't feel that the writer did the heroines a disservice with the balance of attention between them. 
    Kururu's route... is technically the true route, and it reveals her secrets as well as the full measure of the protagonist's ability.   It has two endings - a 'normal' ending that you are required to see first, then the true path that digs into Kururu's true nature and past, as well as certain events during the common route that are left unexplained in the other routes.  Overall, it is decent, though it lacks the impact of some other true routes I've encountered (if the other main heroine routes were a 1, it was a 1.2 or 1.3). 
    Overall, this is a pretty high quality, well-written VN that is worth reading if you want something that isn't quite your average charage but don't really want to become an adventurer and go play something like a horror, mystery, or chuunige. 
  7. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, My attitude toward moege/charage   
    Since most of the people who read my blog at all are probably already aware of this, I'm not going to hide the fact that moege/charage aren't my favorite sector of the VN industry.  I see VNs in general as a storytelling medium first and a visual art third or fourth, so the overfocus on visual elements that defines 'true moege' and the inevitable inconsistencies and storytelling incompetence in charage can be pretty irritating for me. 
    That said, I have and do enjoy some charage/moege.  Ones like Nekopara, that are cute and over relatively quickly, can actually be an enjoyable bit of relaxation, and the best charage - such as Lovesick Puppies or the various Alcot comedy-focused VNs - can be truly amusing to read.  However, there are some things I can't stand about some charage...
    One of the most annoying aspects of charage is the tendency to go to a lot of trouble to build an interesting setting for the heroines or protagonist... and then either fail to utilize it as part of the characters' story, underuse it, or 'change their minds' because it is inconvenient for a particular heroine path.  This is a complaint those of you who read my blog or have read my blog have probably heard before.  To be blunt 'if you build it, at least use it well' is my attitude toward efforts at building a setting.  Give the protagonist a tragic past and psychological scars?  Then you should make his healing a part of the story of the heroine paths.  Give the heroine a major issue/problem that is a fundamental part of her life and she can't resolve on her own?  Please don't insult my intelligence by resolving it in ten seconds with no real drama whatsoever.  This is a pet peeve of mine that drives me up the wall, and when I come across charage that actually manage to break past this kind of failure, I am generally happy to praise them up one side and down the other.
    An excess of random (and I do really mean random) h-scenes used in place of character development in a heroine path.  Now, let me tell you that it is quite possible to utilize an h-scene as a part of character development.  Alcot in particular favors this technique and it is the primary reason why I read all their h-scenes (actually, this habit annoys me, as I normally skip h-scenes).  There is absolutely nothing wrong with using an h-scene to develop a character... in fact, VNs like Vermilion, Jingai Makyou, Uruwashi no, and Dies Irae actually have h-scenes that are used to further develop the characters.  However, h-scenes that take the place of telling the characters' story are an occasional bad habit that pops up in about one third of all charage.  Yes, eroge characters tend to be like randy monkeys when they cross the line into loverhood... but that isn't an excuse for ignoring further character development entirely. 
    Ichaicha.  Now, the concept of 'ichaicha' is so fundamental to Japanese romance in VNs that it is unavoidable even in many more serious games.  I honestly don't have a problem with it... in reasonable amounts.  However, there is a phase in about two-thirds of all moege/charage where there is literally nothing but this!!!  If it were spaced out a bit with more story progression and/or character development (in the case of moege/charage dealing with the heroines' and/or the protagonist's personal issues) it really would never be a problem.  Unfortunately, the 'endless dating phase' can often be interminably long... does anyone really want to suffer through eight dates (frequently to the same places and with no real change in the events involved) for each heroine?
    That said, charage do have a lot to offer.  There are some seriously well-designed and written ones out there that actually tackle all the issues introduced as part of the story.  Lovesick Puppies was one of those, and there are yet others who take the setting and run with it such as Suzukaze and Maikaze (a game and fandisc) by Whirlpool.  I honestly have to applaud when a VN focused almost entirely on the characters manages to fully utilize a reasonably well-designed setting.  Consistency isn't always necessary in a charage (in fact, it is frequently ignored), but a charage that actually manages to keep the individual routes consistent with the base setting is more attractive than one that doesn't, generally speaking.  For all that charage are composed almost entirely of tropes and archetypes in most cases, I can forgive that if they manage to do so in a way that is pleasing and makes sense without being excessively trite. 
    What does all of this come down to?  A good game is a good game even if it is a charage or a moege, and a kusoge is a kusoge even if it is one of my beloved chuunige.  I could go on to name a half-dozen chuunige that are so terrible I don't even want to recall them as a demonstration, but I'm sleepy, so I'm going to leave it at this.
  8. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Kyuuketsu Hime no Libra   
    Mmm... first of all, this is by Onamatope, a company previously known only for its harem-ge from the Mecha-con series.  The Mecha-con series fell somewhere into that thin area between a nukige and a moege, and it was actually pretty decent for something in that area of the VN universe.  So, keeping that experience in mind, I went into this VN with a more open mind than some people probably would have.  Fortunately, this VN wasn't a disappointment, precisely because I wasn't looking for it to be something out of this world.
    Ok, first... this is a chuunige, in the sense that it follows a format I think most people will be familiar with... this young guy is transformed and forced into a world where he has to fight to survive, with many pretty girls around him... sound familiar?  It should.  That right there is the basis for about ninety-percent of the entire 'gakuen battle' type chuunige sub-genre.  In a few ways, this VN definitely borrows from Draculius, which I still think is the best non-superviolent vampire VN.  There are a lot of differences between the two... but they share the commonality of allowing for a coexistence of slice-of-life and comedy with a more serious background story. 
    I'll say it straight out though... there should have been an Iris path.  I don't say this because I'm a lolicon (though the protagonist and his ancestors all were, apparently) - as I'm not - but because Iris was, at first, second and third glance, the most interesting female character in the VN.  All the heroines had their moments... in fact, I was really, really surprised at the degree to which they managed to balance all the paths and gave the heroines an equal amount of story.  Due to the fact that the first half of their paths are the same, you might think Aoi and Lycoris got a bit screwed over, but their events after the split are distinct enough - and long enough - that I can't really say either got screwed over by the scenario designer's choices.  In that sense, this VN is something of a triumph of the art of scenario design, which was one of the areas in which Onamatope generally shined in its near-nukige Mecha-con series as well (one of the reasons my impressions of those games were positive). 
    In terms of raw writing... the battle writing is actually some of the better non-Light and non-Propeller I've seen.  That isn't to say it is first class, because it isn't.  The protagonist is way too much of a hetare when it comes to dealing with his vampirism, and the fact that they chose to make all the heroines, sub-heroines, and the protagonist a bit 'baka' was a bit of an odd choice that had moments where it fell flat.  The regular narrative writing is better than you generally see in a nakige (which generally get favored with the best moege-variant writers), and I can honestly say that the pacing didn't throw me off very often, though there were some shaky moments midway and early on.
    In terms of visuals... this VN definitely needed more combat CGs.  I knew they would cut corners on this, as Onamatope is not a company that can afford the kind of budgets for visuals that monsters like Will and Light can.  There was a bit too much reuse of the same tachie poses to simulate combat, and the best I can say is that they gave the protagonist a face and a tachie for once, which was a huge plus.
    ... unfortunately they didn't give him a voice.  Perhaps one of the biggest no-nos with a modern chuunige is to fail to give the protagonist a voice.  The simple reason for this?  Because the protagonist in a chuunige is always intended to be an actual person, rather than a simple self-insert.  As such, it is rather ridiculous to give into that particular convention when even using a random staff member would probably satisfy most people. 
    Generally speaking, the music in this game is... generic-sounding in the sense that chuunige music can ever be generic-sounding.  That means that the tunes are ones I suspect get sold to every company intending to make this type of VN, with a few twists and changes in the rhythm to make them sound different to the ears of someone who doesn't listen.   On the positive side, there is no point in this VN where I felt like the music was misused, which is a far bigger flaw that simply reusing music tracks from other games.
    Overall, what can those of you looking forward to the localization look forward to?  I'd say that if you want some slice-of-life with vampires merged with a low-level chuunige story, this will definitely be something to look forward to.  On the other hand, fans of more serious chuunige will not be satisfied by this, as the game is just to light in the slice-of-life scenes and the protagonist is a bit too much of a near-hetare when it comes to the vampire issues. 
  9. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to AaronIsCrunchy for a blog entry, How... did I get here?   
    Hey Fuwans! I've never done a blog before (or at least, not one that wasn't a work of fiction... is that still a blog?) and therefore I may lack the basic principles of layout, appropriate language, and possibly the most important factor of being slightly interesting. Still, I figured I'd give it a crack, partially to try to understand the events in my life leading up to where I am now and partially to offer my pearls of wisdom on various facets of all things Japanese and fun. I hope that in the very least it's a vaguely entertaining read, and that it might occasionally spark a blob of discussion!
    --------
    A few days ago I found myself wondering, while browsing the forums in a way that can only be described as a procrastinatory fashion, at what stage in my life I started to become interested in Japanese things. As a child, I never watched Pokémon, nor owned a Nintendo device, nor played Yu-Gi-Oh! round the back of the playground shed (cards were banned at my infant and primary schools for some reason). I used to like the shape of Japan on maps, but then again I liked the shape of many places on maps - including my first national love of Finland. I used to randomly drop Finnish words into conversation (still do on occasion...), spend ages reading instruction manuals with the Finnish language in, and would watch any film with Finnish subtitles because it seemed cool. In some ways, I was a Finland weeb, if that ever could be a thing.
    Over time, this spread to an interest in language generally, leading to me collating words from anything I could find in a big diary, divided and split into their separate categories with unconnected words scrawled in. I guess I liked thinking how different these things were. However, even this eventually petered out, and for a while I had little more than a passing inquisitive interest in anything outside of my cosy little life in southeast England.
    After school, I went to college, and it was here that I had my first definite experience with things of a Japanese nature. On my second or third day, I started talking to someone - or rather, he started talking to me - about an online roleplaying game which he was an active member of. He was describing to me his current character, telling me all about her personality and appearance, when he said that she was a 'tsundere'. I had no bloody idea what that was, so I naturally asked him (actually, I asked him what's a sundern', which I later found out is a town in Nord Rhine-Westphalia). Following his description, I became curious about why such a trait would exist, although I had no real reference point to go on. This friend went on to play a key role in getting me interested in anime, as at his suggestion I watched Kill La Kill, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai and Tokyo Ghoul. I sadly don't talk much with him anymore as I left college and we went our separate ways, but we still chat every now and then.
    Also while at college, I was surfing that halcyon land of the internet formally known as 4chan, when I came across a Katawa Shoujo thread. I'd seen them previously, but never really paid much attention - but, through a mixture of people talking about 'feels' (I liked to think I was somewhat impervious to emotion... ), cute drawn girls and the only vaguely fun 'community' I could find on /b/, I gave it a bash.
    Hanako showing a somewhat accurate portrayal of my experience playing Katawa Shoujo for the first time.
    Yeah. That. My outlook on life was pretty shit at the time, so having something which made me feel so strongly felt like some kind of emotional release for me that I had never had before (Wiosna, its theme tune, still makes me feel rather emotional to this day). It was due to this experience that I started to look out for other visual novels - in the following months, I played True Remembrance, Marry Me Misato!, Homeward, Yandere-chan, and my homeboy at college sourced me a copy of Fate/Stay Night, which with my very basic awareness at the time I'd heard was 'alright'. I started to open up socially again - not only in my actual life, but in my virtual life too, as I joined my first internet community in the Katawa Shoujo forums. It was great to be able to talk to such a wide variety of people about something I couldn't adequately discuss with anyone in the 'real world'.
    How I learned what a 'yandere' was. Hmm.
    Over the course of the next 12 months or so (so I guess April 2014 - April 2015) my interest in things drawn and Japanese-based waned somewhat. After running out of things to say on the KS forums, leaving college and starting university, I just got doing other things - mostly involving playing guitar and habitually cursing my decision of taking mathematics. However, for some reason one day I decided to Google 'visual novels'  and I came across a list of 50 VNs on some site called forums.fuwanovel.net by a user called Kaguya. Now, I'm not gonna say I danced on the rooftops (metaphorically or physically) but needless to say I became very intrigued, researching and reading about and around the titles on this list, as well as starting to make a concerted effort at learning Japanese. At roughly the same time, a friend of mine recommended that I checked out a guy called 'Gackt', in particular his first two albums. I was blown away, and so started to check as many different facets of the Japanese music scene as I could (visual kei, J-Pop, shibuya-kei... and grindcore ). Not two months later, I signed up to this glorious forum and things have only really continued from there!
    This past 5 or 6 months have been a bit like Alice wandering through Wonderland for me. Through my investigations into all things Japan, there have been things that have amused me greatly, things that have appalled me, and some that have just left me thinking what a truly interesting place it is. I still consider myself somewhat of a newbie to things, and that is in part what this blog is going to be about: feeling kinda like a tourist to a largely unfamiliar world, and trying to learn as much as possible along the way.
     
    Please be patient with me.
  10. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to Darbury for a blog entry, Oh, The (Tricky) Editing Mistakes I Have Made (Part 2 of ∞)   
    This blog is all about owning my mistakes and putting them on public display, so let’s do this. And yeah, I knew this one was going to come back and bite me in the ass. This was my albatross. This was my giant ass-biting albatross.
    The great “tricky” debacle of 2015
    So there’s this word that shows up in the English translation of Koisuru Natsu no Last Resort. If you’ve read it, you might have noticed it once or twice.
    “Tricky.”
    Umi, the main heroine, falls back on this word a lot to describe the protagonist. She uses it when he’s being nice. And when he’s being a jerk. And when he’s chewing food. And any other opportunity she can think of. Basically, I think she gets paid 100 yen every time she manages to work that word into a sentence. And let me tell you: girl is pulling down bank.
    Of course, this is a translation, so she’s not actually saying “tricky.” She’s saying something similar in Japanese. And therein lies a tale of woe and sorrow.
    The backstory
    But let’s rewind a bit first.
    When I came aboard the KoiRizo team, it was to edit a single route: Nagisa’s. Makes sense — I was a first-time VN editor, and Nagisa’s route was the shortest in the game. Moreover, it was an unlockable, which meant that comparatively few people would end up reading it. Other editors were already hacking away at most of the remaining routes anyway, so that was all fine by me.
    As I worked my way through Nagisa’s scripts, I saw the word “tricky” pop up once or twice in Umi’s dialogue as a personal insult and it just seemed ... odd to me. Tough math problems are tricky. Opening a stubborn jar of peanut butter is tricky. People? Less so. I’m an editor, though, not a translator, so I did what I was supposed to do: flagged it for TLC review, left a comment with my concerns, edited the line as best I could, then moved along. The translator on the project had made it clear he wouldn’t be reviewing any edits until all the routes were finished being edited, so that’s about all I could do at the time.
    When I finished cleaning up Nagisa’s route, I was asked if I wouldn’t mind tackling Shiori’s scripts as well, which no other editor had gotten around to yet. “Sure,” I said, and set about tidying that up as well. The word “tricky” popped up a couple more times, so I did the same thing: flagged it, reiterated my concerns, then kept on editing.
    I finished Shiori, and was asked if I’d pick up the common route and Umi’s route; the editing on both of these had apparently stalled. Okay, what had started out as a quickie project for me was slowly turning into something much more time-consuming. I could see that. But I was still having fun, so I agreed. I started with the common route, where Umi has more screen time, which meant I started seeing the word “tricky” a little more often.
    And I started to worry.
    I flagged it, left a comment along the lines of “See my earlier notes on tricky,” and kept editing. I was determined not to get hung up on one silly word. It was becoming clear that this was sort of a catchphrase word for Umi, and I didn’t want to change the translation in my scripts if all the other editors’ scripts were keeping it as is. It’d be like if a screenwriter on The Simpsons decided that “D’oh!” sounded dumb, so Homer should say “Ooops!” instead — but only on the episodes he/she worked on.
    Anyway, I finished the common route and moved onto Umi’s. And lo, I gazed into a bottomless abyss of trickiness.

    You sly dumbass, you.
    Now let’s talk about the actual word. In Japanese, it’s “ずるい” — “zurui.” And, true to its definition, zurui’s a tricky word to pin down.
    It’s often translated as “unfair.” (Or so I’ve been told. Again, I’m an editor, not a translator. I took a Japanese class or two a few years back, so I have a basic familiarity with the rudiments of grammar and vocabulary. I’m good for: “Hello, I only speak a little Japanese. Sorry! What time is it? Where is the train? I am a very cute peach.” And that’s about it.) But there’s a little more nuance to it than that. Getting cancer is unfair. Having your advisor take credit for your thesis is unfair. “Zurui” implies a level of deviousness, impishness, slyness, craftiness, and yes, even trickiness. Someone who’s being “zurui” knows they’re getting away with something — and they’re okay with that.
    Moreover, it has a secondary meaning of being miserly, which is something that definitely applies to Soutarou, the protagonist of KoiRizo. I have to imagine that wordplay was not lost on the writers ... or the characters.
    There’s no one good English word to capture all those layers of meaning. When Umi uses this word to describe the protagonist in KoiRizo, it’s clear from context that her emotional shading varies from line to line. Sometimes she’s straight-up pissed at him and is telling him off: “You jackass.” Other times, she’s more of a late-game tsundere and says it playfully, even affectionately: “You sly dog you.” But she uses the same Japanese word every single time. Sometimes she’ll even say it six or seven times in a row without taking a breath.
    “Zurui. Zurui. Zurui. Zurui. Zurui. ZURUI!”
    It was her catchphrase. And in pretty much every instance, it had been translated as “tricky.”
    If the word only appeared once or twice in KoiRizo, I could have swapped in the contextually appropriate English replacements and been done with it. (I actually did this in a handful of places throughout the VN, usually when it was clear she was at one extreme of the word or the other.) But given how often it showed up, I felt somehow obligated to honor authorial intent. This was Umi’s pet phrase for this guy she’d fallen in love with. At one point, I think she even uses it as all the parts of speech in a single sentence. If I started changing “zurui” to different words every time, she’d lose a fairly important character quirk.
    After looking at all the options, the translator’s choice of “tricky” started seeming like it wasn’t a half-bad compromise after all. It got across that Umi thought the protag was dealing from the bottom of the emotional deck, but it also had a playful, teasing quality. It was never the best word in any particular instance, but it seemed like it might be flexible enough to be just sorta kinda okay in all instances.
    That argument makes sense, right? I thought so at the time, anyway. And so I left “tricky” as it was.
    Boy, was I wrong.

    Mea culpa
    I overthought it, plain and simple. I forgot my personal rule of writing and editing: Make the journey as frictionless for the readers as possible. Don’t let them get snagged on odd phrasings or slightly off words. Keep them immersed in the story.
    I’d forgotten how jarring that “tricky” word seemed those first few times I saw it in translation. As the months passed, some sort of editing Stockholm Syndrome set in and I actually started thinking it might be an acceptable option.
    In short, I messed up.
    When I read Umineko for the first time, Battler’s use (and abuse) of the word “useless” seemed so ill-fitting to me in English prose that I almost gave up reading the VN right then and there. But now, I sort of understand how the Witch Hunt team might have, over time, come to see this ungainly adjective as the best compromise for their main character’s catchphrase. It doesn’t make me like it much more, but I can see how they ended up there. (But don’t get me started on “turn the chessboard over” vs. “turn the chessboard around.” The latter works; the former leaves you with a bunch of chess pieces on the ground.)
    So here's the deal: It doesn’t matter that I had to make literally hundreds of judgment calls like this over the course of editing KoiRizo — what to do with Yuuhi’s numerous nicknames for the protagonist, as just one example — and 99% of them turned out okay (I hope).
    What matters is there’s a big lump of tricky sitting in the middle of the visual novel. And it doesn't work.
    I signed off on it. And I take full responsibility for that.
    So what to do? Not much, to be honest. It’s one of those things I’d love to revisit if given the chance, but a 2.0 KoiRizo patch seems unlikely at this time. MDZ keeps his own counsel, but he seems to have moved onto other pursuits.
    And that, as they say, is that.
    Postscript
    As I mentioned, the original intent of this blog was to put a spotlight on my many missteps as a first-time VN editor. That hasn’t changed. I might also try to throw in some helpful life advice from time to time, but I’m mainly happy to let my blunders serve as good object lessons for other aspiring editors.
    That means you should feel free to discuss any boneheaded decisions you think I might have made. Odds are I’ll own up to them. I've got a very thick skin, after all. I just ask two things:
    1. This blog is about editing. If you have issues with someone’s translation choices, I kindly ask that you take it elsewhere. I hear Fuwa has really nice forums for that sort of thing, y'know? But if you have issues with how I edited someone's translation, then bring it on.
    2. Please don’t be a giant pixelated dick about it. No one likes a pixel pick.

  11. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to sanahtlig for a blog entry, [Fuwa exclusive][Rant] Promoting VNs in a culture of apathy   
    This rant stemmed from a conversation on Twitter. I'm posting this here purely because posting this line by line on Twitter seemed retarded, and I'd disable the forum notifications for this post if I could. You can dig through my recent Twitter replies if you want to see the context. Have fun.
    ***
    The problem is a bit more complicated than "some people don't like what I have to say". Sure, there's that, but the majority of detractors don't like how I raise my voice to be heard through the din. The majority of eroge fans are content to stay within their walled communities and gossip amongst each other. A few bloggers have appeared, but again they keep to themselves and expect their audience to come to them.
    I've challenged this status quo. I've decided to be the black sheep that actually promotes his content: after all, why would anyone devote any amount of effort to writing for the smallest audience possible? I write to make a difference. I write to be recognized as a community leader. I'm not content with just being heard by a single insular community of hardcore fans. I can't accomplish anything like that.
    I consider myself an industry activist. I do what the industry refuses to do: market and promote itself. In a community where freeloading is the norm, active promotion is very much frowned upon. Yet spurring people to buy stuff is incredibly important if eroge fans want to have a say in English localization. I want to be the facilitator that bridges the gap between eroge companies and the VN community. I want to be the voice for eroge fans when companies cross the line, thinking that sales are more important than the wishes of the fanbase. I can't do all of this by just whining in threads on Fuwanovel about the success of the Sakura series while games like Seinarukana remain in obscurity.
    Mainstream activists make a living off what they do. I do what I do almost entirely for free, with the simple request that people click my affiliate links when they buy a game because of the content I provide. I would say that criticism of me is hypocritical, yet I realize that only a year ago I'd probably have said that what I do is distasteful. If things would get done without me, I'd be willing to pass the baton and go back to an online life of obscurity. If good content promoted itself, I wouldn't need to try to so hard to get the word out. But well, life isn't fair, honest effort isn't necessarily rewarded, and mediocrity is the formula for success. If I don't promote my content, no one else will. That's just how it is.
    Long rant. I'm not going to post this on Twitter line by line.
    Note: This is meant to be a conversation between me and my followers. If you say something unconstructive or just piss me off, I'll start deleting comments without warning. You have been warned.
  12. Like
    kingdomcome reacted to Kuroi_Usagi for a blog entry, Little Busters!: A Different Kind of Chronological Look   
    Writers Note: What you are about to read is merely a chronological compilation of ordered thoughts on the conclusion I've come to draw regarding the Universe of the Little Busters!. You may find that it will be mixed with events that happened only in the anime. That is because not every piece of work is done right to perfection, and sometimes, even if it is once in a blue moon, an adaptation does produce something better than the original.
     



    Let's dive into something that's very dear to my heart. If someone were to ask me what my favorite anime would be, the first image to jump to mind would be Little Busters!. But then I would hold my tongue and take a moment to rethink. It is actually the visual novel that I am in love with, but I have found this story so endearing that I can't help but wish they would rephrase their question. It must have been three years since I've read this story, and it still resonates with me today.

     

     


    I have written a chronological-half-analysis-not-a-review essay of a sort.

     

    Little Busters! Origins
     
    The origins of Little Busters began when Natsume Kyousuke wanted to help his younger sister, Natsume Rin, make friends. The first member to join was Inohara Masato.
     
    In his youth, Masato felt belittled and isolated by his classmates and eventually started picking fights to stop the snickering behind his back. It worked for a time. No one laughed at him anymore, but everyone stayed away from him. His community dubbed him a monster and he felt more alone than ever.
    Kyousuke learned of the boy and together with Rin had set out to defeat him. The tough fight was won by the Natsume siblings and ended with Kyousuke extending Masato a hand of friendship.
     

     




     

    The next to join was Miyazawa Kengo, a young kendo prodigy. It was never explained why Kyousuke wanted to defeat him. I speculate that he thought Kengo was spending his entire childhood practicing at his father’s behest and wanted to free him.
     
    Kyousuke challenged the elder Miyazawa, defeated him, and secured Kengo's freedom.
     




     

    The four members eventually discovered Naoe Riki, a boy who was hospitalized after a car accident took the lives of his parents and left him with narcolepsy.
     
    'Childhood'
     
    Around this pre-adolescent age the heroines we know and love also go through some things of their own that develops into regrets. Kamikita Komari loses her older brother which causes her to develop regressive tendencies and psychogenic amnesia. Kurugaya Yuiko grows to become a prodigal student and shuts herself from the rest of the world. Saegusa Haruka and Futaki Kanata are pitted against each other to determine who the criminal child of Saegusa Shou was. Noumi Kudryavka was in Tebua struggling in her studies to become like her mother. Nishizono Mio develops the imaginary friend and persona of Midori.
     




     

     

    The history between here and the beginning of the Little Buster's visual novel is left to the imagination. Each heroine's route gives a rather sufficient glimpse into their past such that most of their history can be inferred. In the opening of the anime adaptation of Little Busters: Refrain each member of the main gang can be seen tending to Riki, who had succumbed to narcolepsy.
     




    High school & Adolescence
     

    Let's start where they are in high school in the real world.
     

     




     

    I postulate that the gang did not form a baseball team in the real world, and instead went about their typical antics much like they did in the VN's common route during the slice of life portions of their days.
     
    It is also likely, and supported by individual characters' accounts that the main Little Busters members and the girls that would later form the other half knew little of each other. This is backed up by Kyousuke's account during his route in Refrain where he states that he looked for others who held some sort of regret in their lives. In other words, it could have been anyone! However, our Key girls likely held regrets that resonated with Kyousuke, such that he found them useful for strengthening Rin and Riki. That would imply everyone became friends over the course of the events in the artificial world(s).
     
    There are several moments of significance worth noting before the trip happens. Haruka and Riki's first meeting at her beloved bench. She laters alludes in her route that this chance meeting made the bench that much more important to her. Kud loses her mother to the chaos happening back in Tebua after the failed launch, and declined to travel to her home country to find her. Koshiki Miyuki is forced to quit archery after losing sight in one eye and commits suicide.
     
    Time goes on and the class trip arrives. Kyousuke sneaks into the bus so that he could be with the rest of his friends on his last year.
     




     

     

    Now to the juice of it. Their happy little days would come to an abrupt stop, and a new beginning would come forth. On their way, the bus suffers an accident and goes crashing down the side of a mountain. Thus begins the Little Busters story as we know from the visual novel.
     
    Kyousuke's plan has been ruined. He had created such a great place for the shy Rin and his friends. All gone because of an unforeseeable, freak accident.
     
    So he wouldn't have it. It would not be the end of it. At best he wanted to save the lives of his precious sister and dear friend Riki who had known nothing but misery for a good part of his life. It was going to be tough, because the very two he wishes to save possess the weakest hearts. They would lose their will as soon as they learn of the tragedy, but even so, Kyousuke wants them to go on. So he devises a plan to make them stronger.
     
    How? By creating an artificial world wherein they can replay the last month leading up to their accident. He would usher Riki and Rin into a series of trials to resolve each of the heroines' and Keybros' woes. Doing so, the two would undergo a forced maturation and mentally strengthen themselves in preparation for the tragedy that will ensue. The perk of this world? They can reset it almost as many times as they needed (To an extent).
     



    BUT HOW???!!!

     

     

     

     

     




     

     

     

    The Clock has Stopped, The Artificial World
     
    Kyousuke selected the heroines and through their cooperation, with a little help from Key magic, created an artificial world with their collective consciousness.
     
    From here until Refrain is the bulk of the Little Busters visual novel. It isn't necessary for me to talk about every heroine's route as you are likely familiar with them already. Just keep in mind that RIki will go on to fail many times before he successfully resolves each of the girls' regrets.
     
    An interesting note that there is about a month or so between Riki's awakening into the common route/artificial world and the day after the baseball game where the date cuts off. That is not counting the time between the baseball match to the class trip, and the time Riki spends with the each heroine, including the number of times he's failed. Which means that they had likely spent years within the artificial world. I wouldn't be surprised if Little Busters is Christopher Nolan's inspiration for Inception.
     
    We will never know which heroine Riki was thrown into first or whose regret he solved first. However, it is my belief that it went a little like: Heroines+Rin1>Kurugaya>Rin2>Refrain. I don't think I need to order the "Heroines" route as doing so will only be redundant. I will explain why I believe Kurugaya likely occurred right before Rin2.
     
    Let's not discuss the semantics good and bad regarding the Little Busters: Refrain adaptation. That being said, I did like some of what they did with the anime. Specifically with Kurugaya because things make sense to the story.
     
    Kurugaya Yuiko
     
    First, we can infer from her actions and manner of speaking to indicate that she is aware of the artificial world more so than the other heroines. Whether Kyousuke allows her to retain her memories or she can exert her own control like him is unclear. Though the latter makes more sense.
     
    So, why do I believe Kurugaya's route occurs right before Rin2? Most people and walkthroughs will tell you to play her route last for the reason that it spoils the artificial world. But that's just a technical detail to suggest a pseudo-forced playing order.
     
    In regards to character-motivation and chronology of the world, this is what I believe: The order in which Riki resolves each girl's regret, Kurugaya Yuiko's route directly precedes the Heroines'+Rin1 routes because she could not have developed an interest in love as she did in her route without seeing the profound effects it had on the other heroines in their respective routes.
     
    She discovered love.
     
    What does this feeling compel her to do? She creates her own world to explore this foreign emotion as many times as she wants, for as long as she wants so long as her world holds. A world that Riki will experience many times over.
     
    A theory that I developed is that each person has a certain amount of energy in which they can shape their own world. This energy is expendable, and expends at a rate proportional to how much detail goes into their respective world. All of the Little Busters had been pooling in their energy to sustain many worlds/routes. Komari, Haruka, Kud, and Mio in particular expanded their world beyond the school and by the time Riki helped each them their energy had nearly depleted.
     
    What I believe happened was that when Kurugaya finally wanted to explore the feeling of "love" none of the heroines had enough energy to support her world but herself. She didn't want to go to the Keybros for help because her wish deviates from Kyousuke's plan. So she created her world It is why she calls it, "selfish," because:
    On a thematic note she would keep Riki from maturing. She was sustaining her own world for her own sake.

    The theory supports this because the extent of Kurugaya's world was within the school to mitigate energy loss, and most of it was spent in the broadcasting room. She then spent what energy she had left to repeatedly recreate the world, and to expend as little as possible rendered it less and less distinguishable from the previous until it became an exact repeat. It makes sense why, in the anime, right after her arc ends she is not seen disappearing with the other girls (Another thing the anime did well to portray).
     

    Rin2
     
    In Rin2, we have the final mission. The secret of the world. Rin must survive on her own at their sister school, but all that becomes too much for her to bear. After everything that she had gone through the final task was insurmountable to her.
     
    Riki confronts Kyousuke at the dead of night who affirms that he was the mastermind behind the "Secret of the World" missions. However, he after their conversation was interrupted, he was only left with more questions. Eventually he convinced Kyousuke to allow Rin to visit. Riki, having seen the strain this mission has been on her, brought Kengo to his side and challenged Kyousuke to a game of baseball with the hopes of bringing her back permanently. Riki and Kengo lost due to CHEAP TRICKS. Riki ran away with Rin but is later caught and taken back to school.
     




     

    Little Busters!: Refrain
     
    Kyousuke will ask Masato and Kengo to help him create the artificial world again. Despite the foul play Kyousuke pulled on Kengo the latter agrees to help one last time, but with his own condition: should Riki fail this time, he will no longer give his assistance and instead spend what remains of their time in the world playing.
     
    The world resets once again and Riki enters Refrain. Everyone who has read or seen Refrain knows what happens here, and there should be no confusion as to the chronological order of the route. Riki goes on to recruiting Masato and then Kengo in a similar fashion to how Kyousuke did when they were younger. Together, the four will pull Kyousuke from despair just as he had done for Riki in the past. The original team plays baseball one last time, say their goodbyes, and the artificial ceases to exist.
     

     




    The Clock Ticks Again
     

    Or so they thought.
     
    What happens next has been a matter of debate for some time now.
     
    I have identified three possibilities.
     

     


    1) Key Magic. This possibility is the least satisfactory because it is synonymous to an ass-pull. It is a trademark that Key likes to use in many of their works. Most recognizable is

     

     

     

    In a similar, but unseen fashion, Riki and Rin acquires their world's form Key Magic from solving everyone's regret. Thus curing Riki from his narcolepsy and giving them a second chance at saving their friends and classmates. 

     

     

    2) Limbo/ TV Lost-factor/ Escapism. This is one of the two most probable outcomes that I have long debated since finishing the visual novel. It also makes sense in a real world point of view. Unfortunately, this outcome would condemn Little Busters as one of the most tragic and heartbreaking stories humanity has ever told. 

     

     

    In this possibility, the Little Busters and classmates are not saved. Riki and Rin's story ends when they escape and the former succumbs to narcolepsy. He wakes up in a hospital and finds Rin huddled up in the corner of the room. Unwilling to accept their condition, the two create a fantasy world within their consciousness to escape the horrible tragedy. An imaginary world where the Little Busters are alive and well, and they are still going about their youth. 

     

     

    The heroine's routes can be seen as Riki going through the Kübler-Ross model, commonly known as the Five Stages of Grief, for Riki. The order goes as follows:Komari represents denial. Seeing the dead cat evoked the repressed memories of her brother having died. She refused to accept this truth and in order to cope, while under the temporary influence of a regressed state, started believing Riki to be her brother. Haruka represents anger. Recall that a good portion of her route involved trying to find the right person to direct her rage towards. At first it was Kanata, then Saegusa Shou, then her "parents," and at some point, herself.

    Mio represents bargaining. Her route revolved around exchanging her life for Midori's. She truly believed that letting Midori take her place would grant her redemption for having forsaken her. Kud represents depression. Bear with me. This one took some research.Aaron Beck developed what is known in the field of psychology as the "Beck Depression Inventory." It is a test to measure an individual's level of depression. There are three negative cognitions that he developed from another theory. It is as follows.The student has negative thoughts about the world The student has negative thoughts about his future The student has negative thoughts about his self
    [*]What does this have to do with Kud? Well, throughout the anime and visual novel she makes repeated remarks to demean herself. She is probably making fun of herself more than any bully ever did: she lacks confidence about her own image, concluded that she would fail the exam before it even began, and expected no one would ever want to be her roommate. There is more to list but the most damning is that she originally went back to Tebua to die. "Ни пу́ха, ни пера" "Ni puha, ni pera," "Neither fur, nor feather."

    [*]Kurugaya represents acceptance. This is a bit of a stretch, yeah? Her route makes her seem more like she was in denial. A different approach to seeing how her route went down is that she knew and accepted death, but before she dies she would use her remaining time to experience love. She lets go of her "selfish" wish in the end because she understood the inevitability of her situation, and her letting Riki go was the ultimate symbolism of accepting mortality.



    3) Natsume Kyousuke. The second of the two most probable outcomes and the outcome I have come to accept. This possibility banks on the very man who was the origins of the Little Busters, and the one who orchestrated plan to save Riki and Rin. The man with the plan, the master schemer, the Darkness Executives, Mask the Saitou, CHEAP TRICKS. It is not so outrageous to believe Kyousuke had a backup plan. 

     

    In this outcome, Kyousuke creates one final world to test Riki and Rin's resolve to save everyone. Beginning when the duo supposedly first exits the artificial and ending where Riki and Rin wakes up in front of the bus crash for the second time. 

     

    Wait a minute. Doesn't Rin and Komari meet one final time in the artificial world? Precisely. Which is why Kyousuke's backup world theory makes sense, and why the anime did a very good job in writing a scene that does not exist visual novel. The scene being where the girls except Komari disappears. Even after the boys disappear and the world collapses, Komari should still be there somewhere, right? That's because Komari did not leave yet, and she didn't leave because she found her way into the last world Kyousuke had created for Riki and Rin. 

     

    There, Komari was able to meet Rin one last time to give her the courage she needed. Riki (though still an inexplicable miracle) overcame his narcolepsy, and together with Rin were successful in saving everyone who was on the bus, including the Little Busters. 

     
    Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am sure there are countless other conclusions people have reached on their own, and this is just one of them. At first I only wanted to compile my thoughts and give it a rest. Then I ended up typing a small essay and thought sharing it would be nice, too.
     
    It is always important to keep an open mind, but never let someone give you all the answers without first taking the time to sort out your own.
     
    I hope my version of the Little Busters! conclusion gave you just an inkling of clarity to their story. I enjoyed writing this and I hope you did, too!
     
    I am always open to discussing stories so feel free to drop a message or comment!
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