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Valentine was momentarily taken back by a voice that came from the fog. His body tensed but soon relaxed as a woman emerged. He gave a warm smile, and his shoulder relaxed as he turned his head toward her. Perhaps some would think such a relaxed demeanor was odd given this new world and some of the people left in it, but Valentine's high willpower had a way of funneling negative thoughts into the abyss now if he so wished. Instead, he watched calmly as she moved, calculating ways he could easily escape if she were to try anything funny. [break][break]

He shrugged as he spoke, "the kind rot with peril," Valentine said, his smile deepening as he watched the young woman move. His eyes flicked toward the handle on her left hilt, as she continued speaking. Trailing upward, Valentine took in the rest of her, he thought she was rather pretty. He liked her shaggy hair and the way she was on guard even as she spoke and moved closer. He could tell that she had already been the type to adjust to this new world. Which was good, he could work with that.[break][break]

"Looking for my little sister, haven't seen her since all this happened," he said gesturing to the grand amount of chaos that was the Forgotten Mists. "Ran short on leads so just checking where I can how I can," he said another shrug forming as he spoke.[break][break]

Then the girl asked for his name, and he turned to her fully, he bowed slightly as he spoke "Valentine, and yours?" Usually, he would give a more formal greeting, putting his surname first, but that's when people were also formal, and far more respectful. It was often customary to give one's own name before asking for another after all. [break][break]

Valentine nodded, he wasn't familiar with this area and well she seemed to be more so than him, thus he would take her word for it. Especially considering from what he had heard monsters in this area did, in fact, attack any human they came across. As to what kind of monsters there were he didn't know. [break][break]

Then Valentine's eyebrow rose as he glanced at the circuit board in the girl's hands. "Great, more mechanical monsters," he said with a small sigh. His mind flashed back to the mechs in Japan. He shook his head slightly, "Thanks, I appreciate it!" He said with a smile, bringing up his own menu stated, "feel free to send it over, but would you like to do this together?" Valentine said, going toward his party menu options, and sending it over, he waited for her to respond. The choice was up to her whether or not she'd like to work together in such a venture. [break][break]

[attr="class","landtag2"]Miyah [TAGGED]

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Valentine grit his teeth as he rolled across the arcade floor, he had landed his strike against the weakest mech, injected the liquid, and left the rest up to Sami and faith hoping, praying that his companion would be able to take it out. At that time rolling back to a standing position, and lunging forward with intent to strike the mech his hit rang true. For a moment all was right in the world, except for the now searing pain, digging into his side as he attempted to plunge his spear into the mech. "Aghh!" He screamed, further twisting his arm toward the mech desperately trying to fight through the pain in order to land his strike.[break][break]

His vision went white a few times as he mentally willed more of his stats into vitality and not just willpower, but power itself. The power to fight through, the power to make a difference not within just mind but within the body. Then he heard the sound of his sister's voice, the sound of her asking for help. He tried to respond if not by fear then by instinct he wasn't sure, but between the pain of the laser, the smell of burning flesh, focusing, and trying to attack this monster his voice caught in his throat.[break][break]

However, for as much as he could muster, Valentine grunted out the words "Aurore!" His spear slammed into the mech's jaw, abruptly ending the laser. The pain of the burning laser still persisted, but Valentine found a smile coming to his face, as he let the green liquid within his staff drain into the mech. He only had one charge left in the staff, one use now. He didn't know how he'd continue to stand up to this mech. Or how he would even use the last charge but he had to do something, anything! [break][break]

Then Valentine saw a message from Sami as the blow came, he heard the other mech scream out as well. He felt a surge of experience points and as his blurred vision glanced across the menu screen he could see a message from Sami, he had done it, Sami had taken down the mech. Valentine smiled as he found renewed hope to continue moving, as he pushed through the burning pain of the laser digging into his side. [break][break]

With the force of his blow and the mech tumbling back into the arcade machines Valentine heard "ding!" Level 12... That was his level now, his stats had risen, and his skills had been upgraded, the information flooded into his mind as the menu popped up to the side of him. He felt his body rejuvenate some of the damage from the mechs laser thanks to his upped stat of vitality, though it was little, it was enough to allow him to walk forward. Which was good considering he wasn't sure he'd be able to move on without it. [break][break]

His breath was ragged now, he had to do something, and then he saw it as he willed one foot in front of the other charging forward. A new ability, he willed it to activate and then changed. Then the impossible was made possible. Ability activating... "Everything, everywhere," was the digital voice Valentine heard in his head. As the world momentarily went black. [break][break]

[break]

From his perspective Valentine found that time seemed too slow, he didn't know where he was until the picture of the world came back into view, he saw himself, he could feel himself, but this wasn't him... No, this was him just with shorter hair and more muscles... It was odd, strange as he seemed to watch himself from a third person view, and there, no, his life story. The words of his new ability came funneling into his mind. 'Draw upon the life force of an alternate-self,' was that him, was this it? Valentine watched as, in this life, this alternate self was more focused, less flighty. This version of himself had spent years, practicing Jeet Kun-Do more diligently than he and Saint Claire ever had, even going as far as to compete for championships dedicating his life to the martial art. Even using polearms. Valentine could see the 'others' life flash before his eyes, he could feel his power and skill flooding into him. He felt himself reach out for it, taking hold of it and making it his own.[break][break]

He could feel his wounds healing and his body becoming stronger, his stamina returning. Then the vision of the other Valentine faded away as the world, the material plane merged it's way back into sight. He could feel the burn wound in his side begin to heal itself, his strength felt stronger than before, and the bruising on his cheek from the earlier tail smack began to fade. He could feel a sense of relief and adrenaline wash over him as he found he was still a mid-step. The visions happening over a long time span from his perspective but it seemed mere seconds had only passed as they did.[break][break]

Valentine felt himself draw on the other him as he spun his spear effortlessly in between his fingers, rotating the spear-pointed blade toward the mech, he made sure the staff was leveled with his side, he twisted his waist and made his stance more sturdy as crouched slightly. Lunging forward and twisting his waist Valentine found himself attempting to dig his into the mech rotating his wrist as he did so to put a spin on the attack. He was quite literally attempting to drill into the creatures with his spear, aiming toward the broken jaw where it would be easiest for his spear to make its way to its skull. [break][break]

Valentine felt anger wash over him and subside several times over as the vision of Aurore ran through his mind, what the fuck did these bastards do to her? His voice quivered as he muttered more words, "Aurore, please be safe, please..."[break][break]




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[attr="class","landtag2"]Sami [TAGGED]

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"Yeah, you're right! We shouldn't dwindle around here any longer," Valentine said sighing, kicking the downward guy near him as he spoke to Sami. He moved toward the windows, snatching down any lingering black curtains and tossing them into his inventory as he figured they could come in handy later. He stretched, looking over to the enemies they had taken out, it would only be a matter of time before they woke up. Valentine hoped to be long gone by then.[break][break]

He turned to Sami listening as the boy spoke, he nodded and gave a warm smile. Sami's words were true, they had to get a move on, and they had to be confident, thus he liked how it seemed to radiate off Sami at that moment. Valentine simply replied "yeah we do," he said, his words followed by a soft chuckle as he walked out of the apartment. Sighing once more he stated, "I'm going to miss this place, hoped to keep it as a temporary base for whenever I was in Seoul, but oh well, guess it just means I'll have to find a new one next time," and with that, they were gone. He shut the door behind him, made his way down to ground level with Sami, and then made his way to the nearest waygate. [break][break]

[FIN]

[attr="class","landtag2"]Sami [TAGGED]

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Valentine stood in his room, he had held up in this place for a couple of days now. Just scouting the area and building when he had time, little by little. Though he felt at times that moving so slowly, and so careful could be a deterrent to him and Saint Claire finding their sister faster he figured it was better to be safe than sorry. Valentine turned to his brother smiling as he glanced from out the window of the room, the black sheets pulled back to let in a bit of sunlight. "So, where did you want to start looking today, Clairy, I was thinking-" Valentine's words to his brother were cut off as a notification popped up![break][break]


[break]

It said they had 10 seconds to decide and it was an offer to join another tutorial, Valentine found himself thinking for a moment turning to Saint Claire as he spoke, "I think we should do it, it'll give us more exp and we'll need it if we want to survive." He said, pressing the "yes" option. Then smiling at his brother. [break][break]

"We can do it, we've got this," he said giving a wide smile to his brother as the countdown finished. There was a flashlight and Valentine found himself blinking the blindness away. When his vision was refocused, he could see other people around him. "Hello, I'm Valentine," he said with a smile, then he saw Pori, and his smile went wide. "Oh, hey Pori! Fancy seeing you here, guess you got that notification too, huh?" Valentine said with a smile. Though he was nervous outwardly displaying it, and dwelling on it would accomplish nothing. Perhaps it was because of his high willpower, but Valentine found that he wasn't all the worried or bothered by the situation. He had found that ever since his last level up and his Willpower reaching B rank that very little bothered him much as of late.[break][break]

[attr="class","landtag2"]Pori, adam fujiwara, St. Claire, Vincent Cross[TAGGED]

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Valentine's attack struck true, his eyes widened in surprise as his gamble actually paid off, he'd drop his jaw in surprise, but as he tried to move it pain shot through it. He was sure he had either a fracture or break, the color around his cheeks bruising to a dark purple from the earlier tail smack. That was until a few seconds later, Valentine willed the syringe that had struck successfully to inject its poison. Valentine felt that the poison injection though limited was arguably the best aspect of this weapon. [break][break]

As the weapon struck true, Valentine rolled to the side, his eyes catching the light of the laser of the same raptor mech he had just struck going all over the place thanks to his fear effect. Valentine moved out of the raptor mech's way moving toward the other raptor mech who had been aiming its laser at Sami. He figured Sami was on his last leg and would try once again to attack that damn mech, to try and taser it with the last of its strength, after all, they had been dealing to the most damage to that one in particular. How much longer could the thing last on? Valentine hoped that Sami's last hit would land and that it would be the end all be all, especially considering there was one more mech that they needed to deal with as well.[break][break]

Valentine grunted as he attempted to dodge the raptor, and stab into its side with his syringe, if the attack would land he would inject the liquid from his syringes liquid. Though Valentine felt a trick of something in the back of his mind, the feeling of power rushing forward, he didn't know what his exp was at the moment, but he knew he had been hoarding the stats he got from leveling up, he has yet to use the options allotted to him by Earth-Chan as he thought he would have to use them in a moment, thinking they would be best suited to a situation at hand, and it seemed like that time would be sooner rather than later.[break][break]

He mentally started compiling what stats he would need to utilize as he was trying desperately to take down the raptor mechs, he could only hope that the mechs were struggling just as much as they were now. He couldn't let this be the end, after all, Aurore was still waiting for him, still waiting to be found. It was the entire reason he had come here, to begin with, to look for clues, to search for her amongst the chaos. He had to push back thoughts of negativity as he faced down these mechs. His mind wondered what would've happened if his sister had been found and attacked by mechs like these. The thought poured anger, sadness, and defeat into his thoughts. It was too much, the pain was too much, and he found his mind slipping. [break][break]

There was nothing he could do about that, besides one thing, something Valentine figured might help, taking a desperate gamble, he willed his stats into Willpower. His mind was relaxing as each point began to take hold...[break][break]



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[attr="class","landtag2"]Sami [TAGGED]