game on

There was an eruption of gasp, cries, and yells as the revelation hit the population of Aincrad in that single moment. Ryker grimaced darkly at it, before suddenly going into survival mode. He needed a plan of action, and he needed it right now. Something happened, then, that made him spring into action. A large man next to him- who had obviously made the decision to try to set himself ahead by taking experience through killing some others right off of the bat- took a swing at Ryker. He saw it coming, and leaned backwards, his ears picking up the whish of the wind flying over his head. He then turned on his heel- turning his core sideways with the lean, and kicking the man who threw the punch directly in the chest. His intention wasn't to hurt him at all, though, - he used the force from the kick to push himself forward. He then took off like a rocket, making a beeline for the exit of the arena- it was going to get ugly in there, and fast. He slipped out, and put some distance between himself and the ensuing chaos. As he was making his way out of the city, though, he summoned his sword-just to be safe. He slipped out of the city, into the pasture surrounding it. Once outside, he took a moment to breathe and compose himself.

Suddenly a realization hit him, which caused him to actually smile and laugh out loud. 'You can't be killed in a safe zone. Well, that was completely pointless of me to leave the city,' he thought to himself as he composed himself,' Well, while I'm out here, I may as well try to find some enemies to train on and level up as much as I can, really quickly.' He scanned the area, and then spotted some wild boars nearby, that had small red diamonds above their heads- signaling that they were hostiles. He took a deep breath, and began to move towards them a bit quickly. The faster the level boosting, the better.

(Sorry this took so long! My niece got a little fussy, so I tried to get her occupied after cooking and feeding her. It took trying seven different movies and putting up her princess tent for her to be even moderately calm.)

Piper didn't want to believe what they'd been told; she didn't want to believe that they were stuck there and that they would die in real life if they died in-game. She'd read somewhere that denial was almost always the first response to being aware of one's own impending death. Was that what this feeling was? Denial at the knowledge that she was going to die? This intense feeling of finding it hard to believe what they'd just been told - was that denial? Or was she merely still processing the information? For a moment, she could feel the crashing feeling of dread start to fill her and she stayed frozen in place with the terror while chaos began to erupt around her. Fights were breaking out already - but, wasn't that pointless? It was a safe zone. Or was it? Who knew what was true and what wasn't anymore? On top of that... Maybe that was the right response? Panic. That was what all this chaos was. They'd accepted that they would die, but they refused to go down without a fight.

With things getting worse, Piper took the chance to slink away, thankful that she'd been on the outskirts of the entire thing. She needed to get her head on straight. She needed to make sure she survived. To do that, she knew she'd have to level up, get stronger, upgrade herself. The problem would be managing to do that without getting caught in anybody's crosshairs. Those inside had made it clear that they'd kill each other if they had to, and she didn't want to end up dead by somebody else's hands. It would be best to try to put as much distance between herself and them straight away, so she headed out of the city entirely, coming across the field that had several boars running around.

@ momentai.
(Don't worry, my mom owns a daycare- I've grown up raising kids, and completely understand. Also, I'm gonna be a bit short and slow-going to a show tonight.)

Ryker fiddled with the sword for a moment, feeling the weight, and sharpness of the blade. He had finally approached the board, and one of them promptly spun around, and ran at him at full gait. He panicked for a moment, but then steeled himself, and lunged forward, with the blade straight on- piercing the boar directly, and making it fall into a pixelated, dissolving form. He paused a moment to take in what he had just done, and let out a sigh of relief.

"The first one is always the worst..." he muttered, and then drew the blade back, as three more began darting towards him. He leapt in the air, flipping over the first, slicing directly through the head boar during his forward rotation, before coming down and spinning with the blade held at full extension, catching both remaining boars with a single pirouette. He then came to ease, as he got a notice of his first XP and Col grabs. The XP of the four kills was also enough to level him up to level 2, and caused his blade to extend slightly further, and catch a certain different type of gleam to it. He smiled in accomplishment.

One step at a time.

(Ah, I can't imagine how difficult that is! x.x Also, I'm sorry this may be a little short; I've been in a bit of a slump but I'm trying to bounce back.)

Piper paused when she heard a commotion and, following the noise, she spotted a guy fighting boars. For a moment, she felt a slight panic fill her again. Would he be like everybody else in the stadium right now? She backed away a bit, watching as the boars were taken down. The guy's sword had grown and she was sure that was good for him but bad for her if he happened to be a hostile. Her brows furrowing, she turned, deciding to go in a different area; the hills were full of boars to fight, after all, and she didn't want to risk riling that guy up or making an enemy.

@ momentai.
(That's perfectly okay hun! If you need anything, let me know! I don't judge, and would be happy to listen if you need someone to talk to other than just through parentheses comments).

Ryker sighed as he looked about the rest of the fields. Plenty of boars running about- but should he boost for experience and risk the rushing crowd from the stadium? He decided it was a good idea to do so after a bit of internal conflict. After all, he had gotten a good rush out of there, and had already leveled up once. He ran throughout the fields, slashing down boats as much as he could. After a while, though, he had stockpiled a large stash of boar's meat, and decided that he should cook it for a little and catch his breath. And then, up came the large man who had swung at him in the stadium....

"Well, well, well..... if it isn't Twinkle-toes, learning to use his sword like a big boy. Let's see how good you are with it! It looks like you should have a feast of boat meat pickups! Now give 'em up or I'll cut you down for them!"

'Twenty minutes into the death game and someone is already trying to kill me instead of make t out of here... Great. This wasn't expected at all...' Ryker sarcastically droned in his head. Then, aloud, he said," I don't want to hurt you! Why are you gonna try to kill me when you could be training on mindless slimes to build up XP, and get a chance to get out of here?"

"Because I'm hungry! Now I'm gonna cut the meat out of you!" He yelled, barreling at Ryker with a clichéd roar of a battle cry. Ryker was ready though, and effortlessly dodged his thrust, and tripped him, sending the meathead tumbling to the ground past him. He yelled, and got back up in a rage, yelling again as people began to gather around the scene with curiosity...