Great timing

The show raged on as we took on a more dark point of view as we went back in time a little to find out what happened to Noell after the first battle of the show.

Noell ran into Telfour Bradford who proved to be unbreakable fighter in close quarters battle, Noell quickly dominates the battle with his incredible agility and swordsmanship skills and ends the battle before he suffers a fatal injury.

However, the fight had only just begun as Augustus Landon had appeared behind Noell and began to chase him around the train, his superhuman strength and durability making it almost impossible for Noell to escape. He only manages dodge away from his brutal grasp by escaping to his Allies who were also caught in a difficult situation.

After engaging in battle with Rea and Vanilla Clayton, Derrick along with Etheline and Florette believed they had knocked out the duo of attackers with the aid of MUMA’s immense attack power. But it’s then that they see something strange as they move to capture the unconscious duo, Vanilla seemed to float off the wall. It's then that Rea awakens from her false stupor and attacks Florette.

The attackers spring back to life and ambush the group. Etheline receives a mortal wound and Florette is currently wrestling with Rea who is minutes away from cutting her throat.

Derrick becomes enraged and irrational from the sight of Etheline’s half-dead body. But before he can go on a rampage, Noell arrives and brings Landon with him so that the whole group can finish this battle, once and for all.

30 minutes till the climax begins.

And so our Adventure continues…!

What an absolute mess.

This entire situation, has become such an unfiltered clusterfuck that you can barely even keep up with it at this point. You’re currently facing down a team of three different superhuman monsters which just stabbed one of your allies who is now on the verge of death if you don’t act soon.

To make matters worse, you barely have any means to actually damage these superhuman monsters as they are invincible to any conventional forms of attack.

You’re only hope in hell of taking these bastards down is two things.

First, grabbing the phone that lies next to your incapacitated ally and directly behind two excited psychopaths who are currently waiting for you to jump forward, right into your death.

If you somehow manage to grab a hold of that thing, you can pilot MUMA riding alongside the train and make it shoot another one of those shock blasts which will, hopefully, knock them out for good this time. If not, it should at least stun them long enough for you to use your rope to capture them.

You’re only other option is to take these bastards head on and find an opportunity to use your electro-blast to hit their insides directly so you can do some real damage for once. But in that case, you’ll have to find some way to make sure Etheline doesn’t get caught up in the blast, or else she’ll be suffering from way more than a stab wound.

“Are you going to keep standing there like a half-dead cockroach or are you going to do something?” Noell states as he raises his odd looking long saber.
The fact that your only help is a patronizing emo doesn’t help either.

“Stop wasting your time thinking about these two. I’ll take care of them and save that girl. Go help my useless assistant before she ends up one windpipe short a whole throat.” He states.

“That girl’s name is Etheline Brooks and easy for you to say, will you really be able to handle these two without my help?” you question.

“We have no other choice anyway, I don’t work well in teams and someone has to help Florette before she gets gutted. If not you, then who?” Noell retorts

What will you say?

>How about you save her?

>Fine, I get it.

>Put some Faith in Florette, she can handle herself.

Go to Florette she is actively in danger

>>2248732
>Fine, I get it.
Save Florette and then one of us can help Etheline

>>2248740
>>2248747

>Saving Florette
>Writing

File: Noell Cromwell01.jpg (57 KB, 540x786)

57 KB JPG

"Fine! I get it, you better not screw this up Noell, you talk a big game so you better be able to back it up." You concede angrily

"Didn't I tell you to cool off already? And don't worry, I never make a promise I'm not sure I can keep. I'll have these two captured and Etheline back to you in 5 minutes." Noell states.

"Whoza, you're going to fight us alone and you think it will take you 5 minutes to take the both of us down? You're more suicidal than you look brat." Vanilla taunts.

"I know right? Isn't his bravado and confidence so adorable?"Landon states.

"It makes him so irresistible. Do you mind if I take him on first? We can double team him after I've had my fun." Landon requests as he stretches his wrists and enters a judo stance.

"Sure, While you do that...I think I'll handle Derrick over there." Vanilla says as she points a rather strange-looking knife at you.

"I have a feeling you'll be a problem if we leave you alone. We may have to overwhelming advantage but you can never be too sure." Vanilla states as she begins to walk over towards you.

You have to admit that you wish you could fight her too. Completely outmatched or not, she stabbed someone you care about and you want to kick her ass for that.

But you have already know how important it is that you recuse your other ally first, you can't waste a second. You turn around and begin to head over towards Florette and Rea who're struggling on the floor on the other side of the car.

"Hey! Where do you think you're-" Vanilla is cut off from her provocation by Noell stabbing his blade into the wall of the train car and blocking her.

"Stop focusing on that loud dumbass and look here. I'm the one you're supposed to be worried about." Noell states with a determined glare.

"You're a dead man, you brat..!" Vanilla growls.

You ignore whatever commotion goes on behind you while you approach the fighting women.

Florette is currently on the bottom as Rea straddles her with her knife driven into Florette's hand.

The blood from her wounded hand has stained her glove a crude shade of crimson as Florette barely manages to hold Rea from piercing her neck.

You're going to have to be quick and delicate about this.

>Roll 1d100+5

>DC:65

>>2248930
Lets do this

>>2248947

Rolled 79 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>2248930

>>2248958

>Rolled 84

>Writing

You dash off and close distance in an instant. You bring your leg back as you prepare to deliver a running low kick.

However, Rea notices you approaching and pulls her knife out from Florette's hand and slams Florette's head to the ground with her left hand to keep her incapacitated.

You bring your arms up, preparing for her to throw the knife at you or slash you with it when you get close. But instead, she slashes the knife at the air and misses you completely

At first, you think she may have reacted too quickly and missed you, but then something catches you in the eye and blinds you as you dash forward.

You realize that Rea splashed Florette's blood at you with that swing in order to blind you.


You can't see anything! But even so, you don't stop charging forward. Even if you can't see now, you already got a clear view of the area and you saw something you can use.

You turn your kicking leg slightly as instead of aiming Rea's head, you kick a random table leg and launch it in Rea's direction.

This is a bit of a gamble as you can't actually aim the improvised arrow you just launched but the sound of wood smashing into something tells you that your plan wasn't an absolute failure.

You hear the sounds of a struggle as you stop for a moment to clean your eyes. When your eyes open again, you see that Florette has escaped from Rea's hold and Proceeds to kick her off her body.

From the look of the splinters on her left arm, the table leg must have struck Rea in the arm and caused her to let go long enough for Florette to escape.

Florette takes back control as she grabs Rea's collar and slams her against the wall. Rea barely seems to flinch from the powerful throw, but it allows her a moment to escape and jump back.

Sorry i was unable to vote cleaning a fish tank...

You speak quickly, "How's your arm? Can you still fight?" you question.

"My right hand feels numb, but I can still move it. Thanks for the help." She states as she takes a combat stance.

"I hope that means you're to throw some right hooks. Because it's going to take the two of us to take her down." You state as you ready yourself.

"Are you sure that fighting her here is the wisest idea Mr. Derrick?" Florette counters.

"What? Why would we not?" you question

"I would love to explain this to you but it appears my throw has barely done any damage to previous compatriot." She states as she points at Rea who is gearing up to attack you.

"I have to ask that you take a moment to think about how we can truly overcome this threat, the key is the timing, When did she start become so powerful?" Florette hints as she dashes off and begins to clash with Rea.

When did she become more powerful? You were caught in surviving that you didn't even think about it. When did these three become stupidly strong?

They were pretty much normal people until a few minutes ago, so what changed?

THWACK

Your thought process is interrupted by the sound of Florette being knocked away and almost crashing into you. You dodge quickly and grab her before she falls to the ground.

You put her on feet and prepare yourself as Rea comes rushing towards you.

You'll have to leave the thinking part for later.

for now..

How will you defend?

>Team attack with Florette? (No relationship, only +5 bonus)

>Prepare your electro-blast while Florette attacks.

>Attack while Florette retrieves her weapon.

>Attempt to figure out Florette's hint.

Electro-blasto glove time

>>2249347
>Attempt to figure out Florette's hint.

>>2249347
>Attempt to figure out Florette's hint.

>>2249387
>>2249400
>>2249475

>Time to work your mind!

>Roll 1d100+10

>DC:70

Rolled 67 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>2249550

>>2249587

>Writing

Rolled 30 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>2249550

You can't move forward without understanding this mystery, but there's no time to stand around and think, you'll have to move while you think.

You shift your attack stance into a defense stance.

Rea comes rushing forward with a stab aimed at your torso, you deflect the stab by moving slightly to the side and pushing her arm away and putting her behind you while you think.

Let's recollect what was happening at the beginning of this show, you rushed of to ambush the robbers but were cut off by these two when you were almost there, you all fought each other and Etheline blew the entire train car apart.

You roll away from Rea before she can stab you in the back, she jumps forward and attempts to stab you in the head but as she flies forward, you duck your upper body as Florette comes flying in with a kick to Rea's stomach.

Rea is knocked back but immediately recovers and wastes no time countering Florette. There it is, her defenses are weird.

You can swear that when you Florette kicked her, she nearly fell over from the force. Now she just brushes it off like a bad joke.

When did that switch happen? Was everything just an act? If so, when did they drop the act?

"Mr.Derrick! Look out!" Florette shouts.

You wake up from your thought process as you narrowly dodge a knife being thrown from at your face and watch as the knife pierces the wall behind you.

It's then that you see it, the camera above you brings back the words Etheline said after MUMA's attack.

"Well, I'm a little worried about that as well. But The power of that blast just now should have disabled all cameras in this car." Etheline explains.

The cameras, things starting going crazy from the moment the cameras went off. Were they hiding this strange power from the cameras?

Then that means if you were get them in an area where there is cameras, could you get her get to deactivate this power?

Florette dodges back as Rea attempts to kick her in the head, she follows up by kicking her in the stomach which sends her flying back.

She jumps back to you and speaks, "Your moves have been lacking aggression, could it be that you have something planned Mr.Derrick?" She questions

You speak, "You're damn right I do. I just figured it out Florette. But how did you realize before me?" you question.

"While I was cleaning up the pile that our attacker was crushed under, I noticed that the wood or porcelain items left no cuts or dust on her clothes or skin. This that would mean that the items she had on top of her didn't fall on her, rather that they were placed on her." She explains.

"Which means she was awake after MUMA blasted her and was setting up to trick us. Why didn't you do anything back then?" you ask.

"You and Ms. Etheline had begun to make a ruckus over something and our attacker had taken advantage of that to ambush me." She explains.

"Yeah sorry about that. But how about I make it up to you by giving a chance at revenge?" You suggest.

"What do you have in mind?" She asks.

What's your plan?

>Lure her into another car with cameras and take her down there.

>Have Florette distract her while you charge up an Electro-blast.

>You distract Rea while Florette attempts to capture her.

>>2249867
>>Have Florette distract her while you charge up an Electro-blast.

>>2249867
>Lure her into another car with cameras and take her down there.
It's probably the safest and least life threatening option plus we should probably save the electro-blast as a surprise trump card against the other 2

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>2249886
>>2249901

Well it's been awhile, but looks like I need to roll to decide who wins.

1= Electro-blast
2=Lure

>>2250069
Nah if that's the case I change to lure. Sorry was away doing sick person things.

>>2250069
>>2250072

Whatever you wish anon, lure it is.

>Writing

"Yo Florette, wanna go fishing with me? I've got this carving for Red herring all of sudden." You state with a smile on your face.

"Fishing?What do you mean by-" She about to question you're abrupt change of topic but she catches your meaning and cracks a small smile of her own.

"Why yes Mr.Derrick. I happen to love fishing, but I'm going to need my rod first." She subtly turns her eyes toward her rifle lying on the ground.

"I Don't suppose you would be so kind to gather the bait whilst I retrieve would you?" She requests.

"Oh don't worry. That's not a problem at all."You comply.

Rea looks suspiciously at the both of you, trying to figure out what you're implying. Too bad you won't give her even a second to think.

You're counterattack starts here.

>Roll 1d100+5

>DC:75

Rolled 3 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>2250154

File: [More than a little Concerned].png (183 KB, 376x448)

183 KB PNG

>>2250161

Oh my, that's a critical Failure there, we're going to need a miracle now.

>>2250177
Wait I thought over riding critfails were 1s?

>>2250185

I changed the rolling rules a bit to add a level of risk to these threads. any 1-10 roll now counts as critical failure while any 90-100 roll is a critical success.

You can read about it in the Combat rules, for now, we must wait for someone to roll a 90 or higher.

Rolled 16 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>2250202
Can the guy who got the crit fail re-roll so it doesn't count anymore and also do crit successes override crit fails or do they just cancel out

File: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.png (86 KB, 230x303)

86 KB PNG

>>2250218

Sorry anon, a critical is a critical failure. No re-rolling can cancel that.

And yes, if you were to roll a critical success, you would just cancel it out.

either way, the dice gods seem to finally be taking their due for all the good rolls we've been having, unless the next roll is somewhere in the 90s, we are all doomed.

Rolled 24 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>2250154
>>2250154
3rd roll
>>2250257
The fact that failures seems to be massively punishing while successes do nothing is getting really disheartening.

Rolled 95 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>2250257
Instead of waiting I'll just re-roll mine and hope for a crit and if not let's rip off the bandaid quickly

>>2250299
Do crits take absolute propriety or is it only a crit within the first 3 rolls

>>2250310
I'll be sooooo happy if they are absolute

>>2250310

For the sake of our collective sanity, I'm going to ignore >>2250281's re-roll and take >>2250299's instead.

Since the first three rolls were absolute garbage, I'll allow three more rolls to determine this outcome.

File: 368512e1d86157597552efce3(...).png (242 KB, 536x301)

242 KB PNG

>>2250330
Thank you so much senpai

>>2250281

And to answer your fears, it is not that I make the failures punishing and the success useless. I am just trying to make the rolls more difficult since I thought winning the fight in one or two rolls would make things too easy.

I want every win in this quest to be something people have to fight tooth and nail for so they're worth remembering. Plus it should be pretty obvious that your opponents far outclass Derricks current strength.

Things won't be this hard forever.

Probably...

>>2250350
>And to
It's just that every success ahs done nothing and in fact put us in worse position than before. Furthermore you've been raising the DC every time as well. The only time we seemingly made headway was as Noelle. IF that because you've picked up the habit of doing "That win you got, oh I was lying" which is demoralizing as crap when we're facing 3 invulnerable super killers were at base as strong if not stronger than us with no limit and one person is going to die and another is crippled.

>>2250350
I completely agree with this approach going into this game with so many people who are stronger on the other team I had two fears:
1. We would die during the exam
2. The fights would be too easy
During the fight in barry street it kinda felt that we had plot armor to me. Which almost made me drop this quest but I'm glad I kept reading. It's just I'm mostly afraid of instant kill rolls when someone gets a crit fail on 1 dc

>>2250360
I also kind of I agree to this I admit I was kind of salty when we won the last battle but we cut back and we seem so fucked and didn't even have a chance to fight back but I assume that was the point and we we're supposed to share the same frustration as Derrick

>>2250360
>>2250383
>>2250393

Well, If I'm honest, I Didn't expect the show to go like this.

I had a multitude of plans ready for how this would go, but when you asked for me to make Etheline do something, I had to reveal a twist I had planned for a bit later to come out now.

That choice, in of itself, wasn't a problem, but I had to go with the most brutal possible route because of it.

But don't worry, you're actually very close to winning, it may seem hopeless now., but you must always remember.

Whenever and wherever the Night may strike..

Dawn must always follow

>>2250438
Are you waiting for more rolls or something?

>>2252732

Sorry about the delay, I needed to do some private business and get some notes arranged before I continued.

Now then

>Roll1d100+5

>DC:75

Let's hope giving the dice gods a day to calm down from their blood rage will help our rolls.

Rolled 84 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>2252876

>>2253016

The dice gods are forgiving this day!

>Writing

File: Derrick Holums.jpg (32 KB, 480x360)

32 KB JPG

"It's time to end this Florette." You proclaim as you dash forward and begin your counter-attack.

Florette nods her head as she crouches down and readies herself.

You set off immediately, with a powerful kick-off, you dash full-force towards Rea with your fists at the ready. Rea immediately takes a defensive stance as she expects you to charge right into her shoulder flip which she'd follow up with snapping your neck while you're down.

But what she wasn't expecting was you to duck down and grab a plate and toss it at her like a Frisbee. She immediately counters by deflecting the flying saucer, but instead of moving away, it cracks apart on impact and blinds her eyes with porcelain.

You push the strength in your legs and knees to the limit as you propel your shoulder forward and deliver a savage shoulder check to her stomach.

That strike would knock a normal person out cold and probably send them to the hospital but it barely even manages to wind Rea. However, it succeeds in sending the light woman flying across the room.

As Rea flies away from you, you roll on the ground and grab Florette's 'rod' and toss it back to her. She receives the large rifle and immediately aims it at the falling Rea as you prepare to take this plan to the final stages.

Rea lands from her flight with the grace of a cat and dashes off the instant she lands. She glares a bloodthirsty at you as she rushes you. You can tell, she's moving in for the killing blow. The sense of danger kicks your movement into high-gear as you reach into your suit jacket and pull out your straw rope.

By the time that you've completely unwrapped the straw rope, she's mere inches from grabbing your open neck and snapping your wind-pipe in half. Normally this would have been your death right here.

But not today.

https://youtu.be/z9D71pQaTnc

Today, you're going to live like a madman.

And fight like a cowboy.

Before the deathblow can be landed, Florette fires a dummy round that knocks Rea right off her supporting leg. You smirk from ear to ear as you rush behind the falling woman and tie the end of one of her legs and immediately begin to dash toward the door at the other end of the car.

Florette quickly opens the door to the next car as you take off like a pro-runner, dragging a struggling Rea the whole way.

You enter the next car with a jump and listen as you hear Rea's head crashes into the junction between the cars and Florette jumps in behind her.

You toss the Rope in the air as Florette catches it and pulls Rea full force into the air.

>Roll1d100+5

>DC:30

Rolled 96 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>2253179

>>2253190
Thank you senpai

>>2253190

>Time to end this

>Writing

You jump in the air and grab Rea by the face as you slam her head-first into the metal below. You can already feel that her insane defense has disappeared, looks like your deduction was right, which is great, or else this plan would have ended with you being one windpipe short a whole neck.

You pull your hand off the staggered and half-conscious Rea, as you quickly get up and wrap the rest of the rope around Rea's arms and legs as you hogtie your the woman and eliminate her from the show.

You stand up and let out a lung-emptying sigh as you nearly fall over from exhaustion, "That's one down." you state, half of you proud that you actually won, the other half depressed that their are still two other bastards to deal with.

"That was excellent Mr.Derrick." Florette states with a proud tone, "I believe they call this 'horse dragging', a practice where you drag a criminal across the desert back to the sheriffs office. A classic punishment shown off in many western movies. How did you devise such a trick so quickly?" she questions.

"What western movies? Where I come from, we call this trick 'Road Riding' and it would usually involve a iron chain and street racer in place of a horse. You can say I just bootlegged that stunt and took a gamble that she would get frustrated and rush me. Turns out, I'm a great gambler." You boast.

"Well I hope you're also a consistent gambler, because we still have to assist master Noell in taking down the rest of these bandits." Florette explains.

"Give me a break, how many minutes till the show ends? And what the hell are Sheldon and Ami doing?" You ask in an exasperated tone.

"5 minutes and probably failing, like usual." An apathetic voice calls out from behind you.

You turn around to see a limping and bloody-looking Noell walk into the train car with a patched up Etheline on his back.

"Holy hell Noell. You look like you got knocked over by a dump-truck." you blurt out upon seeing him.

"And those stab wounds are looking rather nice as well Derrick. How about you thank me before you start patronizing me?" He asks as he sets Etheline down and sits down himself.

You ignore his sarcastic quip and examine him.

Nevermind being hit by a dump-truck, he looks like he's ready to be picked up by one, he has a variety of blood splatters on his coat and several holes in that reveal what looks like burned flesh underneath. His arms hang limply from his body as if the bones in them have been completely separated from their sockets, however he still has that same neutral look on his face as if this is average for him.

Florette wastes no time kneeling down to him and begins to examine his wounds thoroughly.

"These are terrible burns..they could leave a scar if we're not quick about washing and treating them." Florette explains.

"Thanks for stating the obvious, but I can't leave until those two idiots come down and hand me their prize." Noell explains.

"We can collect it later. I left the medical supplies back in our room, I'll need them to treat these wounds pro-"

"And you'll leave the injured girl while you carry me off to me my room? I know you have the intelligence of a semi-retarded ape, but you can at least understand human language correct? Then listen to me when I say I'm staying here, be quick and grab the medical supplies and bring them here." He commands.

Florette shivers for a moment before nodding her head and rushing off to the Sleeper cars.

You honestly no idea what's happening, but since Vanilla and Landon haven't rushed into the room by this point, you have to assume Noell held to his promise and took them both down and saved Etheline while he was at it too.

What will you do?

>Ask Noell what happened.

>Head over and examine Etheline's condition

>Just wait until the Carlton Twins get here.

>>2253380
>Ask Noell what happened.
>Head over and examine Etheline's condition

>>2253387

>String of post incoming

>Writing

You head over and kneel down to examine Etheline's condition. Her wounds have been bandaged up with a strangely familiar- looking cloth. One of her hands holds her stab wound and the other holds her phone.

She groans as you approach and then opens her and eyes. You're eyes widen momentarily upon seeing that Etheline awake.

She turns her head to face you and speaks, "H-Hey Derrick. How are you doing?" she asks in a pained voice.

"Way better than you clearly. How are you awake already?" You question.

"Well I was never actually asleep. Getting stabbed just hurt so much I could barely move. However, my wounds weren't actually fatal." Etheline explains.

"Weren't fatal?" you question.

"Vanilla stabbed me the side of my lower abdomen, she was dangerously close to stabbing my stomach or my liver, but I think she purposeful missed my vital organs." She states.

"What? Seriously? So you weren't in any serious danger?" you ask.

"I think she just wanted to provoke you into attacking her and getting yourself in trouble. I don't think she mean't to kill me from the start. Which is great for me considering it means I won't have to give up the exam. But still, getting stabbed really, really hurts." She answers.

You can't believe you got your emotions manipulated so easily. Vanilla really is an under-handed bitch sometimes, but you have to admit your glad that she didn't actually kill Etheline.

"Even if you didn't receive a fatal wound, that wound can still get infected. Don't worry, Florette will be here soon enough with some proper bandages." You attempt to comfort you're injured ally.

"Oh. Um, this isn't a bandage, this is Vanilla's shirt." Etheline states.

"What?" you blurt out as you look back at the cloth on her wound again and notice that the color does look like the color of the blouse that Vanilla usually wears.

"How did you get Vanilla's shirt?" You question.

"I think it would be best if you asked Noell that question." Etheline states as she turns her head over to Noell who perks up at the sound of his name.

"If you're that curious, just look in other car again." He suggests as he goes back to brooding.

You comply with suggestion as you open the door to the adjacent car again and look over to the other side of the car.

You look over and see the defeated bodies of your other two opponents. Vanilla ls once again pinned to a wall, but this time it's by a sword stabbed through her hand and almost no shirt to cover up her modesty as most of it was ripped off, probably to create Etheline's bandages.

You then look over to Landon who looks uninjured from a distance, but you look closely to see a rope hanging off his neck as he lies on the ground with what looks like deep rope burn on his neck.

"Damn! What happened in there?" You ask Noell.

"An insane and tiring mess." He answers.

"I can see that. I mean what happened specifically." you ask again

"It would be a pain to explain it all, are you sure you want to hear it?" He questions.

What will you say?

>Give me the whole story

>Tell me, but make it quick

>Just skip it

>>2253562
>>Tell me, but make it quick

>>2253562
>Tell me, but make it quick

>>2253567
>>2253577

>Making it quick

>Writing

"Make it quick. We don't have all that much time." You request.

"Okay, I'll skip over all the minor stuff and just give you the major details." He preempts.

"So, right after you left to go fight with Florette, I started fighting the creeper and that annoying scarred woman. They started off with their usual garbage banter before I shut them up by using their taunts as a chance to stab the woman and pin her to a wall." He starts.

"Wait, your sword actually stabbed through their insane defense? Not even a high powered electro-blast was able to do that." you state.

"Swords from Brenho aren't ordinary, there's nothing they cannot cut or pierce. My Father used to tell me that the blacksmiths imbue the weapon with a special kind of power and when the time comes, he would tell what that power was." He explains

"Well, what is it?" you ask.

"I never learned it. My Father left before he could tell me." Noell confesses.

"Oh..." you decide not to press any further as you know how touching the subject of missing Dads is.

Noell takes a moment before continuing "I was able to disable her right away because of that, but I was only able to get that attack in because they underestimated me. Everything else was a little more difficult." He states.

"Difficult?" you question.

"Turns out that strange defense wasn't their only abilities. The creepy bastard had tiny needles attached to his hands which are coated in a slow-acting muscle relaxant. When he touched me with them earlier, he planted them inside me and caused the muscles in my shoulders to fail." He states

Muscle Relaxing needles on his hands? That something you've never seen before, but I guess that means if he even touches you that it would be deadly. Good to know.

>Info Gathered: Landon's weaponry

"Naturally that meant I couldn't fight him normally. So I had to take drastic measures" Noell continues.

"How drastic we talking?" you ask.

"I took Etheline's rope and wrapped it around the creeper's neck and hung him from a nearby ceiling light." He explains.

"Holy crap that sounds extreme. But you had no shoulders right? How the hell did you hang him?" You ask.

"I used my teeth to hold the rope as I tied it around his neck and jumped off his shoulders to reach the ceiling light." He explains nonchalantly.

"Are you saying you choked him out with your teeth? Hot damn." You can't help but be a little impressed yet frightened at the same time.

"In more crude terms, yes I did. But that wasn't the end of the fight. The woman came back with a vengeance and threw a strange knife into my arm and caused my arm to burn." Noell explains.

"Your arms were lit on fire? That must have really hurt." You state.

"Wrong. They weren't burned by fire, they were burned by decay." He corrects.

"Decay? Like a corpse?" you question.

"It must have been an extension of whatever weird power they were using. When her knife cut me, the flesh it touched had begun to burn away and rot right off my arms." He explains.

"That doesn't sound physically possible. Decay takes several hours even begin, how the hell would it happen so fast that skin burns off?" You counter.

"You're asking me? I can barely understand most of what was happening at the time myself. All I know was that my skin was rotting off and the rot was spreading, so I had to knock out that scarred woman and get some kind of treatment quickly. fortunately, that's when that geek over there stepped in." He says as he points over to Etheline.

"Umm, this geek has a name. It's Etheline Brooks." She complains.

"Your name is as unimportant to me as your pathetic complaints. Now explain what happened you nervous geek." Noell counters

"As I thought, I really don't like you. But fine...yeah, that's when I decided to not let him steal all the cool moment for himself. I grabbed the phone while no one was looking and set Muma to fire much more precise, concentrated electric shots. So while she was distracted with Noell, I had Muma jump behind her and blast a shot right in the back of her head!" Etheline finishes her statement by punching at the air, which causes her to grab her wound in pain.

"Owwww... " She groans quietly.

"I was quite thankful for her assistance in ending the fight. So I took the scarred woman's clothes and used it to make a thick bandage for her wounds." Noell picks up.

Etheline perks up again"I would have scolded him for ripping a lady's clothes off, but that same lady stabbed me, so I let it go." She adds.

>Info Gathered: Vanilla's Ability

That sounds both disturbing and insane, it's a wonder how you got so caught in your own fight that you didn't even notice the one beside you happening at all. It also clear that this must be what the Carlton twins meant by 'unusually skilled contestants'.

You wish the Carlton twins didn't downplay the danger so much before making you fight four of them. Those two might as well have thrown you into a lion's den and told you to be careful because the cats inside their are 'unusually big and aggressive'

But now that you think about it, "What the hell have the Carlton twins been doing all this time?" you ask aloud.

"We should be asking you the same thing, oh Blonde victor." As if on cue, you hear the voice of Sheldon ring out from the intercom above.

"We've been silent as commenting on the proceedings would have just slowed down all the intense action of the show. And that action was intense!" Sheldon exclaims.

"Or at-least it was until the cameras got taken out and we missed the last 30 minutes of the show. That wasn't very intense." You hear the sound of Ami's voice, but it comes from in behind you instead of the intercom.

Everyone turns to face the woman as she holds a very colorfully designed box with the word 'VICTORY' painted onto the front in big, golden letters.

"We earnestly don't know what happened at the end there. The cameras shut just as the first fight was really getting spicy and sad boy jumped up to the roof after he beat that loud bastard. Plainly, it kinda feels like we got robbed of a real show." Ami states in a disappointed voice.

"However, A win is a win! And as far as we can tell, you three beat-up losers are actually winners!" Sheldon exclaims.

"I know she's easy to forget. But Florette went out for healing supplies, so you're missing a number there." Noell corrects.

"I couldn't care if we got three beat up losers or four. Just take the prize and get moving already!" Sheldon states

The amount of passive-aggressive insults you heard in those last four statements should be a clear indicator that the Twins aren't very happy with how the show turned out.

You're just glad that the cameras in the shattered mess that you made in the other car can't be viewed by Sheldon, as you're sure that you wouldn't be getting this prize right now.

I'll continue posting tomorrow, goodnight for now anons.

>>2253965
Thanks for running see you tomorrow

Keep up the good work QM, I love this shit

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>>2253965
Just caught up, and while I'm enjoying the quest, It's bugging me that it seems like for someone we rolled up to be so intelligent, Derrick often feels behind most of the others in terms of intellect, almost like we're playing a battle genius rather than a genuine genius, as we seem to be the last to catch on to things more than we should be.

In particular, the point where Sheldon announces all of the contestants names for the show, when 'Rea' is not announced but a 'Christina' or whatever the name was was announced as the 8th contestant, I'm sure every one of your readers made the connection immediately, not to mention every other contestant, but not Derrick, who just angrily refused to connect the dots? I understand his hangup over Rea but It seems ridiculous if he's supposed to be so intelligent.

Outside of that i was wondering how you planned to approach our eventual Nen powers. If you take Hisoka's word about nen and personality types then that seems to put Derrick as most likely an emitter, or perhaps enhancer as a secondary, but that depends on if you treat that as canon or reliable here.

Will you be offering for us to choose our nen type and Hatsu? If not, can we at least create our own Hatsu, or do you have one entirely predetermined?

Personallly i hope for Derrick being an emitter, especially since emitters are so compatible with enhancement.

>>2254882
I've been thinking this same thing for a while. Intelligent characters should get more than just a plus to rolls. I've known for a while that we're probably an emitter or maybe an enhancer so I've been trying to think of a couple of hatsus for a while now becuase I'm almost 100% sure we'll get to choose based on the nature of nen. I've also theorized that Noell is a Conjurer based on his personality and his ability will be a sword that he can teleport too based off his design (If you've played FFXV it's kinda obvious)) and what would be ideal for his fighting style due to his weakness to long range

>>2254882

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the threads, seeing random anons happy gives me lifeblood.

To answer your questions, yes I will be allowing you to choose what Derrick's Nen Type is. However, unless you have some very good ideas, I'll be the one deciding what the Hatsu is.

And regarding the 'Christina' thing, I've got quite a few long term plans and I will admit that I've been forced to dumb down Derrick at times for the sake of the plot, but Derrick refusing to put the dots together shouldn't be the thing that confuses you.

There's someone else who said something that convinced Derrick that he isn't wrong, be a bit more observant of past conversations.

But nevermind that, the REAL mystery is...How did you enjoy any of my older sessions?

>>2254933

I try my best not to mimic the source material, so don't use that to predict what I'm going to do. But I will admit, you're getting close.


Now then. the thread restarts after I'm done eating, so give me a moment.

>>2255308

Sorry to take so long.

>Writing

>>2255378
Time to celebrate with everyone even if we have to make Noell celebrate
>>2255308
To answer your question at least for me I've never seen a HxH quest before and enjoyed you're writing. I've been looking for some goid HxH fanfics with original characters in an original exam but most of It was just shipping their oc's with the already existing characters. I liked your writing style and the murder mystery got me immediately interested. You seemed like a new qm who was trying to get some experience and you seemed to take criticism pretty well so I was hoping you'd improve on you're poor presentation with the blocks of text and spacing. I'm glad I kept reading though the exam hasn't even started and it's getting really hype. On another note I'm really surprised on how you're handling nen I would've thought it'd be the other way around based on how nen works. It would've been cool to craft nen abilities with other anons buy I'll trust how you handle it. I know I'm going to vote for emitter because it fits his personality and it's a cool type much cooler than enhancer in my opinion

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"Well, whatever the heck happened while we weren't looking doesn't matter, you've won your prize. Go ahead and open the box." Ami places the large box on the ground and waits for you to approach.

You step forward to the box and untie the red bow on top. You remove the top and see a variety of goods and gadgets within.

The first thing you notice is that all the goods within the box have a common theme, namely that they're climbing equipment. You see four stacks of Ice axes with recently sharpened picks and edges.

Below them you find a 4 large boxes of energy-boosting rations made for extended journeys and a set of strange looking metallic spheres at the bottom with an assortment of strange switches and buttons.

This can only mean one thing, "The first part of the exam involves climbing a mountain?" you question as you look up to Ami.

"I'm required by contract not to reveal any details pertaining to the exam. However, I can tell you how close you are when you guess." Ami explains.

"Well how close am I?" you ask.

"hmmmmmm..you're warm. You're on the right track." She states after thinking for a moment.

"What part of that was close? Was it the climbing part?" You question.

"There you go, fishing for spoilers again. I'm not going to tell you whether you get it right or wrong, just that if you're close or not." She states.

"Can't say it wasn't worth a try.Okay, how about a question you can answer. What are these things?" You pull out one of the strange metal spheres and present it to her.

"That's a Temperature regulator. It tracks your body's temperature and helps regulate when you encounter extreme conditions. Press the button on the top." She suggest.

You do as you're told and suddenly a screen blinks to life on top of the metal sphere, the screen displays a '22*C'.

"That's the current temperature of this room. With all the A/C on it's a bit cold in here.Now try hitting the button labelled 'human'." She suggests.

You press one of the small buttons with the words 'Human' imprinted above it. Once you do so the temperature changes to '35.4*C'.

"That's your current temperature, if you're body heat was to hit somewhere in above 45 or below 20, that little machine would automatically start emitting a wave of cold or hot air to regulate your body heat." She explains.

"That's pretty amazing, but wait, are we going somewhere hot? Are we climbing a volcano or something? Wouldn't put it past you guys to throw us near an active volcano." you inquire.

Ami giggles at your question, "Hohoho, You're cold, really cold." She states with a smile.

Those giggles and laughs have never meant anything good, you're grateful for all this stuff, But if this is implying what you think it is, then you're gonna need a lot more then a couple of heating balls.

As you finish that thought, Florette comes rushing in with a heavy looking bag in her hands.

"I apologies for my tardiness, I forgot to retrieve the room key card from Master Noell, So I had to sneak into the room from the window." She explains.

"Nobody cares for your excuses you useless cow, just hurry up and start patching up our wounds."

Florette promptly sets the bag down and begins to pull out a variety of medicines and thick bandages for treatment.

"How do you guys bare to be around that annoying brat? I would have smacked him seven ways to Sunday if he called me a cow" Ami questions.

"I asked myself the same thing. For some reason, I can't avoid this Hot-topic reject. It amazes me how he just ends up following me wherever I go." You explain.

"Is that any way to talk the man who practically won you this show? Maybe I'd take your insults seriously if you didn't spend half the fight getting stomped by a red-head." Noell counters.

"Whoa, that joke was almost as funny as your life. How about you find a pair of working legs before you start making fun of me." You return.

"If my legs were working, I would have gotten up and left already, at least then I wouldn't have to listen to your god-awful voice." He states.

"Ahhhhh, can you guys stop ripping each other apart for like a minute? I can't sleep over the sound of your fighting." Etheline groans.

You both quiet down upon hearing that. Not because you're done insulting this annoying bastard, but because you realize that you're extremely tired as well.

You can practically feel as the battle high drains from your body, you can feel the fatigue of the previous battles catching up to you as well as all the pain from the stab wounds.

"Do you mind If i suggest something?" Florette asks suddenly.

Everyone turns to her with curious eyes, "As long as you don't say anything stupid, then we'll listen to you." Noell answers.

"How about a celebration?" Florette suggests.

>>2255598
Ayyy time for some more slice-of-life stuff it's felt like a while since we've had some time to breath which isn't exactly a bad thing as it is exciting but this will be a nice calm before the storm before the exam which I assume will start in the next thread

"I just told you not to say anything stupid and yet you run your mouth anyway. Do we look we're in any condition to celebrate to you?" Noell questions.

"It doesn't need to be extravagant party. We have free room service correct? We could just gather in someone's room and order food as we relax for the night." Florette explains.

"This has to be the worst joke I've heard all night and I had to put up with those twin's terrible acting." Noell counters.

"Hey! You think you can just insult my acting and get away with it! I'll scalp your 20,000 jenny haircut!" Ami shouts.

"Who said I was insulting you? I'm just stating facts." Noell explains.

"Now, now. Let's not waste our what little energy we have left fighting. Ms.Ami, How much time do we have left before arrival?" Florette questions as she attempts to calm the rising tensions.

"About 9 hours before you arrive at the Hunter examination site. As much as I love partying myself,I'd have to recommend you guys keep it short. You're going to need as much sleep as possible before we arrive." Ami informs.

"All the more reason to just go to bed. We can't be wasting time celebrating that we can use for preparation and sleep." Noell states.

"I've got to disagree. Celebrating wouldn't be a waste of time."Etheline suddenly counters.

"One of the best ways to prepare for any battle is boosting morale. We can relax our bodies, but if we're still stressed out from the last fight than we might as well give up here. Personally, I could use a fun party with friends right now." Etheline offers.

"Ms.Etheline is correct Master Noell. No Army has ever marched with heavy hearts and lived to tell the tale. We spend every waking moment preparing for the next fight." Florette adds on.

"You can stop stealing my Father's quotes, they don't make you sound as cool as you think they do." Noell states.

Florette shivers from being called out and as Etheline continues to try and convince Noell to stop being such a spoilsport.

What will you do?

>Agree with Etheline and Florette, you need this party

>Agree with Noell, you need more preparation time.

>>2255679
>Agree with Etheline and Florette, you need this party
We felt completely healed and well rested from just 30 minutes in the bed right? A little party won't hurt

>>2255679
>>Agree with Etheline and Florette, you need this party

>>2255689
>>2255692

>Writing

"Sorry, but Etheline and Florette are right. I'm going to need three cans of beer and a few people who won't shoot at me for the next few hours." You state.

Florette smiles at your cooperation, "See, even Mr.Derrick knows how important recreational time is. Won't you please re-consider master Noell?" Florette questions.

Noell clicks his tongue and speaks, "Go party by yourselves, I hope half you of you get drunk enough that you'll just jump off the train so I don't have to throw you off."

"Master Noell..."Florette bows her head in disappointment.

"A real warrior marches whether their heart is heavy or his body is broken. Now hurry up and get me a shot of Naloxone so I can walk out of here in peace." Noell commands.

Florette reaches down into the her medical bag with sad and disappointed eyes, seeing those sad eyes causes an idea to pop into your head. You walk over to where Noell is seated and look down at him.

He looks up at you and speaks, "What is it? Have the concussions screwed up your sense of direction? The door's that way if you can't see straight." Noell states.

You ignore his insults as you pick him up and begin to hoist him on your back, "What are you doing? Put me down." He commands.

"You said you want to walk out of here right? I thought I would help you out so your poor maid wouldn't have to." You explain as you begin to head towards the door.

"You can't be serious. Where are you taking me?" He asks.

"Straight to your room, which also happens to be where the party is going to be held." You answer.

"Are you kidding me? I just said I want nothing to do with your celebration and you're forcing me along anyway. Didn't you hear what I said? I don't need this stupid-"

"Yeah, yeah doctor killjoy. I heard your pretty little quote but last I checked, there's no warriors around here. Just a buzzkill who clearly needs a beer and a hug." You quickly cut him off as you brush off his complaints.

"I will kill you for this one day, I just need that Naloxone and I can escape." Noell states.

"Save the energy shot, you won't be needing it after I'm done with you." You state with a devious smile.

You ignore Noell's continuous protest as you look behind you and you can see Florette's smile return in full-force.

>>2255833
This is really great

You exit through the door with Noell and head off to Noell's room.

"Oh I can barely contain my excitement. Let's be off as well Ms.Etheline. I will continue your treatment within the room, as well as order you a glass of orange juice." Florette offers.

"I would love that. But first I have to ask you something Ami." Etheline turns to face Ami as she beginning to head out through the door on the opposite end of the car.

"What is it?" Ami asks as she turns around.

"What's going to happen to the robber team? They've been injured too, you're not going to leave them are you?" She questions.

Ami holds her chest as the sweetness begins to overwhelm her, "Oh my! Are you worried for your enemy? Oh you adorable little sweetheart, we're going to have our staff take them back to their rooms and treat them before letting them go."

"I-I'm not being sweet. I just wanted to know if they'd all be taken out the exam or not. Some of their injuries are pretty bad after all." Etheline counters.

"Oh you don't need to hide your concern. Compassion is a very good trait for a Hunter, if you felt nothing hurting other people, you might lose interest in protecting them too. But you don't need to worry, many in our staff happen to be good doctors. Besides, their injures aren't that bad. Take Christina for example." Ami states as she points at a hogtied girl in the center of the car.

"She's only got a minor concussion and a few scrapes and bruises. She'll be fine to go back in the exam right away." Ami explains.

"Wait, Christina?" Florette blurts out.

"What? Is something weird about her name?" Ami asks.

"No, it's just that I could have sworn her name was Rea." Florette explains.

"Rea? Where'd you hear that?" Ami asks.

"One of her teammates called her that when they signaled her. Derrick even said that what her name was."Florette explains.

"Really? Then her teammates either have terrible memory or gave her one weird nickname because I have her registered as 'Christina Melladonna'" She states.

"Is that so...."Florette begins to trail off as she thinks of something.

"What? Is something wrong?"Etheline asks, breaking Florette from her train of thought.

"Ah! No, nothing of the sort Ms.Etheline. Let's get moving to the party shall we." Florette states as she gently hoist Etheline on to her back.

"Yes, I'm sure it's nothing..."Florette whispers to herself as she heads through the door as well.

You eventually arrive at the door to Noell's room and enter it after stealing the key card from Noell's limp body and barging your way in.

The room is almost exactly the same as your room as you expected, except the window's open, probably left that way by Florette after she left through it.

You look out to see the twinkling night sky outside the window and feel much of your fatigue fade as you toss Noell off your back and onto the bed.

You then proceed to head over to the desk beside the bed and grab the phone that lies on top of it and dial in the number you see just below it for room service.

"Hey what does Florette like to eat?" You ask as you place the phone to your ear.

"Fettuccine with chicken and tomato sauce." He answers.

"Man that sounds fancy as hell. I imagine that Etheline would love cheesecake or some other kind of sweet and If I get it wrong then I'll just feed it to you." You state.

"I'm terrible with overly-sweet garbage, the only cake I can eat is dark chocolate with the frosting taken off." He explains

"Then that's what you're getting. Thanks for telling me without a fight." You state.

"If you're going to force me to join this party, you might as well get me good food. I'll take rice noodles with shrimp and extra pepper on it." He states.

"A sea-food kinda guy huh? I'll make sure they add enough spice to burn the dread and angst right out of you." You state.

"Now hold on. I hope you don't plan on ordering a large plate of food for the man with no working arms to eat with." Noell states as the phones rings in your ear.

"You certainly got a working mouth, that's more than enough to eat with. Besides, the food's only the appetizer." You explain.

"Then what's the main course?" Noell asks.

As Noell's question leaves his mouth, a woman on the other side of the line picks up and say, "Hello, would like to order room service?" in a pleasing soft voice.

"Yes. I would like to order two kegs of Budweiser please." You answer with a smile.

"I saw this coming. But why do you need two?" Noell asks.

"Oh, you'll see." You answer.

Soon after you're conversation, Florette and Etheline come into the room with and the real party begins.

https://youtu.be/4A1SiQkPqYM

You waste no time ordering as much food as everyone orders and chow down just as fast. You're all fully aware these could be your last meals on Earth, so you make sure they count, and count high.

After you had your stomachs filled, you gathered a bunch of tall glasses as you opened one of the kegs and began to pour drinks for everyone but Etheline who was enjoying a glass of juice to drown her feast.

You expected to have to convince Florette to take a drink but she didn't even fight you as you handed her a full glass of beer and watched as she chugged it with all the grace of a thirsty desert traveler in an oasis.

"The fighters of Cremox have been trained to resist any and all forms of toxins. Now please hand me another glass, I'm going to need at least five more before I even start feeling it." She explains

You can't help but be impressed yet horrified as you hand her half the keg's worth in drinks before she finally starts to feel a little buzz.

"You could make a grown man cry with the amount your downing, are you sure this okay?" you ask.

"Less talk, more alcohol." Florette commands as she finishes her eighth glass.

12 glasses later and Noell looks upon you all in disgust as he remains adamant about refusing to eat anything, he kept saying something about "Overeating is a sign of a failing warrior and that you're all lazy pigs."

You then proceeded to say, "Fine then, having an empty stomach for this next part will make it more exciting anyway."

He gave you a confused look before you pulled up the second keg of beer and he immediately realized why you ordered two now, the look of horror in his eyes is only dwarfed by the look of betrayal as the drunken Florette forces his jaw open for his prize.

As you hang the 5 liter keg of alcohol over his mouth, Florette whispers into his ears, "Don't fight me, Master Noell, a real king needs to be able to handle his alcohol as well as his sword."

"You traitorous pig, if you steal one of my father's quotes one mor-" He doesn't get to finish his insult as the waterfall of beer runs down his throat.

You empty a little over a half of the keg before you finally stop pouring, Noell looks barely conscious as you lean down and grab a piece of unfrosted dark chocolate and slowly stuff it into his mouth.

"There you go, enjoy. I made sure to order your favorite." You state

With Noell out of the way, you, Etheline and Florette have the most fun-filled, alcohol-crazed night possible before dropping asleep with a smile on your face.

[to be continued]

That's the end of the thread for now anons. I will attempt to continue once again on Sunday.

But for now, goodbye and goodnight.

>>2256163
Great thread can't wait for the exams

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>>2255308
>I've got quite a few long term plans and I will admit that I've been forced to dumb down Derrick at times for the sake of the plot,

IMO you shouldn't have to do that, just approach your plot differently. Alternatively If Derrick being a genius was problematic to the plot, why put out that option at the start of the quest? We very easily could have played super kung-fu derrick, or hulk derrick, or speedy Derrick, and not much would have changed. His personality and relationships would be mostly the same, and we could have always an "observant" character trait or some-such and things would have went about the same.

When a QM makes a character with a pre-created personality and then gives the players choices that could alter the personality and thus playstyle/story direction that you were going for, don't then contradict something the players established by ignoring our choice as you find convenient, It's just easier to not put yourself in that position by not allowing anon to alter a predetermined personality.

There, I'm done with that. Just something to think about, and hopefully you won't take them as just complaints, i mean this as criticism.

On a positive note, I love your character interactions and personalities, and I think that's probably the strongest point of the quest.

As for the real mystery You haven't changed too much from the beginning,
though i think you've gotten slightly better at writing. I liked things then as i do now.

And about Hatsu's i want to note that while It's not explored too much multiple releases are very much a thing, It's just a matter of defining one or more secondary releases based on the first one, which considering the possibilities of using and combining different nen types, means a lot room for development.

Just look at old man Netero, his bodhisattva was mainly emmision based, with some enchancement and manipulation worked in despite him being an enhancer type.

So unless no one has any good ideas whatsoever i would hope you at least give us a chance before throwing in your own idea, you can use any of your own ones on other characters after all.

>>2256641

Thanks for the advice anon but don't worry about me dumbing down Derrick anymore than this

I already told you, I just had to do that to make sure some other long term plans end up making sense. This will be the last time you see anything like this in the plot.

and regarding the Hatsu, It seems multiple anons want to present their own Hatsu so when the time comes, I will put it to vote to see who can come up with the most satisfactory one to pick what Derrick's ability is.

I don't want to force the anon's hand in anything, so if you guys want to make the choice, I shall allow it.

>>2256790
Yeah letting us choose would be cool and make sense in the Nen system but if you've got the best idea then I've got no issue with picking yours