Task Name: Wild Wilds
Tier: 1
NPC or PC: NPC
Location: Crescent Island | South Blue
Crew, Team, or Personal: Personal
Description: A stranger named Sebastian has come to the village at the foot of Crescent Island's volcano. He is injured badly and bares warning of a strange disease that has struck many of the island's local wildlife. Many gorillas, boars, and tigers have become unnaturally violent and they are attacking villagers with impunity. The village warriors can fend them off, but the number of injured will raise over time if this keeps up. Investigate the cause to learn that suspicious men are pouring chemicals into some of the island's watering holes and only the beasts who drink from it show signs of these violent outbursts.
Enemy Details: T0 Gorrilla, T0 Boar, and a T0 Tiger
Boss: N/A

A panicked cry and heavy panting sounded from the edge of the jungle-like forest that surrounded Crescent Island's volcanic village. The sentries looked on with concern, spears at the ready, as they waited to see what emerged from the treeline. "Heeeelp!" The voice of a weak looking man reached their ears as the scrawny scientist burst from the bushes. His clothing was filthy, his body covered in scratches, his glasses crooked, but worst of all was a large gash on his back that matched a tiger's claws. This injured stranger got within a few feet of the village gates before tripping and falling flat on his face. The poor fool's glasses broke in the fall and his head struck a stone on the ground rendering him unconscious.

The two closest guards looked to each other with raised eyebrows and relaxed their spears as they debated which of the two should get down from the look out to investigate. Eventually another village warrior who was further away shouted for them to both take a look and the pair begrudgingly jumped down to ground level. They approached the man carefully, one poked him with the tip of his spear to make sure he was really knocked out and not just faking. There was no response to the light jab. The stranger really was out cold. When they were sure of this, they reported to the village elder who, in his wisdom, ordered the warriors to bring this stranger in to be nursed back to health. If he had been shouting for help then perhaps he was simply attacked by a tiger. Or perhaps there was something else for the village to be concerned about.

Hours later, the man woke in a shock, sitting up quickly only for the pain of his injuries to lay his overzealous ass back down in the straw bed he'd been placed upon. The elder was there, waiting for him to wake so he could ask a few questions, and after a brief talk he learned that the man was named Sebastian. Sebastian spoke hurriedly about some kind of sickness taking over the creatures of the jungle. One that made them unnaturally aggressive and violent. The elder held up his hand however and sighed. Sebastian's warning came too late due to his bout of unconsciousness. The beasts were already at their gates...

Seiju had woken later than usual today, the previous night had been spent drinking his doubts about life into oblivion. What a pitiable sight it was to see the former marine chasing his demons away with a flood of alcohol. Now the boozer was out of his swig and needed more wine to make sure his discontentment and contempt towards retired life stayed silent for the next night. Grumpy and hungover, the elderly swordsman grabbed his weapon and slung a now empty wine gourd over his shoulder as he headed out into the jungle. His destination? The village at the foot of the volcano. They made such good wine, sweet and filled with the flavor of native fruits. It wasn't the old man's favorite drink by far. He'd had much better sake in the grand line, but it was still far better than any turpentine Seiju could fix up on his own.

Letting out a big yawn as he shielded his eyes from the sun, the silver haired man took but a single step into the jungle before the shrieking squeal of a boar could be heard on top of trampling hooves. This was perfect, he needed something to trade in exchange for the wine and a boar's pelt would do nicely for that. He wondered what it was doing so close to the edge of the jungle though, it was rare for the larger beasts to come this close to the beach where his humble hut had been built. "Chased off by hunters?" Seiju said questioningly to himself as he rubbed his chin and pondered on the matter.

A beast as big as Seiju was tall crashed through the brush. A large red swine with tusk covered in the gore and viscera of some poor animal that the creature had attacked not too long ago. Steam blew from its nostrils as heated breath touched the air. Seiju could tell that something was not right with the anime as its mouth was foaming and the eyes were bloodshot, glazed over with some kind of haze. The wild hog dragged its hoof across the ground and glared at Seiju before letting out an ear piercing screech. Seju rubbed his head, "Quite the annoying one, aren't you? What's the point of being so loud this early in the morning..." The geezer was hardly amused by the boar's display of aggression. He rubbed his head and winced one eye from the ringing in his ear caused by the boar's squeal. This was not helping his hangover.

The snorts of the hog were matched by a sigh from the human as one last squeal signaled the start of a charge. Sharp tusk and a few hundred pounds of weight behind them barreled towards Seiju with mindless animosity. The swordsman's body and posture were lax, his expression weary and seemingly unprepared for the incoming danger. But it wasn't that Seiju couldn't react in time. He simply didn't need to ready himself against a simple minded beast. As the boar's charge approached, the elderly man stood there as if he were going to be impaled like some kind of dumbfounded fool. The tusks were a mere finger's length away from impaling Seiju and disemboweling him when suddenly the silver haired combatant vanished from the pig's sight. Driven mad by its induced rage, the boar hardly noticed and continued onwards to smash into the trunk of a nearby tree. The flora shook violently and creaking wood groaned as it slowly began to fall over, landing with a leafy crash.

Seiju was standing one step to the side of where he had been, rubbing his chin curiously as he eyed the boar's backside. He'd stepped to the side at the last possible moment with sharp reflexes. In a burst of extreme acceleration Seiju advanced to his top speed in an instant in order to create the illusion of having disappeared. A trick that would only work from a very close distance. "Normally you boars would have stopped your charge...and those eyes appear strange...I'd best not try to trade your meat. Must be sick with rabies or some such." Seiju said aloud to himself. Hearing the human's voice, the boar turned around and gave out a battle cry before charging him again. This time around, the swordsman's hand went to the hilt of his blade. In one swift motion, Seiju drew Chotetsu and cleaved the air creating a Vacuum Blade that would cut through the atmosphere splitting the boar's skull in two just as it entered within a meter of the man.

Blood splattered and the boar collapsed, it's blitz crumpled into a mass of dead meat dragging across the ground. The momentum was stopped by Seiju's sandal as he stepped on the boar's head bringing the beast's body to a complete halt. With that done, he sheathed his blade back into its scabbard and sighed. "Now to carry you....shit..." Seiju hadn't considered how far he was from the village. It was still a decent walk to get there. Now he had to carry this smelly boar the entire way. Hindsight's a bitch. Resigning himself to this fate, Seiju reluctantly hoisted the boar onto his shoulder before continuing on the path through the forest.

Skillset/Occupation:

Equipment:

The cool breeze produced by nature's wondrous glide was a refreshing delight that Damocles was more than happy to accept. It wasn't a particularly beautiful day, nor was it a particularly ugly one. It was a standard day with a standard weather with a standard set of beasts that were expected to appear on the sight of a jungled, verdurous island. Damocles was laying down by the shade of a cupped oak tree that provided him with enough shadow. His armor, heavy and cumbersome, had been lain next to his right, along with his sword, weapons and surprisingly, his metallic arm, which their was really no need for him to wear right now, judging by the peaceful, yet banal nature of the place. Dressed in a loose shirt of black and a pair of trousers that appeared to be worn one one-too-many times, the young Marine found comfort soon enough, and with little resistance drifted away to the gentle bosom of soothing somnolence.

However,  such beautiful respite would be but long. Upon a sudden, a shrilled roar. born out of a scared boar, cast upon Damocles a dark curse that woke him up from his beautiful sleep. As the muscular young man stumbled about and grumbled to himself the sight that appeared before him made him stand in both shock and confusion. Not only had a wild boar ran away faster than it should go by during a nice hunting, but a crazy-looking old man was rushing behind said pig saying rather amusing things. He didn't know whether to leave the odd couple be or follow pursuit and see what would result from such encounter. After deliberating for a few minutes however, the Marine decided to just ignore it. Besides, he had other things to do, like practice his swordsmanship.

After getting up and pushing his sleep away, the tall man yawned and walked over to where his stuff was located. The first thing he did was strap on his metallic arm, tinkering with it a bit until he managed to regain control over it. It was a bit annoying to equip it on, since he had to shut it close with bolts, hook it to the stump and make sure he could use the fingers on the metallic arm. Naturally, once his arm was equipped and fully usable, Damocles moved to get all of his equipment back on. The first thing he did was put on his black armor, which created extra weight and made him move less quickly, something most people wold consider a limitation. Lastly, the last thing Damocles grabbed was his sword, thousandlimber, an ugly dark two-handed great sword that Damocles was rather fond of, given that it was the first weapon he ever bought. Once everything was grabbed, set and equipped, the Marine turned around and walked away.

"Alright, this seems like a good place." said Damocles as looked upon a good-sized rock that seemed to be enough of a challenge for him. Quickly his hand grabbed his sword and the metallic cone gripped the hilt seconding his hold on it. Damocles then threw his blade over his shoulder and took a strong, sturdy stance. As power built upon the critical point of the blade, Damocles felt his own might increase. He raised the tension of his power even more, dunking his own strength down and surprising that restrained power. Thirty seconds had passed, only halfway down to his full power, yet it already was unbearable to hold back this amount of tension and power. He would had gotten away with all of the sixty seconds, but at the fifty eight second, he failed and released it all, slamming down the massive blade against the once sturdy rock. The clash was good, in fact almost perfect. The rock was sliced in half, but ti wasn't a neat, straight cut. Jagged edges could still form on the evidence of the slice and while some would consider such a tremendous blow to be a magnificent swing, Damocles cursed himself.

"Fuck!" screamed Damocles once the rather dust cloud that formed upon the impact settled down, revealing his failure at his swing. And while he shattered the rock in two and even released a flying slash at the direction of the swing, it was still imperfect, much to his annoyance. Despite his anger at such disappointment, he was too tired to perform it again. Such attack did consume up a considerable amount of his strength. He needed to rest for a good two minutes until he could practice again.

Meanwhile, after sitting down on the ground and foreign his lungs to catch up his breath, another peculiar sight appeared before him. This time it was the old man alone. Well, better said the old man with the board hanging from him. It seemed Damocles had overestimated the pig. Yet while he would usually not bother to move and talk to strangers, this guy, o matter how strong he looked, still was an old man. So Damocles did the courteous thing and walked up to the old guy, to whom he first appeared with a slight smile on his face.

"I guess I made a wrong bet in waging on the pig huh?" Said Damocles as he showed himself to to the lede, while still wearing all that heavy plate armor. He didn't look like a Marine and the prospect of a man wearing armor was enough to raise eyebrows, so Damocles took it one step further and showed the other a standard Marine cap, the most basic symbol of the organization. "Anyways, I'm a Marine and I was wondering if you would allow me to help you carry you prize, Sir." said Damocles trying be as good-natured as he could be by offering help to a senior citizen.

((I think you read my post wrong, Seiju pretty much stood in place the whole time. He didn't rush around after the boar at all. Please retcon this from your character's perception of Seiju from this post moving forward. Seiju is too cool or be seen chasing wild beasts like a farmer chasing a greased up pig ))

Moving onwards with his day, Seiju looked forward to an uneventful stroll to the village followed by an easy trade and another three more days of perpetual drunken splendor. Unfortunately that was not to be the case as a loud crashing noise sounded nearby just after he finished dealing with the boar. "What now?" Seiju mumbled under his breath as he hefted the boar and began walked toward the source of the sound. Not because he had any desire to investigate mind you. Were it up to the old man, he would have ignored the boom without a second thought. But it was in the line of his direct path so he had no choice but to walk past the source lest he made a detour.

As Seiju came upon the crater in the ground, a young man moved to greet him. There was a comment made about having bet poorly followed by some poor excuse for kindness towards an elder that fluttered out of the fool's mouth but Seiju payed attention to little of it. His eyes told the truth of where his focus lay. Were one to draw a line from those green orbs to the target of their gaze, they would find him staring at chunks of stone and rubble that had scattered onto the foot path. The footpath that Seiju spent years pressing down. Not once in half a decade had the path been blocked or sullied and now it was littered with tripping hazards. Considering how often Seiju stumbled through here in an inebriated state, that was unacceptable.

Perhaps the hangover was mostly to blame for the old man's sour mood, but now poor Damocles was going to suffer the brunt of Seiju's building frustrations. As he finished his kind offer to help carry the boar, Seiju spoke up cutting off the boy's last couple of words. "Oi, did you do this?" He asked calmly as he pointed at the coconut sized rocks that had rolled onto the footpath. Seiju wouldn't wait for a reply before turning his head to glare at Damocles. A sharp gaze filled with malice shown, accompanied by a stoic frown. Seiju was about to lay into the young man with a verbal spew of spite when he noticed the large blade in his possession.

The anger and irritation melted away from Seiju's face. Even the ragged results of his hangover faded. It was replaced with surprised eyes and a simple curiosity. "You did that, with THAT sword?" Seiju said in disbelief, asking an obvious question despite obviously not expecting an obvious answer.

OOC: how did Seiju know who Damocles was? He never told u his name

Damocles was quite flattered by the old man's reception concerning his feat. However as he heard the old man speak, a sense of overwhelming tiredness overcame him. After hearing the other's words of amazement, Damocles felt dizzy and sat down on a tree stump he found nearby. His head was twirling around and he was out of his breath. "Ye-yeah." panted Damocles as he slouched back, his form barely hanging on. "Pretty good huh?" asked Damocles with a slightly smug tone to his voice before his eyes became drowsy. "It's my best move for now, but it really takes a hell out of me. I do apologize however, it seems I failed at doing it as it's supposed to be done. Forgive my sloppiness." said Damocles as his chest weaved in and out, the armor rising with each ragged breath. It seemed that while the attack was almost an absolute-kill shot, it dealt some heavy damage to the user.

"It's a move in which I force all my might into one mega-strike." continued Damocles as he managed to regain a bit of self. It seemed the recoil effect was fading, but he still remained sitting. "However, in exchange for such an attack, all the muscles in my body burst and reconstruct immediately. It's not an easy technique, despite it being the weakest of it's kind." said Damocles referring to the fact that their was still two more moves that focused on the same concept but were dramatically more powerful.

After finally recovering, Damocles stood up and sheathed his blade. Afterwards he grabbed the boar without asking the old man if it was alright and proceeded to slug the dead pig over his armored shoulders. "By the way, yes. I did break that stone with my sword. It's nothing special mind you, but it's my most trusted weapon. Now, where are you off with Mr. Bacon here?" asked Damocles with a youthful smile on his face. it seemed he was unaffected by the drunk old man's bluntness or mannerisms. Rather it actually reminded Damocles of the stereotypical drunks he an his mother used t tend to back when she owned a bar in Sabaody. "Oh, I forgot, my name is Damocles." and with that the armored individual began to walk at the direction that led to the destination of the old man, at least according to the path.

((Seiju never spoke or thought about Damo's name. Third person narration ftw~))

The way Damocles became somewhat full of himself in response to Seiju's expression was not lost on the old man. It was fine to be happy at a stranger's astonishment. It was even acceptable to be proud of oneself. But it was foolish to be wrapped up in your own self-adorement. Seiju was concerned that he had jumped to conclusions about the man's potential. Thankfully, when fatigue set in the young man appeared to have much more modest things to say. A humble admittance of his own imperfections and a lack of satisfaction at his own performance. It was a good counterbalance of tempered self reflection to contrast the cocky pride he had briefly shown.

The elderly swordsman's interest in this kid had been mostly in regards to his physical capacity to wield a large blade and put enough force behind it to shatter stone. The lecture on how the deed had been done and what kind of technique was behind generating that force washed over Seiju like a summer breeze. Caring about such trifling matters was beyond the old man's weary mind at the moment. He could analyze and dissect the boy's skills and techniques later. What was important was that he had a body forged by disciplined training. Well, that and/or a magnificent set of genes. Either way, it was a benchmark by which Seiju could judge future greatness in a young man.

There was a look of confusion on Seiju's face as Damocles began trying to take the boar from him. There was a bit of resistance at first and for a moment, Damocles would find that the geezer was holding the boar steady. Their strength just about equal, it wouldn't budge. But this stalemate would last for but a fraction of a second. Seiju came to understand based on the way the boy carried himself that he was offering help. Not stealing due to greed or hunger. The resistance stopped in the blink of an eye and Seiju let the man take the weight.

"I'm taking it to the village for trade."

Seiju responded to the question in a stoic tone, blunt and to the point. He turned on his heel and began walking down the path ahead of Damocles, hands tucked behind his back one fist held in the palm of the other. "...Seiju..." The retired marine said. "My name is Seiju Touken."

---

Upon arriving at the village, Seiju would be surprised to find the gates were closed and the guards would not open them. Apparently the beasts of the jungle had gone made with disease. Fearing that Seiju and Damocles would bring the sickness into the village and infect their livestock, they were turned away. As a doctor, Seiju was no expert on wild beasts, but he could not think of a sickness that could affect all the species of the island indiscriminately with the same affliction of unbridled rage. Suspecting something else was at play, he would turn to Damocles with a stern gaze and ask a favor of him. "I'd like to investigate the jungle to find the source of this "disease" the villagers spoke of. Would you be willing to accompany me?"

It was worded as a favor, but Seiju less wanted the help and more so sought a chance to see the young man in action.

(Apologies for the sudden time skip. Trying to move the task along so the next one can start. I'll be doing it in the same thread since one leads right into the other. Anyways, feel free to take the reigns with your next post to start combat against one or both of the remaining enemies. The boar is down, but a T0 Tiger and a T0 Ape still remain.)

OOC: I will do a mini-timeskip of my own since I want to move along with the action if that is all right with you.

Given his own ideology, Damocles assumed the position and went forth with the older man's request. Naturally he had already recovered from his huge attack and was now back to optimal shape, the Marine accepted and followed the elder throughout his quest for the mad beasts. In honesty the sole reason why the young and eager Marine agreed to help the older man was because of a rumor that he had heard about a somewhat prominent Marine who had taken down retirement on Crescent Island without any prior notice to his current whereabouts. Granted some would think such a search would be futile and lead to nothing, but he figured that knowledge imparted by experienced veterans would make him a much better warrior, law-informer and officer, be it by direct or indirect teachings.

Concerning the task at hand, the two had traveled through the jungled island once more, leaving the mysterious village, but not before securing the boar on a safe location for fear of loss. The first beast they found was a rogue tiger, large and snarling, that had stalked the pair for quite some time before pouncing on Damocles. The armored man, who had been caught by surprise, had been mauled over minimal by the paws of the other who threatened to eat him. After gaining some ground, the Marine pushed against the heavy beast and managed to push it back. While certainly a small victory, the fact remained that the beast had somehow disarmed Damocles. Robbed of his sword, the Marine resolved to fight, despite the fact that he was at disadvantage. He thought of how he could use his arsenal to make the most of everything here, but figured he needed tomato some distance between himself and the beast in order to do so. It was an underhanded move, but upon th beast being forced back, the Marine fired a set of hooked chains against it's back and pulled the tiger in. The beast tried to suck the Marien with it's claws, but it was all too late. Grabbing a dagger with his other free hand, the Marine seized the opportunity and smashed the dagger against the once snarling head of the ferocious beast.

Despite this, the encounter against nature was not over still. Just as Damocles claimed victory over the beast, another animal appeared. This one was an ape who boasted his chest proudly and struck said chest with his set of giant fists. The ape was also larger than Damocles, standing at least nine feet in height and seemed to posses much higher physical strength than the tiger, given that an entire tree was shattered in two after the hulking behemoth slammed a closed fist against said growth of nature. The only solace Damocles took was that before the ape could holler and fight, Damocles managed to seize his sword. The beast ran with hands thrown up and eyes bulging in clear frights. Yet, no quarter was spared. After deflecting back every strike of the other's fist, the Marine decided to show the beast the clear difference in strength t they had and had the other deliver a punch straight to his armored chest. He was sent flying back some couple of meters, and to most would had appeared to have taken heavy damage, but the shock came when the Marine rose and smirked to himself. With his point proven, Damocles jumped up, poised his blade, and proceeded to impale the beast straight through it's chest after having fallen down due to gravity's force. It was this way that the tow beasts that dared to challenge Damocles fell down.

"You know you could've done something." said Damocles to the old man.

OOC: In case you are wondering, Damocles CAN stonewall said ape's attack. It's not a whole he's impervious to damage thing.

(These are T0 enemies man. Buggy could stonewall them. No need to justify your post, it checks out with reason as far as I'm concerned.)

Seiju had begun the excursion into the jungle leading the way, but as they came across their first wild beast he took a rearward position. Seiju had noticed the tiger before Damocles and smirked to himself as he decided to slow his pace. The beast was watching them from a distance, somehow managing to maintain some of its hunters instincts despite being driven mad. Seiju allowed Damocles to advance past him and closer to the feline in order to see how the kid handled such a threat. The tiger pounced and after a brief struggle was pushed away with a worthy prize for its troubles. The man's sword had been taken. Curiously, Seiju watched on as the young marine failed to falter despite the loss of his primary weapon. He showed little to no hesitation as he adapted to the situation and chained the tiger before finishing it off with a side arm. The greenhorn had taken more scratches from the engagement than Seiju would have preferred of a new pupil, but the strict elder overlooked that detail in light of the resolve Damocles showed when his sword had been lost to him in the midst of a battle.

It was not long before another threat challenged the armored fighter. A large and boisterous ape. Much like with the tiger, Seiju simply took on the role of an observer. He had no intention of stepping in to save this marine from the fire if he fell into trouble. But with a show of brute force and hardy constitution, Damocles emerged victorious from this trial as well. As the young man expressed his distaste for Seiju's inaction, the older swordsman simply smirked and walked on past stating, "You looked like you could handle it. I don't think you need an old man's help for beasts such as these." A shrug accompanied the statement that was spoken with a jovial tone.

Seiju went back to taking the lead once more and continued on deeper into the jungle until they finally came upon the place that he had been looking for. The old man wasn't just wandering the wilds without some destination in mind. He was headed to the one place he knew most animals in the jungle traversed in common. The largest watering hole this side of the island. As they approached, Seiju gestured for Damocles to stay down and keep quiet. Through the brush, a terrible sight could be seen. Strange men not from the village were dumping barrels full of a strange purple liquid into the water. Having witnessed this act, Seiju patted Damocles on the shoulder and used his head to suggest they head back. The old man was only here to prove there was no sickness causing the strange behavior from the beasts after all. He had no reason to get involved with the strange men yet.

---

Back at the village, Seiju told the guards of what he saw and convinced them that there was no disease to fear. The old man and the marine gained entrance into the village, but only for a new problem to arise..