Task Name: Tomb Raider PT2
Tier: 3
NPC or PC: PC
Location: Karate Island (Off shore)
Crew, Team, or Personal: Personal
Description: Returning to the temple, you're able to progress further into it but obviously someone else has also been there. You can noticed a heavy object has obviously been removed from a place that implied a treasure chest had been there. Attempting to follow the trail leads you to a ship off shore. Chase after the big bawss and the guys who stole the treasure. You'll chase after their trail and eventually find them along with the treasure. But you'll be ambushed by a powerful pirate who will take the treasure chest away, along with your artifact. Regardless, you will discover these guys have the same tattoo as the thief!
Enemy Details: 10 T0 Grunts; 5 T1 Roughnecks with swords; T3 Underboss; 1 T4 Masked man (He cannot be fought and will only appear to steal your artifacts)
Boss: None

boss:

[/spoiler]

During her travels, Linnea kept studying the journal... Up until now she found out that these pirates had been hired by somebody else to claim something from inside the temple - no doubt the artifact she now had in her posession - but they had apparently failed to retrieve it all. The journal obviously had information hidden on it, since the more Linnea read it the more she felt like critially important information was mission, and with it there were also some lines that seemed completely nonsensical. She was a smart girl and even if she was no archeologist, it wasn't as if anybody could call that ancient. Linnea was slowly gleaming into the patterns and hoping she might discern something by dissecting that journal. And eventually she did, after her voyage to Torino Kingdom, and to Centaurea Island. She hadn't found who they were working for but by gleaming into the newspaper she discovered the Pirates had been hired to collect a mysterious treasure from a temple, and after doing so they were to wait there for their employers. In the meantime, they were to try and press on as deep as they could to the treasure, which was probably when she interrupted them.


But as she decyphered that journal, Linnea found out something else, something far more pressing. These guys.. They were planning to meet soon. The group of Pirate employees and their mysterious employers were meeting in roughly a week! She was lucky to have even decyphered that thing, but then again even if she hadn't, they probably wouldn't get anywhere, not with the Jewel she still had in her posession. No matter, Linnea would still need a long way to go before getting back to Karate Island, so hopefully she might get there ahead of time... She did so as expected thankfully, but then not everything went according to plan... Linnea scoffed at the sight of an unknown ship, and thus decided to dock hers at a neaby islet further away, before taking her rowboat ashore the temple island...

Who were these guys...? Linnea carried a copy of the journal with her (not willing to risk the real thing so easily). What she did know was that they looked like pirates despite sailing around with a ship absent a Jolly Roger - just like the anchored ship - and were no less dangerous. Quite the opposite, the pirate captain she killed frequently stated how reluctant he was to cross them, fearing for himself and his crew. So his employers were extremely dangerous, and knowing that in advance, Linnea knew she had to be careful with whatever move she made next. Very soon, her rowboat made landfall and she left it hidden within a reef, for the most part concealing her presence on this island and giving her the element of surprise.

Now then, to the real fun part; investigating this island and seeing what this new bozos were up to at the temple. Linnea hoped that they wouldn't get vary far since the other pirates also seemed unable to do so, but there was no way to be sure that would be indeed what was going to happen. Ultimately, her greatest hope was that the mysterious artifact now in her posession would be the key to something, something which they wouldn't be able to get into without it. In retrospective it might have been a good idea to leave that artifact at the ship, but if she did how would it unlock whatever it is she might need it for?

That said, she activated her Haki immediately upon setting foot on the sandy shores... There had to be enemies nearby, somethings were easy enough to predict. Her Kenbunshoku Haki covered a good bulk of the island and instantly revealed the location of four foes. The hunter crouched and prowled on through the jungle, aiming one arrow at the mostly invisible enemy lit up by her arrow. His aura revealed obvious killing intent with just a tiny scan, a far more vicious one than the pirates from before... So she killed him, amidst the shrubbery where nobody would find him soon. She then took aim at the next one, and the next, and another one after that, drawing a path through each of the corpses and retrieving three arrows that didn't break upon striking their necks...



Defeated 4 T0 Pirates

Used four arrows, scavenged three.

Haki stamina: 25/40 (B-rank kebu); used emotion scan on first enemy.

From here on out, things seemingly got a little quieter. These four foes were prowling around the entrance to the temple to keep out intruders, but they were incredibly weak and little more than cannon fodder to a trained hunter like Linnea. But what that stop her from taking them all down without blinking an eye? Not really, these weren't the kind of people anyone would really miss, and they seemed like pretty nasty guys anyhow. With four of them taken down, she was left wondering how many more of them there might on the outside. None within forty meters for the time being, but once she got close enough to the stairway to the temple, she naturally found two more guarding the entrance. How would she take them both down without any of them sounding the alarm? Linnea remained in the shadows under a large palm tree, pulling out two arrows but keeping one idle between her pinky and ring figers. This would let her load a second arrow faster than simply drawing it out...

After observing the two guards for a few minutes, she managed to notice how some of them wondered why their buddies weren't signalling anything. What was up with that? Well, they'd show up soon... That's what they thought anyways. Linnea thus waited till they separated a little, and with only one of them looking at the other, her sharp steel blue gaze locked onto that particular foe. Quickly nocking the arrow, she released it aimed at the throat of the target, keeping him from making any sound even if he was still alive. As he desperately tried to run for the next one, Linnea loaded the idle arrow and let it fly at the other guy's head, killing him instantly and leaving the one with an arrow in his throat with a look of despair... He would bleed out soon and there was nothing he could do about it, collapsing on the ground without much resistance. Thus, Linnea pressed on as the Pirate took a good look at his killer, the last sight his eyes would catch as life bled away from them before she recovered the mostly intact arrow from his neck...

She spared little thought for the slain roughneck, remembering how far more pure creatures had met their death at her hands for much lesser reasons, far further away from their control. With all resistance eliminated, Linnea took a careless leap of faith this time in leaving those two corpses out in the open, pressing into the temple through the same path her photographic memory yet recalled... Along the way, she found yet another weak sentry, and once again killed him instantly with an arrow to the heart, pulling the arrow off him afterwards.


Defeated 7 T0 Pirates

Used three arrows, scavenged two (total 2 arrows expended

Kenbu Haki still active.

How many more? Damn, it really seemed like there were a lot more of these guys walking around this time, at least compared to last time when a few arrows were more than enough to take out that pirate crew. Thankfully, it felt like quantity hadn't come with quality so staying stealthy and unnoticed was even easier. She prepared a strategy in advance for whenever she happened to spot an aura she wouldn't be able to take down with a single arrow, intending to remain invisible for as long as possible. Her Drill shot attack was incredibly powerful, one of the strongest in her arsenal, and up until now she had never come across an enemy she hadn't been able to defeat with it.

For now, she was in here element. Hidden amidst the darkness, she didn't require a torch unlike most of these guys, so they never even saw her coming. So long as they didn't spot her, she would always have the element of surprise, as well as as keen ability to determine whether a foe might be tough enough to endure her attacks. If that weren't enough, she had also prowled this temple long enough to know traverse it blindly even without Haki. To her joy, she found that these new tomb raiders had set up makeshift ladders all around the broken sections when she finally reached the same large chamber as before. There were also 3 more pirates downstairs, guarding the final part of the temple like before. Linnea knew what to do: In order to kill all of these guys before they warned the ones ahead to her presence, she lined up three arrows, looked down, and waited patiently... Once the opportunity presented itself, she shot all three arrows and nailed the three in the head... But then, something unexpected happened. From just outside her sensing range, coming from the inner pathway, she head something:

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?!", shouted a menacing male voice




Used 3 arrows (total 5 expended)

Defeated 8 T0 Pirates, 2 T1

reactivated Kenbu haki C-rank (15/40 HS remaining)

Tch... This was bad... The guy soon stepped inside her sensory range and it was obvious how this was exactly the kind of enemy she'd very much rather not have alerted and killing him instantly. That aura was imposing and impresive, wholeheartedly massive. There was no way she could take that guy head on, not when from his aura alone she could tell that as single punch would kill her, or leave her wishing she were dead. Linnea was still a very frail warrior, just as she was when she was a child, and her greatest ability was to utterly destroy her enemies before they had a chance of exploiting that weakness. Make no mistake, she was incredibly good at that: Just like she did with these pirates, she often took her foes down before they were even aware of her presence. But as this guy hurriedly climbed up the stairs at a deceptively great speed for his size, the very ground shook with the behemoth's steps.

Wasting not a single moment, Linnea lined up an arrow, calclulated his path, and shot it a his knee... Much to her chagrin, she miscalculated the trajectory slightly and wound up hitting his thigh instead. But worst of all, was how it hardly seemed to phase him. The guy grunted in pain but just kept on running as if he didn't have an arrow in his leg. He turned his gaze to Linnea and even in the poorly lit conditions he managed to see her well enough. Grinning, he actually sped up faster. Linnea shot another arrow, which he dodged by slowing down momentarily.

"Tch...", she uttered, drawing two arrows and preparing to stop him for good. As she shot yet another arrow, the guy did exactly the same thing, grinning and changing his speed after it was fired to cause Linnea to miss, but this time he didn't outsmart her. Right after he dodged there was already another arrow that caught him right between his ribs.

But even then he was still running! How was this possible?! This guy was obviously too bulky to go down from this as her arrows wouldn't pierce his thick chest all the way into his heart. She had enough... The guy looked bulky and defenitely the melee type, so he had to get close to her in order to do anything. But while he had brawn, she had brain. Linnea figured there would be one situation where he wouldn't be able to dodge: If he had nowhere to do so... Linnea retreated further into the temple, into the deep dark corridors. She didn't even need haki to see the guy coming thanks to his stomping, but as she hid in a crevice inside the nearest corridor, she readied an arrow. This guy deserved the honor to die from her strongest attack. She could see him clearly and he coundn't see her, so once his head appeared in the corridor, there was already a Drill Shot flying towards him, which caught him right between the eyes. He managed to turn around to see the final sight he would ever see, a ferociously spinning arrow:

"Oh shi-...", he uttered his final words before his head was litertally blown off by the spiralling drill.

As the man died, Linnea went back and recovered the two arrows off the guy's body, and one of the intact arrows from below before she set about exploring the final part of the temple... Her ability to sustain her Haki was about to run out...



Used 5 arrows, 3 recovered (total 7 expended)


kenbu Haki still active.

Spoiler:

After looting all of those pirates, she found that the big burly man had the biggest booty in the spot and she didn't even mean that in a sexual manner concerning his large size. The guy's humoungous girth naturally allowed him to carry a large amount of weight and still move around fluidly, and the amount of gold she looted from his pockets made the other minions and pirates look like little more than chaff. Linnea moved on through the temple, and to her surprise she found the path from last time completely open. But there wasn't much else to see... Before her laid an even larger chamber, with detailed stone ornaments and an overall virgin look. It had never been plundered by pirates before these guys showed up, it it appeared they had managed to clean up a great deal. There were tiny nooks and crannies every here and there which she occasionally scavenged around to find herself some odd bits of gold and jewelry she might be able to sell for a good price. The antecipation was killing her as the pirate couldn't help feel like with each step she took she reached closer to the treasure.

But it was all a moot point. The most ornamented place in this chamber was the pedestal all the way across, and it had a thick layer of dust covering it except for a rectangular mark right in the center. It didn't take a genious to realize what could have been there before these guys arrived. But what Linnea couldn't understand was why could they get in where she didnt? What did they have?! She just didn't know... By now it appeared that all of these guys had simply been hanging back on their own to loot the temple some more. Now that she noticed the spot where the treasure once laid though, it was pretty clear someone had dragged it all the way up, there were to parallel lines running all the way there. As she trained her path back up, Linnea heard a ruckus... She reactivated her weaker Haki and suck to the shadows... There were Five Pirates heading down to meet her, but they hadn't see her yet. With her Haki, she could see all the way across the passageway, and she waited for the moment when all of the foes would be right in her sights. When the were slightly above her, across the chasm, she let loose five arrows with her Quintet Skill, hitting them all in the chest but not really killing most of them (no point anymore)... She would have to go check out that ship; that must have been where they took her treasure... For now, she took to scavenging the three intact arrows off her enemies as she climbed upwards in a haste.

But then something happened. She was sure this couldn't have been the last of her enemies but then yet another one appeared just as she stepped outside. An aura even more imposing than the big guy she had trouble killing a while ago. She peeked slightly over the stone wall to see a finely dressed man wearing a mask. As if knowing exactly where she was, he spoke in calm, smooth tone:

"I know you're there miss... You seem to have done quite the number on my henchmen.", he spoke praisingly, coaxing Linnea into raising her head slightly, "Still, I mean you no harm. They were all weak if you could get rid of them so easily... But, you seem to have something I'm missing."

He shrugged before suddenly dashing over to her. Despite being surprised, Linnea saw it coming but even then she couldn't react in time: She drew and let loose an arrow with Viper Bite, but the guy just sidestepped it, not unlike how she did when she used her own Haki. It felt like this guy had the same Haki, and was faster on top of it... She tried to draw another arrow, only to be struck by a powerful punch to the gut:

"It would be a shame to cut up a pretty girl like you... So just be quiet and sleep.", he whispered next to her ear in a taunting, melodic tone, chuckling afterwards before following up with a swift hand chop to her neck, and just like that, the shy ranger's vision turned black and she passed out...


==== 2 hrs later ====


She woke up seemingly a few hours later, with a slight pool of blood next to her mouth... That bastard's punch did quite a number on her insides but he could have obviously done far worse if she felt like it. She still had all her clothes on, and despite the sharp pain in her neck she managed to turn up and check her pockets. Much to her surprise, she didn't have any of her gold missing. Why? What did he want from her?! And she she noticed it... The gemstone artifact was gone! That knew exactly what he was looking for. Angry and frustrated at being made a fool of like this, the silent archer did the one thing she yet could. She examined all of the pirates she had killed (those she had just wounded were no longer there). There was nothing left worth looting, but some of them had odd tattoos in some place upon their body... She had seen it before:

"That thief...!", the realization struck her harder than the man's punch, and she immediately knew where she had to go! Hopefully Master Jeong still had the guy locked up since the only option left was to have a little chat with that guy.

Quickly staggering away into her rowboat, Linnea returned to her ship, and from there, back to Karate Island...


- exit -


used 6 arrows, 3 recovered (Total 10 expended)


reactivated Kenbu haki C-rank (5/40 HS remaining)

Spoiler: