"This train raid is a C rank, meaning there should only be four to five stops," Qingshen explained as the four of them stood in a circle in the abandoned train station. "On each stop, we're going to need to clear it and make sure all abyssals have been wiped. On the last stop, we'll need to verify everyone's kill counts and that's when it stops."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Amber spoke with an influx at the end of his words. "I'm going to get the most kills!"
"I just need enough souls to unlock my B rank." Carla had a softer demeanor, her words sharp and pointy with direction. She was a woman of few words.
"What's this?" Jianyu looked at the panel in front of her in confusion. "The hells a finder's fee?"
[Rank C Raid: (Type: Train Raid)]
[Estimated Total Soul Count: 250-350]
[Finder's Fee: 20% Total Count]
[Completion Payout: 120 Souls Per Party]
"You've never done one of these raids before?" Ambier looks up at Jianyu.
"The finder's fees are what the people who find these raids get. It's an incentive by the Soulborne community for people to set up raids and bounties to keep the community thriving. The completion payout is to award us." Qingshen points to the [Completion Payout]. "For this raid, we'll get 60% of all the souls we kill with an additional 30 souls each."
"Everyone in agreement?" Carla looks around at all three of them, having to tilt her head downwards to see Ambier.
[Yes]
A bright light flickers onto Jianyu's face, blinding her for a split second. The sound of whirling train tracks clashing against the steel rails jolts Jianyu up, the screeching sparks as rust is ripped from the tracks.
"Ugh." Jianyu rubbed her eyes with her hands as she lay on the floor of the rusty train cart
"You'll get used to it." Qingshen sits on the edge of one of the broken chairs. "We're pulling up to the first station in 4 minutes, in the meantime, get prepared." Qingshen sharpens his daggers with another dagger, sending off white sparks that disintegrate into the cold stiff air.
[Time until next Event: 17 Seconds]
Ambier and Carla lay on the floor of the train, equally stunned and caught off guard. They awoke with a sharp buzzing sound in their ears. "Shit..." Ambier whispers under his breath as he rubs his eyes.
"Ugh." Carla swallows her spit as she slowly opens her eyes. The screeching tires decelerate and come to a gentle stop, contradicting the century-old technology this train was seemingly built on.
"Prepare your weapons." Qingshen stands up. "We're at the first station." The doors of the train open up, revealing a run-down subway station that's nearly pitch black, aside from a couple of flickering lights.
On the walls, ground, and ceiling were dark black vine-like branches that seeped into every crevice and crack. They seemingly breathed like living organisms and moved like an animal, uncharacteristic of a vine-looking plant.
"[Withdraw]." Qingshen summons a panel forth in front of him.
[Withdraw: -3 Souls]
Qingshen summons a battalion of daggers to his side, eighteen to be precise. They surrounded him like the ring around Saturn, slowly orbiting him.
"[Power On]!" Ambier runs his hands through his hair, causing static electricity to explode from his fingertip and coat him in a layer of electricity.
"[Poisonous Glow]." Carla's fingertips seemingly dissolved from her acidity, her nails turning a bright and vibrant purple.
"Ready?" Qingshen looks at Jianyu.
"Yeah." Jianyu pulls forward two crescent-shaped daggers from behind her back, dual-wielding both of them.
[Objective: Kill 200 Stage One Abyssals]
All four of them leap off the train, causing the entire station to emit an ominous red glow as they soar through the air.
[Stage One: Begin]
The train doors slammed shut as the vines grew life from them, black hands reaching out from the black vines like souls emerging from a crack in hell.
All four of them land in a circle, all with their backs against one another.
An entire swarm of abyssals appears from the vines, morphing and forming humanoid shapes. "Let's go!"
Qingshen was the first to make a move, sending out all eighteen of his knives into the crowd. His blades killed indiscriminately, decimating anything breath that wasn't human in a general vicinity.
His blades were small and slender yet sharp, maximizing its streamlined body allowed it to travel at speeds the human eye could barely react to. Yet it wouldn't matter, as these blades would tear your body into shreds in a mere second, trying to block it was out of the question.
An unfortunate abyssal stood in Qingshen's way. With a single turn of his head, four entire blades pierced through the abyssal's chest, freezing him in the spot where he died.
"Woo!" Ambier slid between the legs of an abyssal, touching both of the abyssal's ankles with his hands, creating a closed circuit with his body acting as the battery. A current of electricity shoots through his body, frying the soul of his body, and causing him to erupt into an explosion of black liquid and particles.
Carla swiftly dodged the incoming attack of an abyssal, wrapping her arms around the foul creature's arm and snapping his elbow. In one swift movement, she elbowed the creature in the face while placing her hand on its shoulder. The part that made contact with her hand and elbow instantly deteriorated and turned into a mush that fell to the ground. "[Poison Surge]!" Carla used her open hand to grab the abyssal's head, causing an injection of lethal poison straight into it.
The abyssal's body bubbled with toxins as its back exploded out with a violent spray of lethal poison. The poison that got sprayed on the abyssals trailing him caused immense damage to them, with some losing entire arms.
"Tch!" Jianyu blocked an attack from an abyssal with her dagger, holding it backward with the blade pointed downwards. She thrusts the other dagger deep into the abyssal's chest, twisting and turning the blade to ensure maximum damage.
However, an abyssal snuck up behind Jianyu, giving the abyssal a small window of time before returning to where it came from.
"Agh!" The sound of metal clanking on the ground caused all three of them to turn their heads towards the source of the sound, Jianyu.
Jianyu had three massive lacerations running down the side of her forearm, causing real human blood to drip down onto her white clothes and the floor where her right dagger lay.
The abyssal was then promptly executed by a flying dagger. "Shit!" Jianyu stares at her wound in disbelief. Her entire world slowly starts to shake and vibrate around, and her vision gets blurry.
"Snap out of it!" Ambier slaps Jianyu, causing a small electric shock throughout her body which causes her to jolt awake. "You can use a heal later, just keep fighting!"
Jianyu looks on in awe as all three of them fight in unison, taking down entire hordes of abyssals. She looks down at the two blades on the ground with her blood next to them.
She clenched her fist and gritted her teeth, pulling through the pain and picking up her two daggers.