But For a Sword (A Matou Shinji Series AU)

[Daiki]

[x] No.
[x] No.

The only issue I have with Phelan being the only one to take FF, is that Noel will take the lead (since Felix knows better than someone like Shinji obviously)

And what we really don't need is a Phelan who takes even more risks, while Shinji doesn't even understand what the guy is trying to do while surrounded by lethal enemies of various types. It will end up with Shinji dying early and Phelan left on his own.

Whether they take it or not, is of little importance now that I think about it. But they at least should be on the same level (double yes or double no)

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] No - Shinji
[X] No - Phelan

---

I'll get something out by the weekend. In the meantime, I have questions for all of you...

- Who is your favorite character in BFAS? Why?

- Is there anything you'd like to see?

- Do you have a favorite moment so far? What was it?

[Desann]

Who is your favorite character in BFAS? Why?

Phelan - I like his banters with Shinji and how sometimes he looks like protagonist himself.
I also like Selina and her relationship with Shinji. Ironically, from all girls only Selina and Hermione feel like equals for Shinji (at least for me). He feels too dependent on Senpai, and with Amber/Natsumi he sometimes looks like secondary character compared to them.

Is there anything you'd see?

Some small parts from another characters POV. Like recent one with Draco.

Do you have a favorite moment so far? What was it?

Shinji and Hermione coming to (some sort) of understanding in Tenebrae.

[Dracueri]

- Who is your favorite character in BFAS? Why?

Selina so far stands out with her use of D&D knowledge to promote herself as an adventurer. Winning the bet with Draco in the first challenge won her respect from the other first years and gained her a reputation as someone you don't want to cross. It's funny to see her one up Draco in their interactions and the inside jokes that she makes with no one getting it since they don't know D&D.
Quirrel is an interesting character since he survived in this story and looks to make his own mark in the wizarding world.


- Is there anything you'd like to see?

More POV from Quirrel and him meeting Lockhart. It would also be nice to see what abilities the familiars have and how they differ from traditional Japanese familiars.


- Do you have a favorite moment so far? What was it?

Quirrel giving his final thoughts at the end of the first year.

[alfheimwanderer]

Anyone else?

I apologize for being delayed - I've been a little tired lately, but here, have a snippet:

...

Matou Shinji wasn't sure exactly what to expect as he approached the classroom where Quirrell's newest challenge - and this seemed like quite a doozy, given that they would be fighting the undead - was to be held. Granted, he didn't know too much about inferi, or the sort of undead one could create with witchcraft, if they were anything like the Dead or the Living Dead, the thought of facing them didn't exactly fill him with confidence.

'Maybe I should be thankful I'm not a first year...' he told himself, though part of him thought that it would be easier as a first year, since Quirrell never made his challenges impossible, merely...very difficult unless one far exceeded the parameters of a usual person of one's year, or one managed to stumble upon some strategy for dealing with the challenge that Quirrell had not foreseen.

Thinking this, he walked through the door and froze as he found himself in a great room filled with racks upon racks of weapons, armor, and other artifacts, like the armory he'd been allowed to visit before the Surviving the Crash scenario.

There was a small table in front of him, with a letter from "High Reclaimer Quirrell", explaining the basics of the mission to which he had been assigned and authorizing him and his partner to each requisition 3 pieces of equipment from the armory that had been built up over years service in goblin rebellions, giant wars, and other such conflicts.

'Three...each?'

The boy frowned. The last time he'd been allowed to choose an item, his entire team had been limited to three...and now it was three...each?

'I have a very bad feeling about this.'

One that was only compounded as Phelan Noel materialized before him, with the Earl's son carrying a sword over his shoulder and seeming quite excited as he took in his surroundings - with polished metal, oiled leather, and more gleaming from every surface of the room.

"Ah, Matou, you're already here," the young noble noted, rubbing his hands together in delight. He took a moment to glance over the briefing before-- "Three each, he said?"

"Yes," Shinji replied somberly. Surely such...generosity was a trap - or at least a dire warning. It had to be...didn't it?

But Phelan, it seemed, did not share his concerns.

"Excellent, excellent," he murmured, a covetous smile gracing his lips. "Let's split up and see what they have, hm?"

"...if you insist," the Japanese boy allowed, shaking his head. Why had he chosen to work with Phelan again, given his history with the other boy? 'Oh, right, because Quirrell wanted us to work with people we haven't partnered with before, and I know that he can be competent, so long as he doesn't go out of control.' Of course, not being Amber, he had no idea how he would keep the young noble from the worst of his excesses, but he thought perhaps if he just mentioned what Selina would do (or what he thought Selina might do), he could probably retain some degree of control.

...however good that would do him, given that Matou Shinji didn't really know how to fight the undead.

'Well, let's start with the basics then,' he told himself, his eyes catching sight of several racks of protective gear. Yes, protection was always good, especially when dealing with inhuman monsters which could no doubt rip him apart limb from limb, and which perhaps had claws or were willing to use teeth to wicked effect. 'What do we have?'

The answer was quite a lot, really.

Suits of gleaming goblin-silver plate.

Coats and coifs of mail, available in both goblin-silver and cold iron, whatever the latter was.

Wyvernhide cloaks.

Basilisk skin garments.

Fine black cloaks that muffled sound and were enchanted to reflect spells.

Even armor meant for a mount of some--

'...wait a minute. Why is that there?' the boy wondered. Few people would have any use for something meant for a horse or a mule, so unless Quirrell had added this specifically for him, perhaps to tempt him into using his animagus form... 'It's a trap. It has to be.'

...and quite frankly, even if it wasn't, there was no way he was letting Phelan ride him.

'Or is that the trick? Does he know me well enough to know I wouldn't let Phelan ride, and taking the armor is necessary to pass, or...'

No. To try and guess Quirrell's intentions was the path to madness, as there were too many possibilities for what it could all mean, and if he just didn't choose anything, Shinji wouldn't put it past the Professor to have included some kind of time limit for he and Phelan to be in the armor, meaning that if he was paralyzed by indecision, he'd have to face the undead with no special equipment at all.

'Right. I'd better pick something then.'

But what? The full body coverage of the goblin-silver plate was very, very tempting, given how such armor was said to be virtually indestructible, meaning that he would be safe from the claws and fangs of the undead beasts lurking in the Archive. And yet...

'No...' He'd never worn plate before, and had no idea how wearing something so solid would affect his endurance. Truly, it would be the cruelest of ironies if he was rendered immobile due to exhaustion, and he didn't think that the armor would protect against something like poison or just being thrown against a wall with great force. And as he recalled Selina mentioning, simply because one was wearing indestructible armor didn't mean one's flesh was any more resistant to damage.

Mail then?

It would protect against physical blows, like the plate, but...in case one of the inferi used fire or some sort of acid, he would be doomed, and he didn't think it would be very good against curses either, especially as spell-beams could be quite narrow.

'And since I don't plan on changing my clothes in front of Phelan - or being naked once the simulation ends and these things fade, the basilisk hide garments are out.'

Which, by process of elimination left a wyvern-hide cloak.

The boy looked over the rack of cloaks, seeing an assortment of sizes and colors, and eventually settled on a hooded charcoal-grey number that covered his entire body. Somehow, as majestic as a cloak of crimson scales could be, or one of emerald green, style was of little importance next to comfort and functionality.

He moved from there to the racks of weapons that had been set aside for the students, with the boy gawking at some of the items available - great zweihanders taller than he was, siege bows made of the ribs of some great leviathan, exotic throwing rings - chakrams - with razored edges, whipswords with wickedly sharp tendrils, and even some massive bludgeon that was labeled by the improbable name of Holy Flametouched Iron Heavy Mace of Greater Undead Bane - whatever the hell that was.

There were even Holy Flametouched horseshoes of Undead Bane, the sight of which made the boy narrow his eyes. If the words meant anything, then...

'No...no, I'm not going to become a mule for this! I already made up my mind!' Or so he told himself, turning his gaze to what in his limited experience seemed like sane weapons to use. Things he knew people could use - like a rapier wrought of gleaming bone, which seemed to whisper when he held it...something like Ph'nglui mglw'nafh ...wgah'nagl fhtagn and other nonsense. Or perhaps it compelled him to whisper those words, he thought, as he found his lips moving to repeat those words.

He hastily put that down and examined the other items around.

There was a goblin-silver longsword infused with basilisk venom he wasn't going to touch, since if he remembered correctly, basilisk venom was quite deadly, and he wasn't exactly proficient with the sword. If he cut himself...well, there were other ways to die that sounded more pleasant.

'Well, I guess this sounds reasonable,' he thought, looking at a staff carved of blackened bone and set with runes, with one end seeming to burn with dark fire. 'Reach and probably magical power. I'll leave the swording to Phelan.'

Onto the accessories then...

The boy was briefly tempted by the prospect of obtaining an enchanted goblin-silver tower shield, to afford him maximum protection, or a gauntlet which could project a shield against spells, as well as what were apparently Reclaimer-proprietary Fiendfyre Potions (a set of vials containing bottled fiendfyre, which apparently were excellent at destroying large groups of enemies, leaping from one to the next and consuming them whole - magic and all).

Only...the boy paused when he realized that fiendfyre did not differentiate friend from foe.

'I don't really want to deal with friendly fire...' he told himself, choosing to pick up a set of what were labeled as health kits - Reclaimer-proprietary mixes of healing potions, stimulants, and antidotes. 'Might as well find a way to keep myself alive, because whatever I do, I'll take hits. Or Phelan will.'

The latter seemed more likely to Shinji as he wandered back to the center, were Phelan was already waiting.

Phelan looked over the selection of gear that Shinji had chosen for himself, whistling appreciatively as he saw the dragonhide cloak and the staff of carved dragonbone, etched with runes glowing with dark flames.

"Nice combination," the earl's son told him. "You look like some powerful magus there, with that staff and cloak."

Shinji felt rather warm inside on hearing such words, as he'd wanted someone to say them to him for a very long time, even if the person saying it now was terribly uninformed about that side of the world. It wasn't as if he could expect such from his family, who had never given him the time of day, or from most of his friends, who had idea what a magus even was. Frankly, he didn't know where Phelan had stumbled across the word - probably while trying to learn a few new words to impress Selina.

Either way though, he appreciated it, even if it would mean so much more if it came from senpai.

Shinji took a moment to assess just what Phelan was wearing as well, and found himself surprised.

...surprised that the other boy hadn't chosen to wear goblin-forged plate and dual-wield longswords mostly, combining the goblin-forged, basilisk venom-imbued blade with the vampiric blade that Amber had apparently obtained for him, but it still counted.

Instead, the earl's son was kitted out with goblin-silver mail, shield gauntlets, and...

"...wait a second, are those the proprietary fiendfyre potions?" Shinji squeaked, feeling the urge to back away slowly.

"Of course," Phelan replied jovially. "We need something in case there are really big groups of them, right? I mean, I trust myself to take down any one of them at a time, and I'm pretty sure you can put a few undead on their backs, but what if there's a bunch of them at once?"

Shinji opened his mouth to object, but found himself closing it, as the earl's son had actually brought up a reasonable point.

Discreetly, he tried to pinch himself. This had to be a dream, right...?

"Hey, what are you doing, Matou?"

Or maybe it wasn't, in which case, something told him that this upcoming challenge was going to be very, very painful.

You meet a poltergeist inside, a blue colored entity who seems not entirely sane, and has sparks bleeding from him. He requests a weapon so that he can help you fight the ones who defiled the Archive.

Do you agree?

[ ] Yes - why not
[ ] No, you don't trust him

[Skull Leader]

[X] Yes - why not

While yes arming the not entirely sane Poltergeist is not a great idea and he could turn on you and kill you, Shinji does not have much of a choice here. Two people verse the incoming horrors they are about to face is not great odds. The poltergeist increases the odds. Just don't trust him to always be on your side. But at the moment, the enemy of my enemy is currently not my enemy. So arm him with at least a couple of daggers.

Just don't give him the fire potions yet.

[Dracueri]

[x]Yes-why not

Having a extra hand will be a great help and can scout ahead for the team. The pros outweigh the cons if it turns out to be untrustworthy so it is worth it to take a chance. If it proves useful we can arm the poltergeist with the fiendfyre potion later on or some other weapon.

[Daiki]

[x] Yes - why not.

At this difficulty level (second year) it will be mostly sane. Should still be wary, just hope it doesn't end up with a blade dipped in basilisk venom. xD

[alfheimwanderer]

[x] Yes - why not.

---

Very well then - with what will you arm him?

[ ] Two of Shinji's knives (duplicated, as he is wearing his holster)
[ ] A copy of the wyvenbone staff
[ ] A bandolier of duplicated fiendfyre vials
[ ] (write-in)

[Skull Leader]

[X] Two of Shinji's knives (duplicated, as he is wearing his holster)

Stab away little guy. I am afraid of what will happen if you give him the fiendfyre vials. We need the place still standing.

[Cysero]

[X] Two of Shinji's knives (duplicated, as he is wearing his holster)

Giving him fiendyre is too dangerous.

[Dracueri]

[X]Two of Shinji's knives (duplicated, as he is wearing his holster)

[shanagan]

[X] Two of Shinji's knives (duplicated, as he is wearing his holster)

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] Two of Shinji's knives (duplicated, as he is wearing his holster)

---

Entering the Archive for the first time was a rather surreal experience for Matou Shinji, given that unlike the other Quirrell challenges, he didn't simply appear within. No - he had to physically walk out of the Armory, past what seemed like an entire squad of Aurors (who seemed far too lightly armed to be facing undead, in his opinion), who had established a defensive perimeter bristling with wands, watching for any sign of something - anything - strange.

"Reclaimers," the Auror Captain - a man with an improbably craggy face, a pegleg and far less skin than scars and craters - stated in what was less a greeting than a sneer. "Never thought we'd be resorting to mercenaries in Britain after the mess ye lot made in the New World, but what the Minister wants, the Minister gets. Your High Reclaimed bloke tell you what you're walking into?"

"...an Archive infested with inferi?" Shinji hazarded.

"Heh, is that all?" the rather moody man snorted, shaking his head. "Still don't really agree with 'im sending boys to do a man's work, but I'm not leading an assault on Second Azkaban."

"...second Azkaban?" Phelan asked, his eyes gleaming with something hungry.

"You idiots probably think its some great adventure - join the Reclaimers, meet interesting people, kill them," the Auror Captain growled. "Well, time to see if you can do what you've been paid to. You need a reminder, or do you think you know it all?"

"It is only common sense to hear from the person on the scene," Phelan stated diplomatically, nodding his head to the man deferentially.

The Auror Captain grunted.

"Common sense, eh? Not something you lot practice much, but I'll take it," the man replied, nodding to himself. "My scouts only made it to the end of the first floor. Ambushed by some kind of strange inferius, and other dark things."

"How many made it out?"

"One. Managed to give his report before..." the man trailed off.

"Before..."

"He became one of them. A thrall to a...a parasite."

"Parasite?" Shinji echoed. "I thought we were facing Inferi?"

"If it were only that, we wouldn't have needed you lot around," the Auror Captain sneered. "We can manage inferi. These things though...the mad genius who once lived here was a master of dark magic. It wasn't enough for him to simply create inferi. He had to...innovate. To make them even more...unnatural."

"Unnatural?"

"You have inferi with twisted arms and tentacle things. You have little blighters with them whose bite can turn you into one of the living dead. And worse things besides. If it were up to me, a squad would level this Archive, burn everything in it with Fiendfyre, but the Minister wants the Archive, so...better you than me."

"...I see."

"At least you have some kind of protection," the man noted, eyeing them. "Though even just armor won't save you. Only one thing will."

"Oh?"

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" the man roared, his rancid breath foul in Shinji's nostrils. "You let up for a second, underestimate what the Dark can do? You're dead, or worse, you're one of them."

"...I'll take that under advisement," Shinji said diplomatically.

"Sound like a damned paper-pusher, you do, not some elite wand for hire," the Auror grumbled, seeming quite unhappy. "And besides...swords. Staves. What self-respecting wizard even uses that barbaric shit?"

"One who is still alive after all the shit I've been through," Phelan replied in a completely serious stare.

"...heh," the man noted, nodding. "I suppose there's that. Well, in you go then. Sooner you do and fail, sooner we can get the Minister to let us level the place."

"And if we don't? Fail, that is?"

"Oh, you will. Pair o' overconfident kids who think they know it all? You will, or my name ain't Mad-Eye Moody."

They enter the Archive at last, finding quiet, almost eerily so, given that it was supposed to be infested. They proceed along the first level, expecting danger around every corner, and getting jumpier and jumpier as they found none.

Which was why when the poltergeist appeared before them, humming a discordant tone, Shinji tossed a knife at it, only for his duplicated blade to pass right through the azure wraith, causing it to emit a shower of sparks.

"I say - that was quite rude!" the phantom sputtered, with Shinji taken aback by the presence of something talking.

"Who are you?" the boy demanded.

"I am the Penitent, the poltergeist bound to this installation," the entity responded.

"Poltergeist?"

"A spirit of chaos, formed by the presence of powerful magic or emotion," the poltergeist replied, with a disturbing titter. "More reclaimers, I see."

"...more?"

"Yes. You have come to reclaim this archive from the depredations of the undead Flood, yes?" the poltergeist asked. "To reach the weapon at the Tower's peak."

"Well, yes."

"Then I will be of assistance," the spirit said diffidently. "Do you have a weapon? I can hardly hurt the undead on my own - not when they are wrought of cursed matter that can even consume ghosts. But something of iron, perhaps..."

Shinji tossed over a couple of knives, which the poltergeist grabbed out of the air.

"AH, excellent. Come. This way.

They continue to make their way ahead, until they find a room that is quite full of undead. Not the zombies Shinji is familiar with, but bloated forms with wriggling tentacles, tottering about to and fro.

"They don't really look like much of a threat..." Phelan muttered. "What do you think, Matou?"

What does Shinji suggest?

[ ] (write-in)

[Skull Leader]

[X] Don't underestimate them as there is a reason why others have failed and have become thralls. Slow and steady approach, retreating as necessary. Use Penitent to scout around corners and be point. Stay together and guard each other. No heroics. Communicate actions out loud as monsters should be unintelligent.

I think that covers things unless people got changes they want to do to this.

Also, oh joy Shinji and Phelan will have to get thru some of their peers that have been turned into thralls in their runs. At least Shinji will take great joy in destroying Thrall-Smith.

[Dracueri]

[x]Don't underestimate them as there is a reason why others have failed and have become thralls. Slow and steady approach, retreating as necessary. Use Penitent to scout around corners and be point. Stay together and guard each other. Communicate actions out loud as monsters should be unintelligent.

[Cysero]

[X] Don't underestimate them as there is a reason why others have failed and have become thralls. Slow and steady approach, retreating as necessary. Use Penitent to scout around corners and be point. Stay together and guard each other. No heroics. Communicate actions out loud as monsters should be unintelligent.

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] Don't underestimate them as there is a reason why others have failed and have become thralls. Slow and steady approach, retreating as necessary. Use Penitent to scout around corners and be point. Stay together and guard each other. No heroics. Communicate actions out loud as monsters should be unintelligent.

---

"They might not look like much, but knowing Quirrell, that's just what he wants us to think," Shinji replied, shaking his head as he gripped his staff.

"Really?" Phelan asked skeptically as he peered around the corner at the group of bloated inferi who were - ever so slowly, shuffling their way - holding his sword at the ready. "They look like they'd pop if I so much as poked them," he noted, miming the action of stabbing one. "Or cut one open a hair. Those tentacles aren't long enough to do any damage anyway."

And there was some truth to that, as the "tentacles" that took the place of arms seemed more like...overgrown whiskers than anything capable of harming someone.

"...that might be the case, but that's why we have Penitent here, right?" Shinji asked, glancing at the blue poltergeist, who was once again humming as it tossed and caught the knives the boy had given it, as if it didn't realize the importance of keeping quiet. Then again, it was a poltergeist, and thus effectively unkillable by undead so... "I'm sure you wouldn't mind giving one of those a poke, and seeing what it does, right?"

"Very well," the blue spirit hummed, darting forward, and tossing a knife towards one of the bloated inferi, with the blade slicing readily through its flesh and sinking into it down to the hilt, with the inferius continuing to waddle forward, as if it hadn't acknowledged the hit. Or so it seemed at first, before the top heavy undead fell flat on its face.

"Huh," Shinji said, blinking. "They're that easy to--"

BOOM!

Whatever he was about to say was lost, as the corpse exploded, releasing a wave of sheer force that sent other bloated undead ​flying, along with what seemed like skittering, balloon-like creatures from which a profusion of razor sharp tentacles seemed to bloom.

'They came from...inside?' the boy found himself wondering, even as a bloated undead landed right beside him, and the boy jumped backwards - though not nearly far enough back to avoid being tossed through the air like a ragdoll, before slamming into the ground with a bone-rattling thud, his staff falling from his hand and rolling away on impact. 'Wha...'

There was another BOOM, one that didn't quite register to his still-ringing ears, one that sent Phelan skidding across the ground, the shield projected by his gauntlet sputtering out, having presumably blocked the worst of the force.

"No more!" the young noble declared - or so Shinji thought he said, though the boy could have said almost anything else that was two syllables and reasonably punchy, since his hearing still hadn't quite recovered. Whatever Phelan said, the boy ripped one of the fiendfyre vials from the bandoleer on which he wore them and tossed it far into the distance, where a number of the unaffected bloated forms had waddled to, with Shinji only watching as the vial shattered on the ground, spilling black flames upon the ground that quickly spread to engulf the nearby undead, which popped off one by one, releasing balloon-like things - which also popped in the heat.

By this time, the first - unaffected - wave of parasites had almost reached them, a veritable flood of dozens against him, but Phelan stood resolute, taking his wand into his second hand.

"Verdimillious tria!" he intoned, as green lightning shot from his wand into the mob, chaining from one to the other as most of the little ones just popped. But it wasn't enough to take out all of them, and they closed in on him, some jumping at his unarmored face, some making for his feet as he tried to slice them, only to find that they were more nimble than he thought, even if they were fragile.

By this point, Shinji managed to pull himself to his feet, a knife in one hand, his wand already in the other.

That Phelan wouldn't be able to manage alone was obvious, but how could he best support his already swamped comrade?

How does he support Phelan?

[ ] With knives - he can just keep tossing them, and it seemed popping one of those creatures made others pop
[ ] With spells - he's much more accurate with wand than knife, and a good flipendo tria might help push things away
[ ] By turning into a mule and charging - if he times it right, he can trample those fragile balloon things to dust and they won't be able to get him
[ ] (write-in)

[Dracueri]

[x]With spells - he's much more accurate with wand than knife, and a good flipendo tria might help push things away

Push the balloon things away so the explosions won't damage Phelan.

[Cysero]

[X] With spells

Doing too much would be counterproductive right now. Let's follow the slow and steady plan and help relieve some of Phelan's burden so we can grab the staff and start a fighting retreat.