Son of the Beach

And continue on they did, with SplashMan going further into the area to eliminate yet more trouble-making viruses. They reached a tall cliff stabbing out from the shore. High atop the cliff, some lamp-shaped Elmperors resided, along with an Anaconda, its snaky tongue lashing out threateningly. A little further down the cliff, some Yort viruses whizzed about, their sawblade-like yo-yos lashing out. Furthest down were some Whirly viruses, stirring up the water.

He could probably turn back now if he wanted to, but that was boring.

-- ENEMIES --
Anaconda2: 250 HP [Normal]
Elmperor2EX A: 220 HP [Magnet]
Elmperor2EX B: 220 HP [Magnet]
Yurt A: 150 HP [Flying/Sea]
Yurt B: 150 HP [Flying/Sea]
Swirly A: 140 HP [Sea]
Swirly B: 140 HP [Sea]
Swirly C: 140 HP [Sea]

-- NAVIGATOR --
SplashMan.EXE: 475 HP [Sea]

-- TERRAIN --
10% Normal (High Cliff)
10% Magnet (High Cliff)
80% Sea (Bottom)

-- ROGUE BATTLE 07, READY? START!! --
...Uggggggh. He was fine with heights, but he wasn't really cool with powerful electrically charged enemies. But he would endure. He was NOT afraid. He could do this. "...These guys looks pretty tough..." ...That's right, show them who's boss.

Luckily, in this case, the boss was a young lady named Sabrina Christine Jetto. "Yeah, but you're way too tough to let those things beat you!" After all, they had expanded their selection of Wood chips quite nicely recently. That wouldn't hurt at all. "If you're all set, we'll go ahead and start. We'll take it slow, and beat them in levels! Now, here's something I got from trading around!" Funny how random library trading ended up getting her something she actually liked. "BattleChip, Boomerang2! Slot in!"

The sounds of something moving through the air immediately began to be heard, though the source was unclear at first. But it soon became obvious when a wooden blade whirled past the Navi, elegantly arcing to allow it to try and hit the magical lamps and large snake. It the proceeded to complete the U-turn, and whizzed by SplashMan again as it returned to nothingness...at least as far as the battle was concerned. "...That didn't work like Boomerang usually does...I'm not complaining, but it's still weird..."

"Huh...yeah. Weird. I dunno why, it's a regular Boomerang2. But don't get caught up on the details now! We've got viruses to bust!" And viruses that allowed her to be lazy, and give her Navi something to destroy enemies before him. That was a win-win. "Let's keep up the Wood stuff! BattleChip, AreaGrab! BattleChip, BambooSword! Slot in!"

Much the the Navi's relief, this chip decided to behave exactly like before, and his hand was transformed into a WideSword shape, but with a noticable light green tint. Placing the blade across his chest, he warped towards the virus trio in front of him, and powerfully sliced at them, leaving behind a green trail where he cut. Without any noticable delay, he spun around and delivered a second strong slash, to try and give them another taste of earth energy. The others down below the cliff weren't pleasant, but he needed to get rid of the foes in front of him first. After all, Yurt and Swirly didn't inflict double pain...and triple pain if he headed for the water.

"All right! Take a quick breather, and we'll keep going, okay?"

"Roger!" Of course, 'breather' meant 'try not to get hit by things'. Actually, it didn't even work in regular context, since he didn't have to breathe. Oh well, she only meant it in the metaphorical sense of not charging and attacking...or did she? Honestly, even he couldn't always tell what was going through that girl's head...

[Order of Turn:
1-Boomerang2 chip attack on Elemperor2EXA, Elemperor2EXB, and Anaconda2 (90, Wood, B, Arc Attack)
2-AreaGrab chip to near Anaconda and Elemperor2EXs (Teleport, Accuracy UP)
3-BambooSword chip attack on Anaconda2, Elemperor2EXA, and Elemperor2EXB (80, Wood, B, Slashing, Wide Attack)
4-BambooSword chip attack on Anaconda2, Elemperor2EXA, and Elemperor2EXB (80, Wood, B, Slashing, Wide Attack)
5-Dodge
6-Dodge]
With SplashMan setting off the first assault, that was the cue for the Yurt and Swirly to make an attempt on SplashMan's HP. The Yurts' attacks were sadly rendered ineffective, as it was too slow to catch him before he teleported away. However, two of the Swirly managed to do just that, dealing a good amount of hurt before he left. (40x2) Of course, SplashMan did just that to the crew atop the cliff, slicing apart the Anaconda with impunity and dealing some damage to the Elmperors. They, in turn, dealt some more damage to him, which, as luck would have it, was unable to be dodged in time. (30x2)

There to greet him was also an entourage of Yurt. The Swirly just sorta hung around at the bottom.

-- ENEMIES --
Anaconda2: DELETED
Elmperor2EX A: 50 HP [Normal]
Elmperor2EX B: 140 HP [Normal]
Yurt A: 150 HP [Flying/Normal]
Yurt B: 150 HP [Flying/Normal]
Swirly A: 140 HP [Sea]
Swirly B: 140 HP [Sea]
Swirly C: 140 HP [Sea]

-- NAVIGATOR --
SplashMan.EXE: 335 HP [Normal]

-- TERRAIN --
20% Normal (High Cliff)
80% Sea (Bottom)
"Oooooh..." While no attack was particularly overwhelming, the sheer number got to SplashMan, who nevertheless attempted to shake it off. "Ahh, too many attacks!" ...And wasn't entirely successful.

"Hoo boy, there really are a lot of them...but, the Elemperor don't look as tough as they did before, do they?"

The aquatic Navi took a good look at the magic lamps in front of him. They were still prepped for battle, but...Sabrina was right. Something was off. And not in a bad way. "Huh, you're right! Come to think of it, they did lose their terrain. I guess that didn't work out well for them!"

"Guess not. Soooo, let's worry about the Yurt for now, okay?" But, she knew from experience that those yo-yos could block attacks. And since they were that high in the air, they couldn't attack from the ground...but that didn't take away every direction, now did it? "Good time as any to try something new!" At least, she was pretty sure this helped the cause. The description sure made it sound like it. "BattleChip, MetaGel! Slot in!"

An odd sound came from overhead, as if a cartoon character was falling. SplashMan tried to refrain from looking so that the bladed viruses ahead couldn't figure out what was going on. Even though really wanted to. If he had, he would've seen the sight of three Slimey viruses falling from the heavens, acting like giant, jelly-like raindrops. Two had the directive to try and drop on the pair of Yurt, while the third...well, it might drop on just about anything. Or nothing. It wouldn't be really clear, even if he did look.

Once the battlefield was once again lacking in Slimey, two more BattleChips were slammed into the PET, similar in nature both to the previous attack, and to each other. "Let's make it rain! BattleChip, LilCloud! BattleChip, MediumCloud! Double slot in!"

A gray cloud formed above the Navi's head, who didn't even need to bother looking up at it; he knew how this one worked. As he looked on at the yo-yo viruses, the cloud raced forward, eventually stopping past the edge of the cliff, and began to drop needle-like rain down towards the Yurt. One of the more interesting things, however...was that the watery fighter still had a cloud overhead, even after one left him. The second cloud followed the first one's lead, coming to a stop over the viruses, and began to move back and forth to drop hazardous precipitation on them.

"That oughta do it. And that means it should be okay to use this now!" Hooray for defense chips! "BattleChip, IronShield2! Slot in!"

As was typical in his battles, a large shield formed in front of SplashMan, who let out a sigh of relief that he was finally protected. As he did so, he looked down...and noticed that he still didn't have a right hand. He hadn't even noticed, since nothing they had used lately required that arm. Well, no sense in wasting it...moving the shield aside for a moment, he took a quick, yet powerful, swing at the magical lamps in front of him. The third effort finally burned out the chip data, however, and the wooden energy blade dissipated with zero fanfare.

"Oh wow, I completely forgot about BambooSword..."

"So did I...I just looked down, saw it, and decided it was a waste to not use it!"

"Well, I'm glad you did! Here, go ahead and finish off that Elemperor! I'll let you do it yourself!"

Well, that meant he had three options. But he was too lazy to ram into it, and Flood Cannon could potentially backfire...guess that meant it was time for the old standard. The Navi lowered his cannons down into firing range, and began filling them with high pressure water once again. Thanks to his system improvements, it took very little time to do so, and with very short delay, he launched who knew how many gallons of pressurized water at the turban wearing virus. Which reminded him...he still had that other one's turban. He should try it out sometime.

[Order of Turn:
1-MetaGel1 chip attack on YurtA and YurtB (90+15, Aqua, B, Slow)
2-MediumCloud chip attack on YurtA and YurtB (90+15, Aqua, C, Wide Attack, lasts for 2 turns)
3-LilCloud chip attack on YurtA and YurtB (70+15, Aqua, C, Wide Attack, lasts for 2 turns)
4-IronShield2 chip on SplashMan (4-hit shield)
5-BambooSword chip on Elemperor2EXA and Elemperor2EXB (80, Wood, B, Slashing, Wide Attack)
5-Reserve Tank R (passive buster charge)
5-Reserve Tank L (passive buster charge)
6-Water Splash sig attack on Elemperor2EXB (200, Break)]
The bombardment of liquids on the Yurt viruses did a number of them, deleting one while putting one of it into a critical state. The viruses weren't giving up without a fight as the Yurt launched its Yo-yo at SplashMan, but it was most of its damages were blocked off by the navi's shield. [-20] The Elmperors took a stab at their attacks, despite being lessened thanks to the terrain, and successfully managed to land a single hit...before they were deleted by the simple swing of the sword. [-30]

Now left alone at the bottom of the cliff, the Swirlies rose up and began their relentless attack at SplashMan. Just like others, they were only able to land a single hit out of many that they tried to inflict! [-40]

-- ENEMIES --
Anaconda2: DELETED
Elmperor2EX A: DELETED
Elmperor2EX B: DELETED
Yurt A: DELETED
Yurt B: 15 HP [Flying/Normal] [Slow]
Swirly A: 140 HP [Sea]
Swirly B: 140 HP [Sea]
Swirly C: 140 HP [Sea]

-- NAVIGATOR --
SplashMan.EXE: 245 HP [Normal] [Shield Destroyed!]

--FACTORS--
LilCloud: 1 Turn
MediumCloud: 1 Turn

-- TERRAIN --
20% Normal (High Cliff)
80% Sea (Bottom)
Okay, the end was finally in sight. Just had to finish off the one virus in front of him, and the three down at the bottom of the cliff. ...The latter did NOT sound fun, especially since AreaGrab was already expended. But, he could worry about that after taking down the buzzsaw of whirling pain. He didn't even need anything from his operator to do that, either. His right hand transformed into a generic buster gun, which he pointed forward, and quickly loosed a pair of purple blaster shots from its barrel. That was all he needed: one hit was all it'd take, and the actual yo-yo couldn't block more than one of them...

...Hmm. The buster. That actually gave her an idea. And since it only needed one BattleChip to work, she got to be somewhat lazy. Win-win! "Good news! You gave me an idea on how we can wrap things up!"

"...I'm not jumping down there!"

"You don't have to! But, you ARE going to have to look down to do it. That okay?"

"...I guess...beats jumping, at least!"

"Well, there ya go!" ...Okay, she needed to stop being dependent on this chip. Yes, it was good, but there was the whole 'karma biting one in the posterior' thing...oh well, she could try not using it after this battle was over. "BattleChip, LilBoiler! Slot in!"

A Kettle virus again appeared in the arms of the aquatic Navi, who looked at the fellow water container, slightly confused at the reasoning. "Uh, so how did I give you this idea? I get the part about not going down the cliff..." Walking over to the edge, he looked down to get an idea of where the Swirly were lurking down there, and tossed the object to the lower altitude.

"It's like this. Wait for it to land, and as soon as it does...shoot it! Water Splash it, Flood Cannon it, buster shoot it, whatever works!"

"Ohhhh, okay!" Feeling lazy, SplashMan adopted the form of his buster once again, and shot a magenta pellet downward, at the very thing he had summoned. Breaking buster shots...bad for most objects, good for this one. Now he just needed to wait, and try and avoid any whirlpool enveloped crabs that tried to bump into him. Easy, right?

[Order of Turn:
1-Buster shot on YurtB (50, Break)
2-Buster shot on YurtB (50, Break)
3-Throw LilBoiler1 chip down cliff (100+, Aqua, B, Blast 3, can add damage of one attack to own damage, explodes after 2 turns, 1 HP Wood element object)
4-Buster shot on LilBoiler1 (50, Break)
5-Dodge
6-Dodge]
With all of the "effort" that SplashMan put into his next attacks, there wasn't much to be done. The Yurt couldn't really avoid much of the attacks blasted towards it, due to it being slowed and all, and was immediately deleted. The Cloud chips summoned earlier took care of two of the Swirly before SplashMan even got the Little Boiler chip down there. Amusingly, however, the Boiler didn't do anything, as the Swirly merely swirled out of the way and up the cliff. Of course, its attack was dodged easily, and it ended up back down there.

How annoying.

-- ENEMIES --
Anaconda2: DELETED
Elmperor2EX A: DELETED
Elmperor2EX B: DELETED
Yurt A: DELETED
Yurt B: DELETED
Swirly A: DELETED
Swirly B: DELETED
Swirly C: 140 HP [Sea]

-- NAVIGATOR --
SplashMan.EXE: 245 HP [Normal]

-- TERRAIN --
20% Normal (High Cliff)
80% Sea (Bottom)
...Drat. Plan failed. Once again, SplashMan peered down the edge of the cliff, any fear of the heights involved slowly turning into irritation from the battle not being over. "...Do I really have to head down after all...?"

"Uh...nope!" Unfortunately, this time she had to transfer three BattleChips instead of one like last time. Life was cruel. "Here's the plan. When I send you this, don't just start shooting. Wait for it to pop up near you, then you can shoot it up! Okay?"

"Uh, sure!"

"You'll have plenty of shots, so go crazy if you want!" And...in. And in. So much effort. "BattleChip, CircleGun2! BattleChip, Attack+20! Double slot in!"

A rounded, elongated blaster gun formed on the water based Navi's arm, complete with a scope atop it. He probably COULD snipe the crab virus from that distance, but due to his operator's request, he instead scanned the area, weapon at the ready. Sooner or later, it'd pop up...

In the meantime, however, Sabrina had a reason for making her Navi wait. And that reason...was her library. It must increase further. "And...BattleChip, PickPocket! Slot in!"

A Bandcoon appeared at the edge of the cliff, and immediately looked down upon its target. Jumping...no. Elevator...nah. Hang gliding...eh, it did that enough in its spare time. Instead, it reached into its fur, and pulled out a bamboo fishing pole. It was incredibly nondescript, aside from the hook, which looked identical to the pseudovirus's tail, including the size. With a flick of its stubby wrist, the line was sent soaring downward, straight down upon the spinning virus...but missed by a few feet. Luckily, this was a Bandcoon brand fishing rod, which granted the hook the ability to somehow move sideways and hit its target. How? Trade secret, of course. Afer a few moments, the hook pulled at the line, causing the Bandcoon to yank hard on the rod, and return it. Though SplashMan wasn't paying any attention to it, there was some data attached to the hook, but before it could reach his field of vision, the thief whipped out a cooler, and scooped it up with it before he could see. Noting the battle was almost over, it decided to leave its makeshift treasure chest unlocked, and vanished, its fishing expedition successful in its eyes. Whether it was successful in the Navi's eyes, however, would yet to be seen. And at the moment, his eyes were focused on locating a recently teleported Swirly virus, and peppering it with laser blasts...

[Order of Turn:
1-PickPocket chip on SwirlyC (steals reward data from one virus)
2-Wait for Swirly to appear at top of cliff
3-CircleGun2 chip attack on SwirlyC (120+20, A, Seeking)
4-Attack+20 chip on CircleGun2 (adds 20 damage to all hits of one damaging chip)
5-CircleGun2 chip attack on SwirlyC (120+20, A, Seeking)
6-CircleGun2 chip attack on SwirlyC (120+20, A, Seeking)]
Summoning up a Bandcoon, SplashMan let the pseudo-virus go on its usual thieving antics, which, this time, seemed to be a good helping of fishing! Patience was the key, and it paid off, with the Bandcoon snagging a good helping of viral poop, also known as a Bug Fragment. Lodged along with the fragment, however, was also some battlechip data! (Pickpocket: AquaWhirl2) After that, it was a matter of picking off the Swirly with some powerful laser fire. Yawn.

-- ENEMIES --
Anaconda2: DELETED
Elmperor2EX A: DELETED
Elmperor2EX B: DELETED
Yurt A: DELETED
Yurt B: DELETED
Swirly A: DELETED
Swirly B: DELETED
Swirly C: DELETED

-- NAVIGATOR --
SplashMan.EXE: 245 HP [Normal]

-- TERRAIN --
20% Normal (High Cliff)
80% Sea (Bottom)

-- ROGUE BATTLE 07, VICTORY!! --

-- REWARDS --

4200z
The instant the Swirly was viral dust, SplashMan let his feet fall out from under him, causing him to flop on the ground. "Ugh...tired..."

"Yeah...hey, how's the power looking?"

"95%!"

"...You mean we're STILL not done?! How much longer do we have to do this?! Even SplashMan can't last forever!"

"Nah, it hasn't been above 95% in years! That's our 100%!"

"Oh...good! You heard him, SplashMan! Scoop stuff up, and we'll head out!"

"Absolutely!" In practically zero time, the Navi gathered and transferred the large mass of cash data, as well as the megabytes of Swirly data. "Got everything! So, I guess we're done!

"Yep, finally! Jack out!"

"Returning to base!...I always kinda wanted to say that!" Placing his hands on where most people would have hips, and stick his chest out, SplashMan began to glow, and DRAMATICALLY returned to his PET of origin.

(BACK TO RW)