The pillar of darkness directly crashed into Vance Finiraldi, causing him to nearly stumble off his feet. Yet as menacing as the attack seemed, it did little visible damage to the character. However, for those who knew him, something was undeniably off. He would have normally been quick to snap back with a comment about how weak Lanceor's "attack" was, but no words left his mouth as he recovered from the staggering effects of the blow, and it became clear that the burst of energy did more than just scratch damage.
Vance straightened up and turned to the rest of the players, his eyes became dull and expressionless as he fell under the enemy's thrall. Just as Lanceor came back stronger than before, his previously conjured storm and the lightning he imbued himself with came back, perhaps in even greater force. The beads he received from Aether in order to better control Lanceor's power, which were usually barely visible beneath the hem of his shirt, now sparked and reacted violently to the sudden influx of power, as if even they were no longer sufficient means to contain it.
His gaze scanned across the now-battered section of Carmina Gadelica, momentarily falling upon each of the players that had unknowingly gated into the city along with him. Even upon the newly-arrived Beast girl that was fair distance off, who came in more confused than the rest of them were, arriving at just the wrong time and unaware of the gravity of the situation they were in. They were all his potential targets, and it was hard to tell what he would do at that very moment.
A twisted smile found its way to his otherwise lifeless expression as he finally 'decided' on who to go after first: C.
Storm Stepping (passive)(Target: Unit, Lvl.requirement: 15)
Once Thunderstorm is in place, instantly move to any spot a lightning has hit to easily cover ground.
His entire body now coursing with the same darkened bolts that Wryneck had struck Lanceor with, the Crusader once again disappeared and reappeared where lightning had struck, this time appearing a few feet behind her. He thrust his arm and open palm, pulsing with violent electricity, toward the Tribal Grappler, preparing to trap her with his power.
Lightning Sphere (spell)(Target: Area,Lvl.requirement:45)
Isolate an enemy within a sphere of lightning and deafening thunder, disabling a user's mike functionality for 2 posts. [Causes Seal]
At the same time, from the moment Vance was struck with the unusual attack, Claude was sweating bullets at his desk seat, anxiously watching through his FMD and knowing what trouble was to come. His UI had pretty much interpreted what just occurred in a way he could easily understand: Vance was Charmed. Losing complete control of his character and having him turn against the other players was probably the last thing they needed from this particular scenario. Given their respective levels, he would
slaughter most of them without any effort whatsoever.
For Claude, it was akin to being physically controlled by some spell while still having mental awareness. In most cases, the victim would essentially be helpless, unable stop his own body as he watches himself lay waste on his allies. And try as he might, no matter how Claude would fiddle around with his controller, no input he made would likewise deter Vance from what would no doubt be a mindless rampage.
However, he knew that unlike those who had fallen under similar spells in the stories he has read, Vance was technically not under
complete control. Claude was essentially his mind and soul, after all. And he was, of course, not abstract concepts that were unable to interfere in any way. He was his own person in complete control over himself and his body, and Lanceor's corrupted thunder would never be able to wrestle that away from him. More importantly, he had particular skills that might prove particularly useful in overturning the player group's significant disadvantage.
... Yet at the same time, it was risky.
The first time he tried to rely on hacking to fix a problem, he turned a cute girl on the brink of death into a personified antivirus program. And his second attempt, while successful in helping him accomplish his ultimate goal, inadvertently switched his target's data with his pet dragons and inflicted him with a whole bunch of status effects he did not intend to give. What would happen if he tried tampering with The World's data in the heat of the moment a third time? Though he rarely spoke of those incidents, he did consider them failures, and they put a huge damper on his faith in his own abilities; his confidence in trying to use them again were flimsy at best.
It was as if some kind of inexplicable factor was making sure that all attempts that he
thought were carefully calculated would somehow turn awry, produce unexpected results, and grieve him. However, hacking into the game was the only thing he
could do at the moment, and he would
not just sit around and watch, even with all of his reservations. But
what, exactly, should he do?
One thing he learned from the last two times was that messing with character data was apparently a
terrible idea. Tampering with Vance himself, of all things, would be even worse. The character became an anomaly the moment Lanceor became a part of him. Who knows what would happen if Claude tried to hack into him now, assuming that it was still even possible to do so? And he suspected that touching the data of the others would provide similar but less drastic results.
Which left... item spawning. That was really the only other sensible choice. It was a significantly less taxing procedure to pull off, but it also carried other risks, though most prominently those pertaining to the fact that they were no longer in the normal boundaries of
The World. Did mechanics still operate under the same rules they did in the game proper?
No time was spent pondering on that and the rest, though, as he chose not to dwell on it too long, fearing that taking the time to do so would be costly for everyone involved. Removing his M2D and tossing it aside onto his bed, he already began going through command prompts and confirmation windows... just to place a mere
Fairy Orb somewhere nearby on the map. He didn't waste time in checking to see if everything was going right. It was, in his mind a simple procedure with the right hacking tools, and he already spotted Vance targeting C on his monitor. With the spells he gained from Lanceor, no less. This only served to instill him with a greater sense of urgency. Claude was too late for assisting her in order to help avoid his in-game counterpart's next attack, but if everything goes well in the next few moments, perhaps he could help her and the others prevent him from doing anything else.
Work right for once...He confirmed his way through one last dialogue prompt and executed his program. At best, and with a little luck, a treasure box would appear with a Fairy Orb somewhere on the map, which would hopefully be within reach of the unoccupied newbies by the time it appeared... or at worst, The World's black box system would once again mess around with him again and have him inadvertently summon some eldritch abomination. Either way, the deed was done. And now all he could do was watch the unwanted battle between him and the other players unfold...