Soul Bound Online

[ERode]

Shit!

Should she have seen it coming? Yeah, she should have. She also could have shut the fuck up earlier, or had everyone retreat for a bit and settle on a good plan instead of having a discussion so close to the wolves. Of course they'd have superior hearing capabilities. Of course they'd be able to smell the meat on A's body immediately after she brought it out. Shit shit shit shit shit!

And due to that, Ova wasn't even up on the trees or in an optimal position yet to interrupt the howl!

Ah, how quickly everything fell apart. Soren and Ova's hiding positions were sniffed out instantly by the healthier wolves, as the three wounded, perhaps desperate, ones leaped up towards A. The blonde girl evaded their attacks despite whatever 'magical' buffs the wolves received from their leader. Hopefully it wasn't something that stacked, eh? In her hiding place in the bushes, Tsukikage regulated her breathing, widened her field of view, and then began to prioritize.

Rumeus and Keter were definitely safe. They can go circlejerk if they wanted to.

A was exclusively targeted by wounded wolves, who had difficulty hitting someone as slow as her. She was safe for now.

Ova was now just a CC machine who didn't have any high-priority targets to CC, and thus, had no known value. He was in a bad position, but he wasn't important.

Soren was in danger, and was the only one that could heal. He would become the priority.

Her red eyes flashed in the shadows as Tsukikage dashed outwards. Keeping a low profile, she slipped silently behind the uninjured wolf, twirling her steel dagger in her right hand. A shinkk sounded as her first dagger snapped outwards like a viper, driving into the soft underbelly of the monster. The number 27 expanded before her as the wolf snarled in pain. Before it could react, she tore her dagger out of its body, spinning around to slam her offhand dagger into its spine. A twist, another yelp of pain from the beast, and the assassin smirked underneath her scarf.

It was merely four damage, but that just meant that there was only nine more END left in this sack of meat.

The wolf staggered, stumbled, and Tsukikage moved in for a third strike. Releasing her grip on her offhand dagger, she crouched lower, bringing both hands onto her weapon. She lunged out at point-blank range, her whole body slamming into the bloodied fur of the wolf. It sunk deep, striking a vital organ, and the savage beast gurgled as she removed her daggers from its body.

One down, eight to go.

A flick of her wrist removed the blood from her blades, as she said, bringing her blades into a defensive position, "Keter, kill it."

 

[Omnial]

"Of course. Should of jumped in a mud puddle first or something." Soren stared at the wolves charging at him, seeing the glow flicker in their eyes, he instantly thought of the first enemies that he had fought. Healing seemed to remove said buff before, would it do it again? or would it simply heal the wolf? Best to not test this out on the ones charging at me.

He pulled out a knife, They likely only have two going for me seeing me as the lowest threat, and appearing unarmed. I'll wait just wait for the right moment. Standing still, biding his time, Soren waited for the wolves to get in moderate range, then he Lobed a knife at one.

16 - 10 Accuracy + 10 Lob Penalty = 16

You inflict a heavy wound.

You deal 16 Damage.

It falls as your knife stabs in deep, trying to stand up, but it falls, unable to keep standing thanks to its plethora of wounds.​

 

[Skyswimsky]

"Eh...w-what?!" For a moment, A was perplexed as all of a sudden it was now THEM who got ambushed, to some extent. To make matters worse, A was the one who completely failed at her job as the weaklings of the enemy group ganged up on her while the stronger ones easily got past her. "Oy! Listen! You digital balls of fur! I, A, will r-" Before she was capable to get any further however, the wounded pack moved into the offense. "Tzch..."

Of course, considering their already existing wounds, A had an easy time parrying their attacks. What were they even thinking? A being the weakest prey because she had a bunch of meat on her? Well, fuck them! She had to kill those three mooks fast or else things could become worse. "Don't fucking underestimate me!" With those words, A herself now moved into the offense with an All-out attack.

Hitting them was as much childs play as parrying their own attacks, it wasn't even a challenge. Urgh. As her weapon slashed a deep wound into one of the three enemies a 20 appeared before her with clear visuals her attack was devastating. Still, the digital animal wasn't dead yet and another quick blow, which happened to deal the same amount of damage, obliterated one of them - and the other two would soon follow.

 

[Sir Salty]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Three hungry looking digital wolves were coming over to him. Sauntering almost, with pack pride, and a look in their eye. The kind of look that told him he might not make this encounter. It had all happened so quick, he hadn't the time to have went somewhere safer. He had to do some quick thinking or else he was going to look like a fool once again. What did he have in his arsenal that could assist him in this case?[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]The quickest decision he could come up with was to climb the tree. Luckily enough for him, he managed to do so, now sitting on top of a sturdy branch. Above the wolves. This was good, somehow he managed to climb up here without getting chewed. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Still within range, he struck one of the wolves with Wind. The one in the middle.[/BCOLOR]

 

[Illin]

[fieldbox= Rumeus, olive, solid]

"Haha! Yep, figured."

Rumeus let out a small laugh as he saw the wolves approaching from a distance. From his vantage point, they were still a good distance away. While they were inching closer, Rumeus casually took out the vial and drank it, taking comfort in the fact that he was up on a tree.

"Huh, I could get used to this flavor."

While it didn't exactly taste like juice, it was nonetheless a pleasant taste. He recapped the empty vial, put it in his pack, and closed the notification that came from the buff he obtained.

"Oh yeah."

Rumeus took out the Art book he had purchased earlier.

"Hopefully this doesn't take too long..."

Rumeus had no idea how long it took to learn an Art, since he didn't ask. He hoped that it would be instantaneous, or he would have to learn it after these wolves were dealt with. He opened the book and placed a hand on a page, with the thought in his head to learn it. Fortunately, the book vanished and in his head was the knowledge of the Art. Just in time too, as the boss wolf seemed to be buffing his minions. And it quickly became obvious that the wolves knew of the party members' locations, as they split into groups, running towards the hiding Ova and Soren.

"Hmm...?"

Rumeus noticed that neither Ova nor Soren had taken the potion yet.

("Just because you guys are healers or mages doesn't mean that you can just save the buffing potion you greedy folks...! Wait, why aren't they in trees? Where is Keter?")

Rumeus shook his head and let out a sigh. At this point the fighting had already started, Tsukikage attacking a wolf near Soren.

("Let's...")

Rumeus fired Earth Bullets towards the wolves surrounding A, one wolf disappearing to A's attacks when his first Rock Bullet was in motion; thankfully, that Rock Bullet was heading towards a different wolf, so the attack wouldn't be wasted. When he fired his Rock Bullets, in his peripheral vision, he thought he saw Ova attacking a wolf with wind and doing damage, but didn't knockback spells not do damage? Was it an upgraded spell or a new one?

("Ugh. Whatever. Focus.")

Though normally Rumeus would have come to the same conclusion as Tsukikage in terms of prioritizing targets, his emotions got in the way of that judgment. He wouldn't help others that willingly chose not to help themselves. And they all had a Revival Shard, so even if one of them died, it wouldn't be that disastrous. He would help Ova or Soren after A, depending on who needed the help more.[/fieldbox]

 

[Zombehs]

This was… honestly not an unexpected turn of events, even if it was rather unwelcome. The party might have been upwind of the group, but even hushed whispers weren't impossible to catch. It made sense that the beasts would be on guard as well, with injured to take care of and what not.

Distancing himself from such thoughts for another moment, Keter instead just took in how the battle had begun to unfold. The meat bait was useless as the wolves broke up into three groups, with one aiming for A, but the remaining two at Soren and Ova. More concerning was that the Pack Leader remained at a distance, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. With only the ones attacking A in range, he muttered, "Strike," as the creatures closed the distance. A barely visible aura enveloped his fists as the Skill went off without a hitch, and he could tell that despite the weak visual effect, the charge was rather potent.

Magic Word: Strike
23 - 15 Magic = 8
It succeeds.
Next strike will deal 10 Mana Damage as well. ​

As he waited for an opening to descend, he did notice that Tsukikage made quick work of a wolf that had been at full health only moments before. Moments later and another two of the creatures had fallen, one with a throwing knife in its head courtesy of Soren and the other carved apart by A. Shards of rock struck one of the two wolves harrying A below, and that helped to narrow his choice down.

He simply fell from the tree onto the wolf, and it seemed to realize something was amiss as his shadow covered it. It was only able to look upwards before Keter slammed his fist into its snout. The bone gave way with a sharp crack, and the two of them went down on the group in a heap. As it twisted in pain beneath him, Keter lined up another blow and drove his fist into the mob's belly. More things gave way at the blow, and the Grey Wolf went rigid before the life left its body.

Fall
4 - 1 Quick = 3

Falling Strike
2 + 25 Falling Penalty - 13 Accuracy = 14
27 (21 Plunging + 6) Damage.

Grapple Punch
20 + 25 Grapple - 13 Accuracy = 32
7 Damage​

He picked himself up quickly afterwards, and glanced around to take in the battle. For the moment it seemed like even with the buff, the Grey Wolves weren't lasting long. Four of them already dead, and a glance at the UI showed that no one in the party had even taken a hit yet. Then again, this had just been the Wolves' approach, so the damage was probably about to rack up.

 

[Renose]

Ova, clutching his recharged Silver Ether Stone, prepared his Wind Strike Art.

Wind Strike
12 - 9 Silver Ether Affinity = 2

The art went off without a hitch, and the wolf was completely caught off guard by the wind attack, so much that it actually stumbled slightly when the wind suddenly struck it, leaving a small gash along its side as its stumble struck a more tender area. Unfortunately, despite the small wound, the wolf only suffered four damage, which seemed more caused by the wolf's stumbling into the buffeting wind rather than by the buffeting wind itself.


Rumeus Earth Bullet I
34 - 13 Brown Ether Affinity = 21

Fire
4 - 3 Accuracy = 1

The bullet hit dead on, but only dealt 10 Damage. Most likely since the projectile was Physical rather than Mystical it didn't do as much damage, and the wolves seemed to have higher Physical defense rather than Mystical Defense judging from Keter's reading out of their stats. Still, it did seem to inflict a pretty bright red mark on the creature, meaning the beast did get wounded and hit full on despite Rumeus's poor Finesse score not giving him much in the terms of accuracy.

Rumeus Earth Bullet II
10 - 12 Brown Ether Affinity = -3

Fire
65 - 4 Accuracy - 10 Firing into Melee = 71

Unfortunately despite the wolf being wounded, it managed to dodge out of the way of the projectile. Luckily Rumeus didn't hit Keter or A either, it being a bit hard as well to target those in melee combat without some proper form of aiming capability. One couldn't depend on luck to hit forever after all.

While four wolves were indeed down, there were still four remaining. Two completely healthy, one somewhat heavily wounded, and one with a small wound. It was unclear as to what the leader was doing. Regardless, now the wolves were on the attack.

The one that Rumeus had just shot proceeded to lunge at A, seeing as she had meat on her body and she was the closest, snarling with fangs gnashing as it attempted its feral lunge.

Unfortunately the lunge managed to work. The wolf successfully lunged and was now pinning A down on the ground with its rather strong paws as it sunk its teeth into A's arm during the lunge, a red 6 appearing above her head as she would feel pain shoot up her arm from the painful bite. A black two appeared next to her Endurance Bar, signifying that she had two wounds to deal with now as her maximum endurance was reduced by 20%.

That red, black outlined glow returned to its eyes during the lunge, its wounds seeming to pulsate with this strange power for a moment before it proceeded to sink its teeth into the pinned down A's shoulder. This time the bite felt a good bit deeper, as it was able to sink its teeth right into her shoulder, its teeth piercing her armor as it bit with even more ferocity now to get the meat in her clothes. Fortunately this bite only dealt one wound, but also dealt 11 Damage this time.

The wolves that had been pursuing Ova quickly ran from that tree, charging towards the center, that same glow flashing in their eyes. Keter and Rumeus would only have moments to act, and possibly Tsukikage given her speed if she sprinted at full force (An Action) to act before the wolves were upon the now pinned down A.


​

 

[Zombehs]

[BCOLOR=transparent]A flurry of movement next to him captured Keter's attention and he was unable to react in time to stop the wolf's attack on A. Though heavily injured, it still attacked with a savagery that wasn't indicative of how many Wounds the mob had. Probably had something to do with the buff granted by the Pack Leader.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Even as it bit down once again, Keter lunged forward and lashed out at the mob. He was aware that the three had broke away from Ova and approached rapidly, but intercepting the three by himself was just suicidal seeing the amount of damage a heavily injured Wolf had been able to inflict. His first strike bled drained more of the red bar from its Endurance bar, and the second pushed it close to zero. A fragment of red remained against the mostly black bar though, and with it the Wolf continued to cling onto A despite how close to death it was.[/BCOLOR]

Full Attack (First Punch)
50 - 25 Distance - 13 Accuracy = 12, 7 Damage Dealt
Full Attack (Second Punch)
30 + 20 Full Attack Penalty - 13 Accuracy - 25 Distance = 12, 7 Damage Dealt​

[BCOLOR=transparent]The world appeared disjointed for a moment as everything went out of focus before snapping back to perfect clarity. Slightly confused, his fist nonetheless continued its swing and crashed into the Wolf yet again. This blow did zero out its Endurance, and the body slackened as Keter's strike sent it flying off of A. Unimpeded, it would be a simple task to get on her feet. "Get up! Now!" He didn't know if A's player was used to the pain that VR could offer, but hopefully his voice was loud and fierce enough to snap them from the sensations. [/BCOLOR]

Full Attack (First Punch)
6 - 25 Distance - 13 Accuracy = -32, 7 Damage Dealt
​

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Rumeus, slow them down! Tsukikage, finish the injured!" While she had managed to take one out from full health, that was with the advantage of surprise. Hands raised, he braced himself against the creatures' charge.[/BCOLOR]

 

[Illin]

[fieldbox= Rumeus, olive, solid]

"Huh, no fall damage?"

Rumeus was momentarily startled by Keter's dramatic drop attack onto a wolf. Judging from his Endurance bar, Keter didn't suffer any fall damage. That was good to know.

Though he wasn't all smiles; Rumeus was disappointed by the incredibly weak attack that hit the wolf. It did a miserable 10 damage. 10 damage! All those points into Attunement seemed stupid at this point. But this was no time to mope, as the wolves were ferociously attacking A. Keter sprung into action, killing another wolf. Rumeus was already focused on the three wolves that strangely changed their target from Ova to A before Keter gave out orders, as he figured the two of them could deal with a wolf and he wasn't confident that he wouldn't accidentally hit his two party members, judging from the close shaves from his attacks before.

Rumeus Earth Bullet I
7 - 13 Brown Ether = -6

Fire
28 - 4 Accuracy = 24

Hit!

Damage Dealt: 1


Rumeus Earth Bullet II
29 - 4 Accuracy = 25

Hit!

Damage Dealt: 1
​

("...")
​

Rumeus was rendered speechless. The damage done was even worse than before. Thoughts about why were put aside for later, as Rumeus proceeded to take out the meat from his knapsack. He then waited for the wolves to come closer, since he had no confidence at successfully throwing it from a range. Rumeus would wait for the wolves to be near or under his position on the tree before he would drop it. He had no idea if it would work, but it was better than tossing out pointless Earth Bullets.[/fieldbox]

​

 

[ERode]

It didn't go quite as she had envisioned it, but ultimately, it was nice to see that her party members were more or less capable of holding their own. Within seconds of the battle starting, half the wolves were already decimated by the combined onslaught of A, Keter, Soren, and herself. With this, things should definitely be fine. It looked like the monsters that she had encountered in the Forest of Souls really did make her too cautious about how powerful the enemy was.

Then, A failed to dodge, and in an instant, the single wolf that remained trained on her drove the blonde tank into the ground, tearing into her body with a bite that chunked her END bar. In that instant, Keter had lashed out once more, smashing it into a pulp with his fists, but the weakness had been exposed. Tempted by the smell of the raw meat within her body, the three wolves that forced Ova up a tree rushed towards the duo. Rumeus and Ova's attacks, either because they simply had shitty builds or because they were unlucky, barely scratched the hides of the monsters. With damage output like that, Tsukikage definitely wasn't going to be relying on them for any modicum of DPS.

"Soren, go heal A!"

Sprinting, the white-haired girl weaved between the trees and bushes, sheathing her daggers and drawing out two bags of spice instead. She tossed them out with a sideways throw, the first bag go wide and spilling its powdered contents on a tree while another struck one of the wolves directly in the nose. It thrashed violently at the burning sensation, but the other two moved on with assurance.

"Keter, tank for A! Ova, disrupt one of the wolves! Rumeus, where's the pack leader?!"

 

[Renose]

Ova, unfortunately, took a tumble out of the tree when his own Push Wind that he attempted to fire at one of the wolves backfired on him, four points of his small Endurance bar being chipped off from his fall. So unfortunately, for now, no support would come from the downed Ova.

Soren didn't seem to do anything for some reason.

The Pack Leader was still standing back away from the fray so far, just gazing at the battle, that paw with the mark on it still having that same glow. It is clear that the Pack Leader for now wasn't participating in the battle for whatever reason. It's just sitting back, far away from it, possibly keeping whatever buff that the wolves possessed going. Well, in the end, there is no real idea as to why it is standing back, but at least it lets the party focus on the regular wolves.

While A may have been standing up now, that didn't mean the two wolves weren't going to go after her and tear her apart. She's already wounded after all and has meat upon her. So one of the wolves lunges and bites her with its mighty jaws with even more ferocity and strength than usual, its eyes burning brightly with that strange glow now as the fur was standing up now, its jaws frothing. This powerful, more savage bite that slipped past her defenses as it bit into her torso did 12 Damage to her and inflicted yet another two wounds.

These wolves were tactical, but also incredibly savage and ferocious for some reason, as the second one that wasn't blinded lunged at A as well. Given that one had just ferociously bit into her and was now effectively in melee with her, the other one was going for the flanking, and it worked as it not only lunged, but also proceeded to pin her down to the ground and did 7 damage to her and another Wound as she was unable to parry it thanks to the six Wounds she has accumulated so far.

Of course, now that it was atop her it proceeded to bite her again, managing to bite deep into her other shoulder with a more vicious bite targeting the weak area in her armor. Another 12 Damage was dealt, and yet another Wound. Luckily not two, as she managed to barely prevent that. She only had four Endurance remaining now and thus was in dire straits. The other wolf seemed to take the moment that A fell down and lunged for her leg with its jaws, biting into it for eight points of Damage and another Wound.

Her Endurance Boost Sense leveled, as did her Toughness Skill was now Level 5. Unfortunately, however; A fell down to -4 Endurance. A was now down, and it seemed like these wolves were about to tear into her and go for the meat in her clothes unless Keter and Tsukikage acted quickly.

The other remaining wolf, that was still blinded currently, wildly lunged towards Tsukikage with reckless abandon, the lunge being incredibly inaccurate but immensely strong. Fortunately she would be easily able to dodge out of the way given the fact that it was still somewhat blinded. That wolf wasn't the primary concern. What were the primary concerns were the two wolves, one of which Ova had inflicted a small wound upon that was glowing with that strange red glow that was outlined black, that were about to tear into the unconscious A in order to get the meat she had on her.

Their current savagery and hunger, fortunately, were currently distracting them somewhat from the two imminent threats of Tsukikage and Keter.


​

 

[ERode]

Ultimately, she should have expected it. Despite being built up as a tank, A was still essentially a low-levelled player, and the two wolves that slipped past Tsukikage pretty much destroyed the blonde-haired swordswoman. As the girl's END bar fully blackened, she thought for a moment that it couldn't be helped…before realizing something.

What the hell? Where was Soren's heal? Where was Ova's support?

Turning around to the two teammates that were still lingering behind, the white-haired girl grimaced at what she saw. Ova had fallen off the tree painfully, hitting the bushes with a thump, while Soren was just standing there, glassy-eyed and motionless. Neither of them were doing a thing. Should have expected that out of someone that A had to carry and someone who decided that it was smart to expose himself to danger the first place. If Ova and Soren had climbed up on trees in the same area that Rumeus was in, Tsukikage wouldn't have split off the first place, and they'd be able to form a concentrated battlefront, instead of this spread out mess.

And for a healer, why wasn't Soren healing?

The snarl of the blinded wolf brought her out of her griping. Diverolling out of the way of its pounce, the white-haired girl bit her tongue and dashed towards the two beasts that were ravaging A's corpse. A quick shout from Rumeus alerted her of how the boss wolf still hadn't engaged, a single piece of good news in this progressively deteriorating set of events.

"VIPER STRIKE!"

Leaping up in the air, Tsukikage swung down with her first dagger, energy infusing with the steel blade. The wolf that pinned A down leapt away moments before the dagger plunged into its back, however, well out of range of the secondary swing of her offhand dagger. Two misses, but the important thing was done. She kept an eye on her opponent as she brought up her dual daggers in a defensive position. Her legs coiled, ready to spring into the path of that wolf the moment it made a lunge for A.

"Keter," she said, "Handle the other one."

For now, she'll assume that half her team was useless, and so far, Keter was the only one left that did substantial damage.

 

[Illin]

[fieldbox= Rumeus, olive, solid]

And the meat he dropped onto the wolves... Was useless as they ignored it and attacked A.

"Well."

Tsukikage asked him where the pack leader was, and with a quick glance he confirmed that the boss wolf was in the back, doing nothing. He yelled the pertinent info and Rumeus launched an Earth Bullet towards the blinded wolf, rather than the two that were near A because of the risk of friendly fire. It was probably a futile effort, but it might level up his Earth Bullet Art anyways. And futile it was, since the bullet blew up in his face. The shock of it threw him off balance and gravity helped his unwilling descent onto the ground.

"Oh shi-"

He attempted to at least not land on his head, and fortunately landed on his butt.

"Owwwwwwwww!!!"

He groaned in pain and noticed his Endurance dropped only two points, surprisingly enough. But, he was still out of Soul.

Rumeus clicked his tongue in irritation, then decided on his next action: to get on the front-lines. He wasn't doing any sort of meaningful damage, so he would try to be a meat shield or distraction instead. Especially with the party's tank, A, being knocked unconscious, it was better than being in a tree and doing nothing. With his 20 Quick and boosted Endurance as well, he was confident he could somewhat fulfill that front-line role. And once the minions were killed, he had a feeling the boss would attack, and even using a short range pocket sand would probably be more useful than an Earth Bullet. And if he could have the boss use one of its attacks at him, it would give Keter or Tsukikage the opportunity to do some damage.

He got up to see he was too late.
[/fieldbox]

​

 

[Omnial]

Soren stood there, with eyes wide open and took in the chaos. This is education. He stood still and watched, I didn't get attacked, and the party seems to be in a bit of a pinch, the frustration is notable, he raised his hand to his chin and tilted his head, "So this is how they react in this type of situation." He looked at A on the ground, still no response on Soren's face, "I guess I should heal her."

Soren looked about, Seems like I am not a priority of any of the wolves, not a high threat, nor the easiest target. Soren started to move towards A, Touching right now, may not be the best with how things are, but I should be able to keep her alive, and I do have medications for after the fight as well. Soren wanted to get close and use the better healing ability, but foreknowledge of touching a dog's food bowl while it was eating, told him not too. As soon as he got close enough though, he held out his green ether stone, and targeted A,"Relief," Live, and take more damage.

 

[Renose]

Keter, using his Observe ability, had found out something about the buff, but somehow right after that in a split moment, as if acting on pure epic instinct (he spent an Epic Point) delivered a powerful one-two combo to the Wolf Tsukikage had tried to attack and dealt to it 30 points of Damage, his first strike having been a Critical.

Soren aimed his glowing green Ether Stone at A as he got as close as he could within the few seconds he had. He wasn't too fast, so he could only get about close to her. It was why he didn't heal her last turn, as he was too far away to actually do so and had to spend his time sprinting as fast as he could to get over there. Even then he was still slightly too far to get close for a Soothing Touch. Even then, there was also a Wolf still on top of her, so a Soothing Touch wouldn't be advised.

So getting in about just within Close Range of her, about five yards, was his next best bet. He then aimed the stone at her and chanted Relief to activate the Skill. The green glow would move from his hand and then would go over A, healing her for 6 Endurance points, which would allow her to regain consciousness since she had been at -5.

The two wolves seemed to turn, their eyes glowing brightly now with that same glow that Soren had seen before, both snarling at him now. A would be able to get up now, or at least try to, thanks to the Wolf atop of her not being atop her. Unfortunately the Wolf right next to her, given its savagery, lunges forward with its powerful jaws in an attempt to bite her before she gets up. Even if she didn't try to get up, it was still going to bite at her.

Whether or not she was trying to get up was besides the point, however, as the wolf would bite deep into her shoulder and neck with its powerful jaws before she could, and instantly her entire Endurance Bar would go black as a black 10 appeared next to it, as well as a Skull as the wolf effectively, made a deep, bright red glowing chunk (given the censorship) in her neck as if it had ripped something out of it. Luckily she was dead by that point, so A wouldn't have felt it. A had been defeated, killed now, and wouldn't be coming back until after the fight thanks to the Revival Shard that Sagitarius had given all of them.

Suddenly the wolf, who had now gotten a bit of meat from both A's actual corpse and that was in the shoulder of A's shirt, now seemed to have its fur be glowing slightly, as if whatever this power was that the leader was giving it was changing. Suddenly though, before anything else could happen, a distant birdsong could be heard, quiet and far away. The leader suddenly howled, and the three wolves looked up in the distance, all before bolting towards the leader.

Its apparent that the wolves were going to try and run away now at full speed, which given their strengthened selves and already high Quick and Might was very fast. The group's two quicker members, Tsukikage and Rumeus, could either try and give chase or follow them later and wait for A to come back to life.



​

 

[Zombehs]

[BCOLOR=transparent]'So close.' Keter could actually see the Wolf's Endurance plummet as both his punches slammed into the mob, but it stopped just a quarter shy of empty. Bracing himself for a counter attack that never came, he blinked in disbelief at just how ineffective Soren's healing was. It didn't even heal more damage than a single attack dealt, and did nothing to stop the death blow that tore out a piece of A's throat.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]The unexpected howl distracted him for a moment, but Keter was still able to lash out as the near-death Wolf attempted to bolt away. The hit was far from clean, and he clicked his tongue in annoyance at the lack of damage dealt. Ignoring him completely, the Wolf dashed to rejoin what was left of its pack, but Keter had no intention to allow that. He dropped to a knee and held up a hand, palm facing towards the retreating mob. "Bolt!" Something flowed down and out from his arm as the projectile manifested, and it streaked through the forest towards its target. The Wolf let out a pained yelp as the Bolt found its mark, sending it crumpling to the ground.[/BCOLOR]

Chance Attack
10 + 25 Chance Attack Penalty - 13 Accuracy = 22
Damage Dealt: 0
Magic Word: Bolt
4 - 10 Accuracy + 25 Distance Penalty = 19
Damage Dealt: 10​

[BCOLOR=transparent]A small ping sounded in his ears as combat apparently ended, and his expression contorted in disbelief at what he was seeing. Three EXP? That was fucking it? Even accounting for the three that didn't really do much except draw the Wolves' attention, that was still only 18 EXP total for six wolves. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Dismissing the notification as he was only getting more annoyed looking at it, Keter grumbled something beneath his breath as he walked over towards the last Wolf to go down. From what he could tell, it was just unconscious rather than dead, so someone needed to fix that. At the same time, he reached into his Sack and retrieved the Soul Boost Sense Tome. The EXP wasn't much, but it did give him enough to use the Tome and learn the Sense.[/BCOLOR]

 

[Skyswimsky]

It all happened rather fast.

Suddenly, A was pinned to the ground as she failed to defend herself against one of the attackers. Fuck. This was great. Not yet aware of her immediate doom, the digital adrenaline numbing her sense gave the girl a face of joy. Unlike before this was actually looking like a challenge! She must have looked like a masochist, which was far from the truth, as A was getting eaten alive before she even had a chance to act.

Now, abrupt, her initial gusto about this whole situation was replaced with an immense feeling of pain. It hurt. It hurt a lot. For a split-second, A wished to simply log-out, let it be over. And never get back here again. This was a game goddamnit, why was it hurting so much?! Her thoughts were wandering all over the place, it was a really shitty situation to be in. A lost. She disappointed herself and everybody else. And then everything went black.

'W-Where am I?' Were thoughts the blonde apparently gathered as she didn't even feel her own body, only floating in some eternal darkness that even the mocking status window about her soon-to-be-death wasn't able to light up. At least the pain seemed gone, which only made place to actually gather her thoughts more clearly - or so she had wished - when suddenly, thanks to a certain heal, A was in the middle of the fight again and any feelings of what just felt like less than a moment were replaced with the dire truth she was in.

A was still cuddling with the wolves, but now, the girl was actually able to do something. Good. Very good. Yeah, there was no way a daughter of the Sendai Family would lose in something fake like a virtual game. A was determined and filled with a blood lust akin to a berserker... a newbie berserker. Burning with passion and about to get up she tried to yell. "This is nothing!" Alas, by the time she realized her inevitable defeat, it was already too late. The ravaged corpse dropped to the ground as everything went black, once again.

 

[Illin]

[fieldbox= Rumeus, olive, solid]

Rumeus found himself a bit torn. Seeing a player get healed then immediately die after was something he laughed about in most games, but in SBO he couldn't help but grimace. It was strange, since he felt nothing after killing monsters; why was this different? He stood there, thinking about the current situation, not giving chase to the wolves. What could he do? Sure he had high Quick, but his damage was lacking. It would be just a waste of time. And if his intuition was correct...

"..."

3 EXP. 3. For all that effort. Rumeus closed the notification in disgust. Disgust from the pitifully small amount, and disgust from getting EXP even though he barely did anything. If there was some way to give EXP away, he would distribute it to A, Keter, and Tsukikage.

Rumeus' mind played back that moment. The wolf ripping a chunk off of A's neck. His palms felt sweaty and breathing became more difficult than before. A part of him was thankful this wasn't BBO.

"Ugh."

He didn't understand. He was fine when he was "killed" by the old woman and killed the monster mobs in the Forest, so why was he expressing such a reaction from watching A die? Perhaps because the method of death was more grounded to reality? A wolf attack was more realistic and common than death by spike impalement. And perhaps it was because it wasn't instantaneous. Whatever the reason was, it caused Rumeus to fall silent and become solemn.
[/fieldbox]

​

 

[Sir Salty]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Ova sat on the ground for a moment. Being knocked off by his own spell only to go sailing down to the ground was not something he expected. He had hoped in some aspect that his preparation wouldn't have made him so weak, yet here he was sitting on the ground again just another failure. It was least impressive and just embarrassing. As the wolves seemed to be passing them by, he felt tears in his eyes from frustration. He was so willing to leave the game before. Yet, he was still stuck here in a game. He looked like some glutton for punishment. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]He should have quit while he was ahead to begin with. He had assumed that perhaps after the tutorial he had done enough to prepare for this. Though that was not the case. Well then why haven't you quit? He asked himself. That was a very good question. He should just log out. Tell them something came up and leave.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]No one would care if they didn't see him again. No one would care if he was gone and never came back. They weren't his friends. They weren't anyone important to him. Why did it matter at this point? This was the type of game for the type of people who wanted to learn from their failures and mistakes. As far as he saw it, he had none. This game was a cheating, hacked system, with an AI that liked to fuck over their members.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]So, then why not log out now? Say something and log out right now? His mind hovering over the very idea. It recycling back and forth. He was going to do it. He was going to back to the easy way of life. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Why are you logging out?" asked a voice. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Because it's not fun to fail all the time," Akito told himself.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Ova only frowned.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Did I ever say that?" asked Ova.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"You're just a character in my mind," Akito told Ova.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Yes, but it's not about what you want to do," Ova told Akito, "In this world, this is where I exist and in your world that's where you exist. I am suppose to be better than you. Would I give up that easily?"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Now you're nagging me,"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Because you didn't ask me what I wanted and you took over, that's not your job,"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"You know this whole conversation makes me look crazy,"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"You're the one who designed it this way,"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Well...I am logging out,"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"So you're just going to deny what I want than? That isn't what I want,"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Akito frowned. He was right. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Ova put his hands on Akito's hands.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Let me handle this, okay, that's why I am here," Ova said with a smile.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Yeah, fine, whatever," Akito frowned.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Ehhh, you're so stubborn,"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"And you're so naggy and needy,"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"That's my fault by design," Ova laughed.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Popping right back up. Ova dusted himself off, and ran over to the group with a warm smile. He waved his arms.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"The big fluff balls are running away," Ova told them, "Let's go get them. Big jerks." Well actually now that Ova thought about it. They actually needed a plan to get the wolves. It wasn't going to be as easy as just going to go get them. It finally occurred to him.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Who is the leader of the party?" he asked, "And what do you have planned oh big leader!" [/BCOLOR]

 

[ERode]

It could have been worse.

But it could have been better.

In the end, six wolves laid dead, while one of their own, A, had fallen from the vicious strikes of the monsters. In that fight, Keter killed three, A killed one, Soren killed one and Tsukikage took down one herself. Soren healed for a total amount of 6 END, a negligible amount that nevertheless would have mattered if he had healed A before she was taken down the first time. Rumeus had run out of Soul during the fight, and his attacks have been glancing blows at best, most of them just scratching the wolves. Ova was practically useless throughout the fight, his CC being minimal and his damage being a few degrees of Rumeus-tier. Both of them fell off their respective trees by the time the battle was reaching its final phase, culminating in a rather pathetic ending where the remaining two wolves escaped.

Honestly, Tsukikage was frustrated, not only with half the party for their super shitty builds, but also for herself for not positioning everyone at the start better. She hadn't noticed that the trees were so far apart until the battle had already started. Maybe it would have been better if the three of them were positioned on the same tree, with the melee trio having their backs against it as well. Maybe it would have been better just to hang meat from the tree branches and used that to attract the monsters, instead of strapping it to A and pretty much killing her as a result.

There were so many things that could have gone better, but in the end, the wolves still got what they wanted and managed to escape.

The white-haired girl closed her eyes, did some mental review, and then opened them once more. Keter was definitely the best member of their party now. A was alright as well, but that taunt was way too effective, so her ability to tank was diminished by the fact that the wolves focused the entirety of their attention onto her. Soren could be useful if he wasn't so goddamn unresponsive. Rumeus talked too damn much for someone who barely did any damage. Ova was…like, what the hell was that?

Nevertheless, the white-haired girl moved swiftly. Though she didn't really care about the birdsong, she did care about giving chase to the wolves that remained.

"Let's go then," she said, going over to A's body. Removing the girl's pack and sword, and tossing it to Keter, the white-haired girl said, "I'll carry the body while she revives. You deal with items."

With that, she hoisted the heavier girl over her shoulders, fireman-carrying the blonde tank. While she wasn't able to make sense of the trail they left on the grass, at least she could tell the direction the wolves headed, and Tsukikage began to make her way there as well, expecting the others to follow.

After all, the job wasn't finished, and there were only two of those beasts left anyways.

"Someone skin a wolf. They rely on scent. Would be good for stealthing if we had their scent."

Then, of course, Ova began to speak up, the sarcasm so thinly veiled he might as well have just stated that he was being a salty scrub.

"We killed seven of them. There's two left. Let's finish the quest."

So I can leave this goddamn party and get a better one.

The girl flicked the EXP notification away, and continued on.