"Little sister, you can heal 90-100 hp per heal. Wait until your brother's hp get to around 80% before healing him."
Yuki did as he said a little unwillingly. She didn't like receiving orders from someone other than her brother, but that stupid brother really respected this man. She didn't want to displease her brother so she complied.
WindBow and his group just killed another level 20 Iron Tusk Boar. It was the 22nd already. Their pace was not bad. Because the monsters were higher leveled their exp was advancing pretty well too. Except for Love Money, as a Peddler, he can't get exp from monster kills.
Because he has a tank and his pet taking the front, WindBow didn't get a chance to practice his usual style of high agility and high risk. His fights until now were usually at close range because he had no way to keep then away. Now that he could actually shoot from a distance, although it was a lot calmer, he also found it interesting.
When shooting from behind the line of defense, he has to calculate a lot more in his mind. Where will the target move when there are others, where will his allies move to in order to not hit them by accident and how to control everyone's position to make it advantageous to him.
For the first 20 fights, he was shooting quietly from behind and let everyone do their things. He concentrated on absorbing information from everyone and everything. For every fight, he would be making simulations inside his head about possible scenarios and meditating on them. It was as if he fought 10 times than the actual number.
From the 21st encounter, he started to say things to his companions. He gave just a few instructions to test some of his ideas. Because ShieldMan developed some strange respect to him and his sister didn't want to displease her brother, he could do a lot of experiments and get new ideas constantly.
They were close to 60% of the way to crossing the forest, when some players appeared in front of them. There were five of them, all sneering and giving bad vibes. WindBow was slowly positioning his wolf on their blindspot already. Just in case.
"Hello friends. It's such a coincidence meeting someone here! We were hunting here, but the monsters are hard to kill and were running low on potions. Could please spare a few ones for us? Also please give us a few gold coins to buy new ones."
"What? We refuse! What the hell are you asking us?! Are you an idiot?!"
ShieldMan was incensed. He was a little too gullible so he thought they were really truly asking for help. His sister was pulling on his sleeves timidly. She was always explaining all hidden intents in situations like this and jokes.
"Shield, why did you stop? We're wasting time."
ShieldMan was a little confused. WindBow was not the type of guy to get disrespectful like that. Still, he obeyed.
But the band of thieves were now incensed. Their pride as men was broken when they were treated as air. They just wanted some pvp for fun and were provoking then, but they had a grudge now.
"You're just a s***** archer! Just stay quiet and let the adults do the talking!"
WindBow pretended not to listening and just kept walking in their direction as if no one was there. Finally, one of those ruffians couldn't take it and attacked him.
"You little s***. You think you're some hot s***?!"
WindBow let the attack graze him. It dealed only 10% the damage for being a graze. But that was enough.
[You have been attacked by a player. All party members can retaliate back for the next 10 minutes without penalties.]
[You have attacked a player. You and every party member increased crime points by 1. Your name will be red while crime points are above 0. If you're killed with a red name, all death penalties are doubled. If you're killed by a bounty hunter, all penalties are tripled.]
Every party received a new notification. Because players have been playing for too long without PK, they forgot about the usual penalties for PK. There's usually some kind of penalty for killing another player in the same faction. WindBow disregarded them purposely just to get them to attack first.
"Shield, you can't aggro in pvp and your damage is puny. Focus on protecting your sister and Ge.. Love Money."
As soon as WindBow started talking, Fenrir leaped from behind the thieves. He had hidden itself under the bushes. When their names became red, it leaped on the furthest one at the back. The warrior panicked from the sudden attack and was swinging his sword blindly. Fenrir took a bite from the man's neck giving him a critical attack. Then it got behind the warrior and did the same again. After two criticals from Fenrir, the warrior was almost dead. It was a full strength warrior so his hp points were not that high, just around 450hp.
Just as he was to drink a Health Potion, an arrow stuck to his throat. He was killed. Everyone was stunned. It took 4 seconds to kill the man and it was a very precise kill! The wolf and the master coordinated attacks perfectly.
"He has a pet! Damn, I've never heard about a pet in this game! This guy got really lucky! His drops should be awesome! Brothers, let's go all together! They don't have a mage!"
The leader rallied the others after that display. He was momentarily stunned too, but it they didn't do anything they would be dead. and they would lose double the normal penalties.
Death penalties varied by class. First classes before level 10 would lose 20% exp. After level 10, it increased to 50% and it was possible to drop a level if exp was not enough. When you advanced class, you would drop a level when dying. Also after level 10, there is a small chance of dropping something you're equipped with. After advancement even items inside the inventory were at risk of being dropped.
The thieves were afraid of dropping the very few equips they have already. They didn't get much money because every gathering skill looked boring to them. In this game were drops are almost non existent, they couldn't get much from killing monster besides coins. Their money was all spent on their new equipments. They don't have spares.
Fenrir set his target to another warrior, but it was having a difficult fight. There were two warriors fighting him. They were afraid to go 1v1 against that beast.
Shieldman protected his sister and Love Money. He did his best to use his own body if needed to protect them. He was a determined man. The little sister was healing her brother mostly. She was a little too protective of her brother qnd absolutely didn'tcare about the others. WindBow was more afraid of this little girl than the thieves in front.
WindBow was fighting one on one against another warrior. It was easy at first, the warrior couldn't even get close to him. Until he heard a strange movement from his back. WindBow acted on his instincts and jumped to the side, just in time to see a stealthed thief.
The Stealth was still activated, it missed the attack so it didn't break it. But now that he was in WindBow's sight, it was impossible to hide again. WindBow's skill, Improved Vision, gave him bonus detection. He could see any stealthed thief at this stage of the game if they were this close. Only thief who got improved Stealth skills would be a challenge.
The thief tried to get behind WindBow again, but no matter which direction he moved, he could only stay behind his dying partner. He finally noticed. WindBow was actually keeping him in his sight by controlling the opponents movement.
"The f***. Wasn't archer a trash class!? What the hell is this godly play?!"
His partner didn't even notice it. That he was actually moving exactly where WindBow wanted it to go.
WindBow killed the warrior an focused his attention to the Thief. The thief was right that he controlled the fight to keep him in his sight. But that's not all. He was actually keeping attention to everyone. His wolf that was close to finish one warrior. The sister that felt like leaving anyone other than her brother to die. The tank at a stale mate with the last warrior.
"A group of five warriors and a thief. They don't have any hidden allies by their desperation. I guess that's it. Fenrir, let's finish this."
Acknowledging his master's order, it made a sudden lunge to the weaker warrior. The warrior dodged just to get hit by an arrow in his vitals, the critical depleting the little hp it had left. The thief couldn't keep WindBow occupied and was starting to feel pressured. After finishing the warrior, he pretend to attack the warrior fighting ShieldMan. The thief fell for the bait and lunged forward only to get a an arrow to the throat too. WindBow made a shoot while jumping, one of last achievements with a bow. As a thief, his max hp is low and he was already fighting for a few minutes. He also died with this critical. There was one warrior fighting ShieldMan and one about to be finished by Fenrir. It was as good as finished already.
After the fight, they decide to rest a few minutes before resuming their trip. Their original objective was crossing this forest.
Love Money cooked some meat and everyone just relaxed a little. ShieldMan's was staring t WindBow with shining eyes and the little sister was staring with jealous eyes. Really, that girl is a little weird.
After eating and resting a bit, they got back on track and soon to the town.
[You have discovered Gleist Town. For being the first +5(+6) reputation in Gleist Town. ]
"We're here. Love Money what are you doing after your quest?"
"Uh.. Ah! Right! Thank you, bro. You two too, thank you. I'll be here for a few hours at least. Peddlers battle inside cities and towns! I got to make connections here and increase my reputation. If you need me, you can call me. All right, friends, wish you luck!"
"Okay. See you."
ShieldMan and Yuki were too late to wish back good luck.
"Is he always like that?"
"No."
"So he was very excited about getting here? That's some motivations!"
"Un? No, he's usually even louder and noisier. He was thinking very hard about something which is actually very rare. He might be troubled about something."
"Should we help him then?"
"No, just leave him be."
Yuki became a little angry. Her brother is the most important to her in the world. But she still cares about a few friends she has. She didn't like that the person her brother admires so much is such an insensitive man.
"Are you sure you're his friend? Friend should help each other right?"
Samuel doesn't friends. George is the only exception. Hearing her say such non sense made him a little angry.
"Miss, you shouldn't talk about what you don't know. It's unsightly. We are friends who trust each other. If he needed my help, he would ask. The reason he didn't is because he don't want me to help. Whatever is troubling him, he wants to solve it himself."
WindBow said his goodbyes to ShieldMan and left. If his brother needs a few hours he would spend that time getting stronger. Besides, that annoying girl made him want to hit a few targets to vent.