Panning from the road entering the city, corpses littered the open plain of the Faerilm mountain.
They piled, advancing into the progressively thickening tree lining that gave color contrast to the rest of the mountain.
About nine were laying lifeless as a result of inflicted wounds. Even with death having taken them from their bodies a cruel stench of malicious intent was present.
A man surrounded by four wolves, his dagger steadily gripped in his hand, and a malformed buckler shield in the other, fended off the pack he eyed down.
Sweat dripped onto his arm and rolled into his eyes. He decided to not give into the pain, refusing to lose his lock on the predators before him.
He knew that the moment he lost focus they would pounce.
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Status Page: Leek (15)
[ Skill Points: 6 ]
HP 16 (+2)
SPD 8 (+2)
VIT 9 (+0)
TEQ 2 (+2)
EVN 3 (+2)
SSK 2
[ LUCK: 7 ](+5)
Inventory: Dagger(Dull), Shield (Useless), Clothing (Used), Shoes (Poor), (1)Elixir: Vitality/Basic, Coin Pouch: 97, (9)Angora Tails: Rotten, (7)Angora Tails: Fresh, (1)Empty Bottles
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The translucent page popped into view, only to him, allowing his eyes to appear fixated on the threats around him. He wished to evaluate his situation a bit better, knowing of the uninvested skill points he had.
Having experienced the difference when investing mid-fight Leek wanted to readjust the stats that esblish his characters baseline.
"When the hell did I level up... three times?" He pulled back further, his back peering at the closing distance between itself and the dense lining of trees. "I should have checked earlier!" He fought his face, but lost, a smile relaxed his tense expression.
Outside of the three new skill points the base stats of his character have changed. His HP had gone up by two, he gained two Specialty Skills (SSK), and VIT had leapt one shy of ten from its initial three.
Focusing on the first two skills acquired he opened the section to get a grasp on what they were.
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[Specialty Skills] 2
Coldening Feeling: When Active The User Gains Increased Perception To Nearby Characters/Mobs | Paranoia (1)Stacks With Each Character/Mob In Vicinity While Active, Increasing Hyper-Fixation. Decreases Vitality With Every (2)Stack.
Cut Throat: Increases The Chances To Land Critical Hits For As Long As Bloodlust (3)Stacks Have Been Placed On The User | Reduces Accuracy And Evasion, The User Becomes Frenzied.
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The question was how exactly did he unlock these skills, as he had not gone out of his own way to think about learning any.
-Leek: "Okay! We actually have some things to work with." He, for a moment, forgot to maintain intent with the wolves even if his eyes appeared to look.
Shrieking howls began to bombard and take advantage of his comfortability to get one up on the situation.
Shifting from his character introspection Leek immediately reached into his inventory, drew on an item he had, and threw it at the leading predator. A rotten Angora Tail was his choice of distraction.
Tracking it as it passed by, the wolf's eyes jumped right back to where Leek was. Only problem was they prey it so certainly was about to consume had not remained placid.
The stench of his presence went from being straight ahead, to coming from the le-
Unexpectedly a sharp pain split the creature. The small patches of white fur streaking in pattern from behind its ears had been doused in red on the left side.
With the blow it lost feeling in its legs, them buckling and causing it to fall.
Leek had taken the moment of distraction to get out of view of the leading wolf and stabbed it just behind the ear, which had knocked (6/8) HP out in one go.
In retaliation to his offense one of the other wolves had sprang to take his blind spot, but this attack had been parried by the hunk of metal wrapped around his hand.
The razor filled mouth of the wolf had been knocked upward and out of attacking opportunity.
Instead of aiming to follow up with the monster Leek had instead chosen to feed his blade to the monster gunning for him from between the prone, and currently stunned wolf.
He, having been brought to his knee, ducked to run his dagger across the underside of the third wolf.
The attack did (1/8) HP as the blade was beyond dull, and failed to even penetrate the thick fur. The wolf having missed its attack tumbled over Leek awkwardly, and past him.
The second wolf, who had been stunned by the blunt force of the shield it was hit by had regained its thought. With this pain shot through its back right leg, Leek who now was laid on the ground stabbed into the paw of the wolf.
For a split moment he had not been targeted as to one he was simply not visible, and the first wolf was still crippled from the attack behind the ear.
-Leek: The character interface was still open as he was in the heat of battle. "Quickly." He said to himself, to gather his thoughts coherently.
He navigated it to place two points into his (EVN)evasion stat, and another into his (TEQ)technique. Once finished he glanced once more at his inventory, and closed the interface.
This was a nick shy of the next incoming attempt on his life. The fourth wolf which had been just out of his view, to the right of the initial leading wolf, had jumped over his paralyzed brother and come down with its claws and bite onto its prey.
He could not conceivably block the two striking legs, but he could lodge his shield in the wolfs mouth to prevent it from closing enough to break his arm. Three points of damage from this had brought him down to (8/16) HP.
Violently the fourth wolf shook in want to free its mouth, as its claws tore into the clothing of its prey. It grew more blood oriented as it felt the freedom to hurt being dangled in its face.
A deep feeling of hatred for the vile insect currently on top of him exploded from Leek's heart. His breath control went off the rails with no delay, and the blood in his body warmed enough to bring strength to his appendages.
His right hand was crammed in the mouth of the wolf. He moved his shielded arm to the furthest left side, and using the new free space shoved his left arm in, with the dagger pointed in a lunge.
Blood spilled from the creature as the back of its throat had been punctured.
Wincing in pain it shook again, but this time away from Leek. Letting it gain distance he released his shield and dagger from its mouth. (5/9) HP was taken by the throat stab.
Quickly Leek forced himself to his feet, but while on a knee again he was confronted by the third wolf, who had picked itself up from the tumble it took.
It pushed past the retreating fourth, and threw itself at Leek again, but this time his mobility was in question.
Leek was able to dodge the jaws from cratering his chest or neck, but he was not able to do the same for his upper arm.
Getting ahold of its preys bicep the monster nearly grinned. Once its feet hit the ground again all it did was sprint and hold. It pulled the flailing body through the grass and into one of the rooted trees.
The force from the impact ripped Leek its grasp. He could not prevent the rag-dolling of his character as the utter strength, and speed was far too much to handle.
Resulting form the attack was his HP dropping by two, to (6/16), nearly one-third of what is is at maximum.
The biggest problem he found in the encounter his is facing is the sheer numbers he was front loaded with. Comparing them, the wolves, to the Wandering Angora had brought in the idea of intelligence from wisdom.
In little time Leek had been capable of learning the general patterns of the wolves, but understanding this they were wise enough to mix individual differences, and numbers to overwhelm their targeted prey.
In contrast to this the Angora were intelligent enough to change their style of attack dependent on what the faced. But they lacked the wisdom to act as a proper unit, allowing them to be cut down one by one.
-Leek: His right arm had nearly been shredded, and the loss of his explosive power lead him to laying under the rooted tree he was battered against. "Shit..." He watched the beautiful sky as it gave warmth to him, from through the leaves.
Closing his eyes, and letting sounds go unrecognized, he honed in on a feeling coming from the trees around him. They also gave warmth back to the environment, just as the sun did.
Alongside this he noticed another feeling, one of a mass consuming from what was given to it, preventing too much energy from gathering. He shot up promptly.
Rotating, he felt the rapid approach of the consuming mass, his head moving to the left as it tracked its movement... Then, his dagger in wait sliced through the air. The precision he showed put the consumption at bay.
A howl of pain brought him back from the stripped Nirvana he was one with. His eyes opened to the result of his aimless slash, the wounded nose of the wolf which dragged him.
It had looped from around the tree and silently went to end the helplessly blind piece of meat, only to have been met with an unanticipated debauching of its primary sense.
A wholly new sense had been opened to him, where he understood what took from the environment, just as the cold does the warm, and what gave. He now with understanding wanted to take.