Deep in the Shivering Woods…
"Go boy, go!" Tyra yelled as he whipped the horse.
The woods were dark but Shadow was used to running at night in the forest. There were bars of moonlight escaping into the undergrowth through the gaps between the leaves, so the path wasn't entirely unperceivable.
"Argh! It hurts, Tyra!" Mellon screamed from behind with an arrow stuck to her leg. The animagi girl was wounded and could not even stay still on the horse as Tyra rode. So, she was tied to the horse's body. She was screaming in agony.
"I know! Just hold on a little longer, Mel!" Tyra retorted.
Cassie, the other animagi girl with her bushy white tail was right behind Tyra, riding as fast as she could to catch up to the half-blood.
Cassie's cat ears flinched as she heard a sudden movement from behind.
SWISH!
"NEIGH!" Cassie's horse cried in pain as a spear struck right into its stomach.
"Oh no!" She squealed, jumping off the horse before her body was crushed underneath it.
The expedition has gone quite well for Queen Melissa's servants until now.
Even though they've traveled nearly for two moons now, they have not acquired the most accurate information.
However, they had found out when the attack will commence, and that it will certainly be a group of powerful people that will commence the attack.
Even though they managed to stay undercover for months without even getting a scratch on their bodies, after they arrived at Stonelake, the next big city after Monsieur, they met a bunch of murderhobo warriors who had been chasing them for nearly 2 hours now.
While Tyra did have experience in battle, he could not face an entire six-person team of experienced warriors.
"TYRA! I'M DOWN!" Cassie cried out for help as her horse bled to death.
Tyra stopped his horse and turned around, unable to continue without his assistant.
"Cassie – shit!" He quickly gazed at the forest cover behind them. The leaves were rustling in the distance. Those monsters were still chasing them.
"Tyra… it's ok, leave me then," Cassie said, stepping back with fear in her eyes.
"NO!" Mellon cried out. "Tyra, don't leave her behind," Mel grabbed Tyra's sleeveless shirt with tears flowing down her eyes.
Tyra gazed at Mellon's face. Mellon's eyes were pleading him to not let the girl die.
"Cassie, can you follow us for a little while on foot? You're still not out of energy, are you?" Tyra turned to Cassie.
Cassie nodded. "But – they are…"
"I know, Cassie. I'll hold them back," Tyra raised his arm and summoned a long sword with an emerald broad blade, "...with this."
Cassie furrowed her eyebrows. "But – but that's your strongest blade, Tyra. You can't waste the Emerond here –"
"I decide what I must do with my blade. Your life is certainly worth more than a mere blade," Tyra replied, swinging the blade above his head.
Cassie looked down with embarrassment and shame. "I…"
"Run, we'll catch up to you."
Cassie nodded and quickly removed her gloves and her shoes. She took off the dark cloak around her and waved her fluffy white cat tail.
"Thank you, Tyra. I owe you my life."
Tyra smiled. "You're part of us. We can't let you down." Cassie nodded and got down to pace her dash.
Like a wildcat, Cassie began to dash through the woods on all fours.
"I will give you the best night when I get back home, Tyra," Melon said with a smile on her lips. Tyra smiled back.
"Oh, let's get home soon then," Tyra smirked.
The wind around the half-blood dragon began to twist as he began to swing the sword faster. "Bless me with long life, Emerond. Our journey was long, but here it comes to an end – Broad slash."
Tyra swung the sword towards the incoming warriors, and a strong wind blew him back as he released the sword from his grasp.
The sword slashed everything before them.
Horses shrieked and the scream of a warrior came from the woods. Every tree in the path where the sword had gone through fell, neatly slashed from its bark.
Tyra turned around with the horse and whipped it again, moving forward without looking back.
///
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?" The players chasing the three NPCs cried out.
One player was a buff man in silver armor, the other was a guy who had an animagi girl as his avatar, the third was a witch dressed in a purple suit, and the last one was the dead elf who was lying in the grass with his neck slashed off.
"What the fuck just happened, guys?" The witch asked, gazing at the other two. "Man, Connie was the best in the guild. When the hell did Arion Online start putting out tough NPCs in the middle of the road?"
The buff knight pondered, rubbing his chin. "Hm hm, we need to see how much loot those fucking NPCs have, guys. Hey – Charlie, what the –"
The animagi bunny girl with green hair grabbed the Emerond up.
[Emerond: Legendary rank sword unlocked!]
"Holy shit! Dudes, I unlocked a bloody legendary rank sword!" The animagi girl replied with her cute anime-girl voice. "And yeah yeah, poor Connie. Bro was Lvl 400… now he'll drop lower than me, lol."
"Dude… unfair. You didn't even do anything, you bastard!" The white knight yelled, irritated. "You can't have that sword alone!"
"Sad, I already unlocked it. Anyway, let's chase the NPCs and loot 'em all. Otherwise, that 20-minute chase would be a waste."
The witch and the knight gazed at Charlie with annoyance.
"What? Are you coming or not?" Charlie replied, grabbing his horse and climbing on it once more.
"Yeah, I'm getting those guys before they cross over to Monsieur," the witch agreed.
"Yeah, gotta flex on Connie after looting them to a penny," the white knight added. "And this time Charlie… No fucking loot for you!"
The horses jumped over the fallen trees and began to ride toward their prey as fast as they could. After a twenty-minute chase, the players could not just leave the NPCs with a mere sword and the death of their fellow player, who was probably raging in his room at that moment.
///
By the time Tyra's horse reached the end of the Shivering Woods, everyone was out of breath. Cassie's energy had worn out entirely, so she was holding onto the back of Tyra with her arms around his neck. She was seated on the tied-up body of Mellon. Even Mellon had passed out because of the loss of blood from her wound.
Mellon suggested continuing the ride on that posture.
The horse gradually stepped down the clear grassy slope as they exited the woods. There weren't many trees on the road ahead, and the city of Monsieur was in sight now. They could feed their horses and reach Mountain Darkness in the next two days.
"Ha… that was insane," Tyra exhaled, combing his hair with his hand. "A little more and –"
Swish!
A silver blade ran past Tyra's arm, missing his back in mere inches. It struck the grass and sank 2 feet into the ground.
Tyra's heart began to beat rapidly. 'No, we didn't lose them… how?'
"Thought you'd outrun us, eh?" The voice of that miserable murderhobo knight came from behind.
Three warriors mounted on horses appeared from the woods, circling Tyra's tired horse.
Cassie and Mellon had already passed out in the back. Only Tyra was the one who was awake.
"Fuck it…" he whispered, gazing around him at the warriors. "What do you want from us? We don't even possess much wealth. We are slaves!" Tyra cried out, gazing at the smirking knight.
"We didn't come here for wealth… we came here to rank up, dude." The white knight replied.
Tyra gulped. 'Murderhobo warriors always want to rank up… Just that. Why do we even live in such a horrible world,' he thought, jumping off the horse and gently laying Cassie on Mellon.
The half-blood turned to the knights and knelt down.
"Ok, take my life… rank up. Don't get the girls. They are not –"
"We decide what to do with our prey," the witch retorted, raising her staff and pointing it at the half-blood.
Up in the night sky, two crazy bats were flying among the clouds, swaying from side to side. Tyra looked up and noticed this and wondered what the bats meant in his dying moment… However, if you observe them closer, you could see that they were not bats, but dragons.
"Haha! Should've fucked the blonde knight! That was fun, Sol!"
"Yeah, I should've. But we really went down on that elf, didn't we Sel?"
They were two dragon girls who looked as if they were the same. They had the same short hair, and the same lean body and they even dressed in the same skin-tight black leather coats.
The three warriors and Tyra gazed at the sky upon hearing this noisy racket from above. However, only Tyra noticed who they were.
"PRINCESS SOLAR! PRINCESS SELENA!" he screamed out into the sky.
"Heh? Who's calling?" Solar asked, gazing down at the tiny people below on the grassy slope. "Oh, it's our handsome boy Tyra… Sel. Why's he –"
"Oi! Who are you calling? Shut your damn mouth!" The white knight summoned his giant silver claymore back to his hand and stepped forth to kill Tyra.
Swish!
A spear struck the knight's head and came out from his balls. Blood splashed across the grass, and the knight fell to his death.
"Holy shit!" The animagi girl jumped back in fear, gripping her sword and – swish!
A spear struck through her heart right at the next moment.
Solar and Selena's speed was too hard to catch up with for such low-level players. They could not even see the movement of the Dragon Twins.
The witch instantly began to cast her trump card spell to destroy everything in sight, but before she could hold up the staff into the sky, a hand gripped her staff.
Before her, crimson red eyes flashed and she gulped.
"You hurt our Tyra, didn't you?"
"Um – um…" The witch mumbled as the crimson eyes of Solar made her heart jump to her throat. "I – I wasn't expecting a goddamn Dragon to be here…"
Scales ran across Solar's arms, extending her nails into a dark dragon claw. It was no longer an arm of a mere humanoid being; it was the scaled arm of a transformed dragon.
"Die, you peasant."
The witch closed her eyes, and Solar struck her claw through the witch's chest.