When Rain finally made it to the open courtyard, she found that a few people were practicing the courtyard already, however, none were sparring. Each was doing their own thing. One man was shadowboxing, a woman was sparing against an invisible opponent with her spear, and the last man was throwing hatchets into a target. None of them talked, doing their own thing. The only sounds were the occasional grunts, deep breaths, and the sound of thudding the hatchets made when hitting the target. Rain took off her shoes and stepped into the courtyard. Each person looked at her for a moment, before resuming their training. Rain was slightly disappointed they didn't try to make conversation, but she was smart enough to not be the one to start it. They wanted silence, so silence they will have.
Rain drew her shortsword from her scabbard, and stood in one of the corners of the courtyard. The moonlight brightly shone down onto them. Rain took in a deep breath as she moved herself into the first position. Locking herself into it, she moved into the next one. Then the next, and the next, and the next, and the next. Once she finished she would start again. She would always fix something she did wrong. If she didn't find anything wrong, she would keep doing it until she could. Rain knew she wasn't perfect, so she just had to keep searching for the error. If she couldn't see the error, she would close her eyes and try to hear the error. If she couldn't hear it, she would try to imagine it. If she couldn't imagine it, she would start the process over.
The longer Rain practices the movements, the smoother they become. To the untrained eye, she looked like she was doing them perfectly, but the knowledgeable would know she was messing up on things. However, no one here could distinguish her errors. As such, Rain's movements looked beautiful to watch. The slow and precise movements underneath the moonlight were a sight to see. The moonlight would reflect off of her sword and lighten up her face. The serene and beautiful emerald-phthalo green eyes, the soft and fair pale skin, and the pure white hair, all came together to create the image of a deadly dancer. Yet, Rain had no idea that was what she looked like. The nearby guards would stop and watch, entranced by Rain and her movements. They would stop and stare, and after a few moments would shake themselves out of it. They couldn't help but think that this woman was dangerous. Just being able to enter people while practicing basic movements was a feat that none of them had accomplished. They quickly returned to their training, but they would occasionally look over, whether they wanted to or not, they were always drawn in. Rain, on the other hand, was none the wiser about how the others felt. She just continued to practice her movements, one at a time.
As the moons began to set, and the sun began to rise, more people would make their way through the courtyard. They would throw some astonished glances at Rain, however now that the moons had set, her ethereal beauty had disappeared as well. Although her movements were nice to watch, it no longer looked like she was dancing. It just looked precise and elegant to the occasional onlooker. Rain was halfway through one of her movements when noticed a group of people began to make their way towards her. Rain stopped, and sheathed her sword before turning to look at who they were. Once she turned she realized it was Kalic, Sunny, Benji, and Alfred.
"Good morning Kalic, Sunny," she paused and turned towards Alfred before giving a slight bow," Alfred." Alfred in turn bowed back to Rain. Finally, Rain turned towards Benji before she spoke in an uncaring tone, "Benji". Benji could only make a 'tsk' sound before turning his head away from Rain. 'Maybe he's just a tsundere," Rain suddenly thought, 'That would make so much sense.'
"Good to see that you are up and ready to go, do you have everything you need," Kalic asked. Rain quickly thought about everything she had. Currently, she had her bag, her cloak, her boots, her sword and its scabbard, and her singular coin which was currently in her bag. She didn't pack any food because it seemed like the game didn't force its players to eat and drink. It might've been too much of a killjoy and as such only kept the rest feature in the game. Rain was betting on the fact that she didn't need food or water to survive, but rather was just an additional mechanic.
"I believe so, are we all leaving?"
"I am not heading with you, the Captain needs me to stay behind. In my stead, Sunny will be the leader of 'The Wanderers'. A deep sigh could be heard from Benji, as a mighty strong smile bloomed on Sunny's face.
"Why do I feel like we're going to get beat to death trying to kill something we can't possibly fight," Benji remarked in a pessimistic tone. Sunny's smile immediately crumbled and it looked like she wanted to go over to Benji and beat some sense into him, but Kalic put his hand on her shoulder.
"Play nice you two," Kalic exasperated. "You guys should get going anyways, make sure to come back as the sun sets. The forest has never been kind to people after sunset." With that, Kalic began to make his way back to the center of AGB while waving them off. Rain made her way out of the courtyard and to the other members of 'The Wanders', before she put her backpack on.
"So what's the plan, we just head out into the forest," Rain asked Sunny.
"Yep," Sunny beamed as she gave a thumbs up.
"We are most certainly going to die," Benji remarked once more.
"Shut up before I make you," Sunny barked at Benji. "We have Alfred here anyway. He should be able to find something in that forest." In response, Alfred nodded as if that was the whole reason he was here. "Alright, let's go. I want to find something to fight as soon as possible," Sunny said while she cracked her knuckles. As the group was leaving town and started to make their way to the forest, Rain started to converse with them. Mostly small talk things with the only major thing being what kind of 'powered' they were. She wanted to figure out what kind of people they were.
Sunny was a 'Warlord Powered', and she valued strength above all else. She was the true definition of a muscle head. She loved fighting with her fists because it's what truly allowed her to get close and personal with other people. Plus only through true strength can there be a winner in a boxing match. She was also easy to talk to if you could past the fact that she mentioned things about muscles and strength in every other sentence.
Alfred was a quiet individual who talked very little, however, he didn't make it seem rude, but rather that was the way he worked. He was a 'Pugilist Powered' and favored the idea of silent and deadly strikes. He was also rather old, probably well into his sixties but he still moved around and performed like he was in his thirties. Rain also learned that Alfred had once lived in the forest for many years, and as such was why he was moved to this team.
Finally, there was Benji. Benji spoke very little, but he did it in a way that just made him look like a dick. He would give perfunctory answers, using as few words as possible, and always had either a sarcastic, condescending, or pessimistic tone. He was, without a doubt, the most annoying person Rain had met in a while. Rain was able to at least able to figure out that Benji was a 'Mage Powered'. Other than learning the bare minimum, Rain chose not to talk to Benji, usually spending time with Sunny or Alfred. It didn't take very long for the group of four to make it to the border between the forest and the tall grass. The four of them stood at the border for a moment, before Sunny started to make her way into the forest.
"Shouldn't we come up with a plan or something? Are we just gonna wander into the forest," Rain asked flabbergasted.
"We are called 'The Wanderers' are we not," Sunny replied without looking back. Rain was speechless, that was just an irresponsible use of our team's codename. 'Whatever, it can't be that bad. Right?' Rain thought to herself.
"We just have to find some of the stronger monsters and see if any have the marks of being corralled. If the person is trying to create a stampede, they're gonna have to use the more passive ones, not the predators. So we shouldn't have too big of an issue. Thats our plan," Sunny spoke out to the group.
"At Least we have a plan this time," Benji sarcastically spoke back.
"Shut it, Benji, I can still come back there and pummel you to the dirt," Sunny threatened him.
"Yo-you-You wouldn't dare," Benji stuttered out, his face turning whiter by the second. Sunny stopped and looked over her shoulder at Benji.
"Try me," she said with a smile that just oozed of malicious intent. We walked in silence after that. Benji didn't seem to dare to make a peep, while Alfred just continued his march in silence. After the group walked into the forest, Rain was gonna ask if she should look for anything specific, but Alfred beat her to it.
"Something is watching us," he suddenly said, pulling out two daggers from who knows where. Benji pulled out a small wooden stick which Rain could only assume was a wand, and Sunny put up her fists. Rain could almost hear her heartbeat rise in excitement. Rain pulled out her shortsword and got into a defensive stance. She looked all around her, yet she couldn't see anything, or hear anything. The group closed the gap between them and looked around. Rain was going to keep straining her eyes to look but she finally noticed something.
"The forest is silent," Rain spoke quietly. Her soft voice suddenly seemed far too loud. The nature around them had become deathly still. To say one could hear a pin needle drop would be an understatement of the suddenness that the sound evaporated away.
"What's that supposed to mean," Sunny asked seriously. Her slightly playful muscle-head manner was gone.
"It means something is hunting," Alfred replied in a grave tone.
"Benji," Sunny asked slowly.
"I need eyesight on it. I haven't seen it yet, so I can't do anything," he replied. Rain was rather astonished at how fast the group went from arguing to serious. Just not too long ago the kid was white from fear of Sunny and wouldn't dare speak, yet he was focused entirely now on how to support Sunny.
"There," Benji yelled as he pointed his wand at a part of the forest. The whole group turned to look and a creature suddenly became outlined by light. It was rather hard to describe, but it seemed like the creature's outlines had been highlighted by light. The creature on the other hand looked like a panther, but with two tails, and teeth that looked far too large for its mouth. Finally, its paws were much larger with even larger claws.
Alfred immediately threw both of his daggers and grabbed two more from somewhere. Sunny had already begun sprinting straight towards the creature as soon as it had become highlighted. Rain wasn't too sure what she should do, so she decided to go in towards the monster as well. After all, her 'White Mist' didn't have a huge range. Rain started to carefully run towards the creature, different from how Sunny ran at full speed and threw caution into the wind behind her. However, before Rain could get very far she heard Benji's yell from the back.
"SHIT! There's two!" Rain whipped her head around and saw another creature, identical to the one before, behind them. Before Rain could even move again, she heard Sunny yell something out this time.
"Alfred distract it! Rain get over here and help me kill this thing!" Rain darted towards Sunny and the monster, throwing caution into the wind as well as now things were twice as dangerous. As she started to get closer she could see that the monster and Sunny were in a beat-down match. Sunny was throwing punches and hooks, elbowing and kicking it. Just about any part of her body that could hit the creature was used. The creature in turn would scratch Sunny, occasionally trying to bite her. Sunny however was very careful to not let it do that.
Rain called her -White Mist- out and once she was close enough to the creature she slashed it, creating a deep wound on it. As soon as she did so, she could see her 'White Mist' rush at the creature's wound and cling to it. She could also see the monster toss its head and she could also see Sunny rub her temple with one of her hands. Rain also now noticed that Sunny had a bunch of claw marks on her skin, however most didn't look that deep. It seemed like her muscles that looked hard as rocks were probably hard as rocks.
The monster however swiped one of its claws at Rain, and she quickly dodged under it. Sunny punched the creature, forcing it to return its attention to her, and Rain slashed at the creature again. Creating a large cut wound on its face. Again Rain could see her -White Mist- cling to the wound, however, she could now feel the mist desire something again. Rain also could see the mist was slowly seeping into the wounds. The monster looked like it was going to turn towards Rain again, but Sunny stepped on one of its paws and uppercut it. The monster looked stunned for a second, so Rain stepped towards the creature and jabbed the shortsword into its neck. However, her sword didn't get very far in, but Rain suddenly had an idea.
"Kick it in," Rain quickly yelled out, backing up slightly. Sunny looked confused at first, but then she must've seen the sword that had barely penetrated the monster's skin. Before the monster could react after being stunned, Sunny did a standing kick that pushed the blade into the monster's head. The entire blade, from its hilt on, was inside of the monster. The light in its eyes extinguished, as the beast fell to the ground. Sunny took a deep breath, pulled the sword out of the creature's neck, and tossed it back to Rain. When she caught the blade and saw how bloody it was, she could only swallow deeply, and try not to throw up.
"To the next one," Sunny said as she started to go over and support them, but she heard a notification and she stopped for half a second. However, Rain started running towards the other monster without looking at the notification. Rain figured it was just a notification about killing the creature and gaining some experience. As she started to run over to the Monster, she saw old man Alfred bobbing and weaving around the creature. Dodging every attack it gave out, and every now and then, he would swipe the creature with his daggers. Benji was further behind chanting some weird words, and occasionally strands of light would leave his wand and strike the monster. It would visibly slow for a few moments or would lose focus in its eyes as it would seem confused. Benji seemed to be a critical factor in what allowed Alfred to stay alive longer.
As Sunny got to the beast, she immediately jumped into the fray and began to battle the creature. She used the same tactics that she used on the other one, punching and kicking it, and dodging the strikes she could while hardening her muscles for the ones she couldn't. With the entrance of Sunny, Alfred was finally able to move around the creature, stabbing it, and throwing his knives wherever the creature looked weakest. Finally, when Rain made it into the conflict, she started to slash the creature's legs, trying to reduce its mobility.
Her mist would always cling to the open wounds of the monster. With the four of them working in tandem against the creature it slowly went down. The last straw was when Sunny threw a killer right hook. The creature shook its head a few times, trying to stay up, but inevitably fell over. Alfred quickly ran over and stabbed the creature through the eye and into its brain. As the creature died, Rain could feel her mist rushing to and around the creature. She didn't know what it was doing, but she could see it seeping into the wounds of the creature. She was a bit disturbed by the fact, but since the -White Mist- was desiring something with the creature, she let it do what it wanted.
Alfred and Sunny were breathing quite heavily as it seemed they were the two that used the most of their energy. Benji looked tired, but more in the way someone looked after they finished an hour-long exam. Rain on the other hand felt great. She was breathing heavier than normal, however, she didn't think she was as bad as the other three. It was then that Rain heard another notification, and while things were calm she decided to look at them.
*Ding*
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You have assisted in killing a 'Prowling Panther'
Your contribution was: 51%
You gain: 62% Experience
Due to you killing a creature a power level above you, your experience gains doubles.
You gain: 62% additional Experience
Current Experience: 124%
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*Ding*
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You have assisted in killing a 'Prowling Panther'
Your contribution was: 37%
You gain: 46% Experience
Due to you killing a creature a power level above you, your experience gains doubles.
You gain: 46% additional Experience
Current Experience: 92%
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*Ding*
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--Reached Level 3--
-One Potential Point Gained
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*Ding*
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--Reached Level 4--
-One Potential Point Gained
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