The group had a few more encounters with beasts, and escorted over 20 people back to the camp. During their last tour of the area, something odd happened. A singular man was standing in their path in the forest.
His arms were riddled with cuts and his fists were bruised and bloody. He had bandages wrapped around his hands and looked like a mma fighter. He looked as though he was from Russia and immediately Jaycee knew he was right. "Ah! Fellow humans. It's good to finally see friendly faces." He smiled broadly and spoke loudly.
In fact Jaycee thought his loudness was too much. He frowned slightly. The man approached them with open arms. Jaycee couldn't even see a weapon on the guy though he was dressed in heavy warrior gear. This man felt pretty strong to Jaycee.
Percy narrowed his eyes as the man approached. "Is there anyone with you. Where is the rest of your group?" Percy asked cautiously.
Still the man walked forward his hand extended as if to shake Percy's hand. As he got closer he spoke, "Nope I'm all by myself, as for the rest of my group they-" as the man got close he cut his sentence short and lunged forward his eyes full of fierceness.
His fists closed in on Percy as an arrow whistled through the air. The man made contact with Percy's shield blasting it to the side leaving the warrior exposed. A second fist that held a dangerous air behind it almost smashed Percy's chest but he managed to get his sword in between the fist and his body.
The punch blasted his sword out of position as well as he stumbled back, barely avoiding a third murderous strike at his head. A gush of wind passed over Jaycee as he looked to the side. His eyes were wide open.
Lady had caught an arrow with her hand just inches from his neck. The wind was just from the arrow and was able to move all of his dreads. In Lady's yellow glowing hand a black shafted arrow was dripping with some sort of liquid.
The arrow alone probably would've killed him not considering this liquid, which was likely a poison. As he saw it damage Lady's hand he knew it was poison. Apparently this yellow energy was the new power he felt in her.
He began to cast a large fire spell that would at least blast the man back. The light warrior in their group dashed forward his daggers flashing in the light. He swiped his blades at the man's shoulder and found his blades didn't do the damage he expected.
They only cut about a centimeter into his skin despite the fact it should've at least gone an inch or two. Expecting that attack to at least slow his arm the light warrior was left open to attack.
Their heavy warrior was still reacting and was about to move forward. The Russian man was nearly unaffected by the cuts on his shoulder and swung his arm around catching the light warriors leather armor in his hand. Jaycee desperately prepared the spell but found their proximity was way too close.
He couldn't use the spell without smoking the light warrior as well. The man shifted his whole body driving his fist with incredible power toward the light warriors head. The man was terrified as the red and bloodied fist made contact with his skull. He didn't have any more time to be terrified.
Watching the scene with wide eyes Jaycee released the spell sending the Russian man flying back with an explosion of flame. The man slid backwards still standing as his crossed arms fell to his side. "So you three." He muttered as he charged forward. His arms were burned, but he was still very powerful as he shouldered the heavy warrior to the side to attack Percy.
Percy was flipping his blade with his jaw clenched and his eyes set. Veins appeared on his forehead as he met the large man directly. His shield aptly threw the fist to the side as he sliced the fighters thigh decently. "Jaycee, Lady deal with this assassin archer." Percy grunted as he met the beast of a man again.
Jaycee dashed to the side with Lady hot on his heels. He raised a barrier of energy to delay the arrow just long enough for him to dive out of its path. He wasn't completely sure where this archer was, but he knew the general direction.
Of course Jaycee and Lady were the most vulnerable classes to an archer. But Jaycee thought that with a healer at his side and Lady's new powers they could do it. His agility was fast for a mage but an archer would outspeed him any day of the week.
He pulled strands of mana and began weaving symbols and spells. Earlier that day in inbetween of all the encounters the group had, Jaycee had been working on one thing. His mana stealth skill. It was now passable enough that it would hide him against the average enemy if he was entirely focused on himself.
But an archer who's at his level would have perception that sees through his average screen of mana which essentially concealed his movements to the eye. So he was going to flood the mana stealth spell to create an especially dense mana screen that can fool higher perception beings.
First, he created spears of flame over his shoulder and cast them into the forest where the arrow came from. A few explosions later, a fast figure dashed through the trees loosing an arrow. Jaycee shifted his body and created a small shield of energy that deflected the rushed arrow.
He flicked his hand and casted another spear of flame that nearly made contact with the figure. But they were too fast. His spears were fast yes, but they weren't over the top fast and moved slower than an arrow. Another arrow dipped in poison shot out from a weird angle behind a large trunk and nearly hit Jaycee in his shoulder.
A fast, small hand covered in yellow energy smacked the arrow out of the air. Lady was like Jaycees shadow. Her movements mirrored his and kept her within 5 feet of him always. Both defending him while remaining on the opposite side of their enemy.
Jaycee grit his teeth and began to engage in some of the most intense combat he had experienced yet. Each moment they exchanged attacks their resources got lower. Lady was his last line of defense and could somehow pluck arrows out of the air with little damage. Although the poison did harm her before she cleansed it from her body with the healing magic.
Each blast of fire left a scorch on the ground or tree until the small section of forest looked like a true battleground. As his opponent, who he still didn't have solid eyes on, ran out of arrows, he was running out of mana. Jaycee knew that archers were gifted a quiver in the beginning of the tutorial that used their mostly unused mana to create arrows.
He had seen the process and they had to stop for at least a few seconds to create a single arrow. Purposefully he had applied pressure constantly to make sure this couldn't happen.
Foolishly he hadn't counted the amount of arrows they could fit in the quiver. So he just pushed his opponent until their firing got very sparse. Sweat dripped into his eyes as he used some of his last mana to plant a fire bomb on the trunk of a tree.
A few exchanges later and specific movements and attacks his target had ended up at the exact place he put the bomb. He smiled as he activated the dormant spell with his hands together. An explosion rocked the tree the archer hid behind. Jaycee flooded his mana stealth skill with half his remaining mana.
The other half went into his hands as a saw blade of condensed flames appeared in his hands. He always came up with the best spells during intense battles. In the mediocre fights he had been in were just not stimulating enough to really get his creative juices flowing.
He watched the figure get blasted backward and loosed the razor. They loosed an arrow as they still somehow barely avoided getting hit by his saw blade. But they accomplished their goal as the last poison soaked arrow struck him in the shoulder.
Immediately he felt his low physical stats affect him. The poison was attacking his body with great efficiency. The archer who now stood in full view smiled at the boy. It was a tall woman with a long magical looking cloak around her. She smiled at the view of her poison working and placed her hand on her quiver.
The boy fell to his knee as his eyes began to swim. Jaycee smiled and gestured to Lady. "Help me out Lady. Don't worry. She can't do anything."
The archer confused, sneered. "You're dead. The poison will immobilize you while the healer does her work. By the time I shoot this arrow…" She trailed off as her hand failed to find any bow string. Jaycee had aimed for her bow as he was certain he could hit it.
She never guessed he would aim for her weapon for his big final chance. But instead she had lost her main weapon, and if she wanted to kill him she would have to draw the backup dagger each archer had.
Engaging in close battle with the exhausted mage was an option, but with no details on her partner who may have lost already was it worth the risk. The healer seemed to have some weird skills that could stop her from killing them. There was no telling if Lady could fight back.
If enough mana replenished in the short mage he may be able to defeat her with a clear shot. Jaycee accuracy was very impressive. The woman pushed her agility and stealth to the max to avoid his barrage of well placed spells and powerful magic. She sneered at them as Lady began to isolate the poison in his body.
She turned and took off into the forest. Jaycee watched her cloak billow as she sped off. He stood there with his body racked with pain. It felt like he had lost all of his strength and had a bad hangover. "I do not like poison users." Jaycee said to Lady as she began to beat back the poison with her healing.
A few minutes later the poison was cleaned from his body and he could stand again without his whole world swimming. He rolled his shoulders to try and stretch the damaged muscles in his shoulder. Lady was still working on the physical damage as he walked back to the other fight.
He didn't have any mana as of right now anyways. He could maybe make a crappy spear but he knew this was nearly hopeless against the scary Russian man. It was either Percy won or Percy lost. Jaycee showed up and realized there was a third option.
Percy stood with the group's archer. His body was battered and bloody. The heavy warrior had died since Jaycee had left and the archer had a large imprint of a fist in his stomach. The corners of the man's mouth was bloody and he looked very damaged.
Jaycee didn't even want to think about the power behind the Russian man's punches. Seeing Jaycee return the man's eyes widened. The man was heavily injured as well. There were many long gashes and arrows sticking out of him.
The three of them seemed to all be on their last legs as well. He glared at Percy and the archer before turning and sprinting in the other direction. Percy shook his head and stopped the archer from drawing his bow. "It's not worth it. There's an equal chance we die if we chase him. You're all good Jaycee?" Percy asked, his leadership skills still shining through.
Jaycee shrugged while he walked toward the group. "Empty on most resources, my opponent was good and got away. But I'm okay. She's an assassin style archer who uses poisons and crafty tricks. You'll be much better matched for her." Jaycee said.
"Yeah I should've let you handle the brawler. I just got caught up because he killed Joel. He got Stacy as well." Percy said his fist clenched at his side. Jaycee felt the rage coming off of Percy.
They had lost two party members despite both Percy and Jaycee being relative to their enemies. "Dammit." Percy whispered to himself while kneeling next to the dead bodies of his former party members. The archer looked solemnly on as he thought how he could've been the one dead on the ground. He had seen much death so far through the tutorial. Clearly things were not going to be easy. "Let's get going." Percy said.