Max madly treaded water as he was whisked away by a strong river current. The violent current churned chaotically, flinging him around without any mercy.
Suddenly, he was pulled underwater. Kicking and clawing his way back to the surface, his head broke free, only to be instantly smashed in the face by a white, foaming wave.
Max had paid little attention to the river earlier, because he had no plans to enter it. He certainly had no plans to be knocked into it via means of flying log either. As such, he was completely caught off-guard when he became submerged.
Between gasps of air, Max could observe a few things about this river.
It was deepIt was wideIt was extremely fast
Max felt a rock smash against his leg underwater and winced. He had pain set to the maximum allowable value, so that really hurt.
Wanting to escape, he started swimming perpendicular to the river flow. The river itself was actually only about 12 metres wide, but there were side currents which sought to push him back to the centre. He fought fiercely against them to reach the bank.
Glimpsing a large rock, he drove his arm forward. His fingers slid against it; the smooth, wet stone offering no grip as he started helplessly sliding back into the river's pull.
At the last moment, he spotted a plant appendage of some sort, and his hand shot out, just barely grabbing it in time. As his legs were carried downstream, his grip acted as a fulcrum, swinging him out of the river and brutally slamming his body into the riverbank.
Gritting his teeth, Max checked that the plant could hold his weight, before pulling himself up and out of the water, making sure not to slip as he did so.
This really hadn't gone the way he wanted. His plan was to drop off the roof of that cabin and leap inside through one of the windows. That orc wouldn't have been able to follow inside immediately due to its large size and he could've peppered it with arrows.
"Ptah!" Max spat out water and inspected his surrounding, making sure it was monster-free.
It was not. He spotted the orc about 150m upstream, and to his dismay, it seemed like the orc also spotted him, as it started sauntering in his direction. He still couldn't believe he'd already run into a 'quasi-boss' on his first day playing. During his second mission, no less.
Shaking his hair dry, Max took out his bow as he checked his health and notifications.
[ Health: 120/260 (46%) ]
[ Notice: User's equipped item 'Beginner Longbow' has become wet. No protective coating detected; bowstring elasticity is impaired. Power will be temporarily reduced by 20% ]
[ Notice: User's equipped item 'Iron Dagger' exceeded maximum range of use (100m) and has been returned to the user's inventory ]
"Damn! Power reduced by twenty percent?!"
Max had still been carrying his bow when he was hit by the log, and it plunged into the water along with him. He had returned it to his inventory immediately, but it still suffered a debuff. It seemed like Virtek were trying to take a more realistic approach to this game's dynamics.
This wasn't the time to throw a pity party, however. Max started refilling his quiver while checking the terrain. He needed to find a defensible position to fight that orc, which he could see was still walking toward him slowly as though it was out on a leisurely morning stroll.
Although it moved like that now, he knew there was no chance of him outrunning that thing; it was super-fast. He could try wandering into the woods to shake it off, but there was no guarantee that such a strategy would work, as this orc seemed quite experienced and would likely be a good tracker. 'Though it would buy time...'
Max looked to the river and saw there was a bridge crossing over it. Looking more closely, it was actually a rope bridge. It hung a few meters above the water's surface and consisted of a series of half-rotted wooden planks suspended by worn rope cables.
He didn't really want to stand on it; it didn't look reliable at all.
'...Wait, could that thing even hold the orc's weight?'
It occurred to Max that the orc was now on the opposite side of the river from him. It would need to cross over somehow and would most likely attempt to use that bridge.
'Actually, I don't even need to gamble on whether it can hold its weight; I can just cut the cables!'
The cables which held the bridge up were anchored to small abutments at each end. If Max just cut the rope at that connection point, the bridge would fall into the river and become unusable.
He grinned as he equipped a dagger.
"Alright guys..." Remembering he was streaming, Max spoke to his chat, "Here's the plan: the ugly guy upstream is a quasi-boss whom I don't particularly feel like fighting right now, so I have a very advanced and sophisticated plan."
He waited a moment so the viewers would feel some anticipation, before pointing at the crossing. "I'll destroy that bridge, and then run away."
Having finished detailing his sophisticated plan, Max strode up to the bridge. Holding the rope steady with his free hand, he prepared to cut it with the dagger, looking up at the orc as a final check.
"Huh?"
Max watched on in disbelief as the orc gracefully bent its knees and leapt into the river.
'????????'
Instantly, the orc was taken by the current, speedily being moved toward Max. It was somehow able to remain standing while this was happening and was tall enough that its spiky pauldrons could be seen poking out of the water.
"...Well, that changes things."
Max quickly switched back to his bow and ran onto the middle of the bridge to get a clear shot. The orc was still 110 metres upstream, so it would take about 20 seconds to reach him.
However, if it would willingly expose itself like this, Max did not intend to allow it to survive for that long.
Drawing his bow, he shot an arrow which fell short and dropped underwater.
'Oh, right. The debuff.'
Max aimed a bit higher and shot again. This time, the arrow sailed over the water and hit the side of the orc's head, sliding off harmlessly.
"Is that guy's head actually smoother than Lemonade's?" Undismayed, Max made a bald joke to his viewers, "It just bounced right off."
'God, I'm so funny.'
Max wasn't particularly concerned despite his failed shot. He'd warded off an entire group of orcs before they could approach him; now just one orc thought it could take him on? Sure, it was a 'high' orc or whatever, but that shouldn't make it invincible. The previous arrow only slid off because it landed at an angle, and that thing's face was already wet; it wouldn't continue to be so lucky.
Max let off another arrow. This time, the orc raised its axe up to protect its face, causing the arrow to bounce off, neutralised.
Max frowned and started shooting more quickly, aiming at its unprotected neck and upper chest. Finally, he saw some results at the arrows embedded themselves in its skin. Although, upon squinting, he could see that the arrows did not fully pierce; half of the length of each arrowhead was still exposed to the air.
Max started to become anxious and fired faster again. This orc clearly had thicker skin than its counterparts. Combined with Max's current power debuff, it would require a lot of shots to take it down. That being the case, he did not hold back. After ten seconds, the orc became like a porcupine, with arrows sticking out of it in every area of its upper thorax.
Max realised this was taking too long, so he started planning contingencies. The orc would have to climb back out of the river once it got close to him. To do so, it would pick either the left or right side of the bridge. When that happened, he would run and cut the bridge rope at the opposite end, preventing it from reaching him. Then, the orc would become stuck at the wrong side of the river and he could continue shooting it.
Max furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the orc, which had soaked up nearly a dozen arrows. If his bow had not been wet, this dumb guy would have already become a floating corpse.
'What's even the point of having pauldron spikes? Is it planning to shoulder-ram someone?' Max complained in his mind, annoyed that he couldn't inflict significant damage.
Even though it had reached a distance of 20 metres from him, the orc made no effort to climb out of the river, still flowing straight down the middle. Max was thoroughly confused. Was it going to just keep going down the river? Surely it wasn't stupid enough to overshoot, right?
Max briefly considered that it was going after the guard patrol, but dismissed this idea as it would be shot to death before it could leave his range.
This was the orc that used a shield against him earlier. He knew it had some intelligence at least, but if it wasn't climbing to land, and wasn't continuing downstream, what was it doing?
'...'
When the orc was only 5 metres away, Max's eyes widened in realisation as he dashed and threw himself to the side.
Surpriiiise!!!"