Midsummer Feast

Merie successfully got the bear’s back, changing tactic and holding on to it as she tried to stab it rapidly. Which got more difficult as it started to trash intensely, risking the other’s health. “HOLD ON IT, MERIE!” Adu was smoothly avoiding the bear’s attacks as she cheered at Merie, looking as if she was helping Merie far more than the other three were doing.

Another spike of ice hit the bear, making it trashing even more. Giving Merie quite a ride, with the only blessing that the bear wasn’t throwing itself at its back. Merie held firm, cursing the horrid ride as it shook her poor and aching head. “GO IN FOR THE KILL, LART!” Merie shouldn’t need to tell him to kill it. “WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOUR KILL, DEAR!” Anlie should also try to do something to help her, instead of cheering for her.

Merie found it difficult to both hold on to the monster and stab it at the same time, also sure that it was the wrong way to use the claws. But it wasn’t as if she’d much of an option. “KEEPS STABBING IT, MERIE! PULL ITS ATTENTION FROM ME!” What made Adu think that the monster was targeting her? But because she at least was trying to attack it, so did Merie aiming more of her stabbing closer to the neck and head. Hoping she could give Adu a chance to kill it, as she also had given up on the hope that Anlie would help her, since Anlie was standing and casually chatting with Lart. She could honestly not believe that the two of them left her, Adu and Opiom to handle the monster.

Adu stepped in, rapidly stabbing the bear, in the stomach, before stepping back again. Making the bear even angrier, still trying to throw her off. “PLEASE KILL IT BEFORE IT KILLS HER, SIR!” Adu’s words made Lart smile, grabbing his axe and looking at the bear, “I think the girls are begging for our help, Anlie.” He wasn’t all wrong, even though they weren’t begging, or should need to ask in the first place. “Will you keep it in place, Anlie?” “Sure. All to help my begging dear.” Anlie rapidly answered his request, rushing the bear and holding it in place. Taking a few hits in the process, which most likely would be more than Merie and Adu would be able to handle.

Merie continued her stabbing as the bear’s trashing stopped, now concentrating its energy on Anlie. She was sure Lart could take down the bear with one or two attacks, but the less health it’d when he attacked only made the situation better. But, she wasn’t sure if he really needed to go in with a charged attack. Sure, it was an excellent opportunity as Anlie kept the bear in place, but wasn’t that an overkill? “OUT OF THE WAY, ANLIE!” Lart moved forward as he warned Anlie, making her get out of the way. Merie didn’t hesitate following her example, letting go of the bear’s back. Only seeing the bear, from behind, before it faced her, raising its paws to strike her down.

Merie had let go of the bear as a precaution if Lart’s attack had penetrated the bear, but it maybe hadn’t been her smartest idea. Thinking of it, so was she probably too close to the bear to avoid the attack if it passed through the bear. She would get the answer faster than she hoped for, Lart was already close behind the bear and swung his axe. The axe bisected the bear without problem, and the shockwave sent Merie flying. Giving her a horrid feeling of how badly it could ended if she would’ve held on to the bear’s back. Not to mention that she didn’t know if the bear still would’ve turned its back toward Lart if she’d held on to it.

The monster disappeared in the familiar explosion of shiny particles. “You were slightly late with helping us, but you did a good number at the bear, Sir.” Adu expressed it like that, but she was surely also thinking that Lart was a little more than slightly late. “We’re glad we could help you~.” Anlie wasn’t showing the slightest shame for looking at the fight without jumping in earlier. “Shouldn’t you be a little more careful when your girlfriend wants help, Anlie?” And, of course so did it have to be Opiom expressing it like that, even though she was right Anlie should’ve helped earlier. “But she did get help from the savage beast from the bushes, so I wanted to see how they worked together.” Anlie might’ve a point that it could be a good thing to see how well Merie and Adu worked together, as their styles were slightly similar, but she still should’ve chosen a better time. Maybe when they were fighting a monster, which shouldn’t risk killing them with a single blow. And did she really have to call Adu that?! Which Adu didn’t seem to mind in the slightest.

But done with that bothersome bear, so did they headed deeper into the forest. Hoping to at least make some progress towards Adu’s place. “Do you think we’ll find something interesting in the towns and villages?” Opiom seemed sceptical to the idea, and it wasn’t as if Merie could blame her. Still, “If we’re lucky, so can it either be placed or will be placed quests there in the future. Maybe to encourage players to reach out to less familiar territories.” Merie wouldn’t be the slightest surprised by it. At least so would she have done like that if she had spent a long time developing a world. “I don’t think they’ve done anything like that yet. But as you suggest, so might it only be a question about time.” Adu was at least agreeing with her. But the others still seemed quite critical of it. “If it turns out that my dear is wrong, so will we still be able to find a use of the places to help Adu out. Even if it just would turn out to be another hunt for enslaving people.” Anlie seemed more open to the idea of attacking NPCs after Adu had pulled them along to their first raid. But it maybe was because it was more about helping Adu than to attack NPCs for the enjoyment out of it. “As long as the towns and villages are outside my territory, so don’t I think we should attack them.” Adu did have some moral, “At least till I, or we, decide to expand the territory. Then so will the survivors taste the chains.” At least so did her moral stretch slightly further than the moral of the PK-hunters. Who seemed to hunt and accuse innocent players for the pure fun of it. “I hope that idea comes secondary to the idea of building up your tribe, girl.” Lart also had a point. Adu should pay more thought to how she would grow her tribe before she started to think about expanding her territory. “I suspect that you’ll gain less heat if you only attack tribes. And instead try to buy those places out. At least so won’t it be as easy to see the human rights violations you’re pulling through.” Wasn’t Opiom making it slightly too real? The NPCs were just an AI, and as far as anyone could say so didn’t they’ve any rights yet.

“WE’VE COMPANY TO THE RIGHT!” Merie rapidly warned the others as she heard hastily approaching footsteps. Not liking the fact that it sounded as if there were different kinds of monsters, and quite a bunch of them too. “IT’S LARGE FLOCK! BE READY!” Adu rapidly followed Merie with her own warning. Maybe with better information than Merie, but it wasn’t as if it mattered as long the other got the information they needed. ” MAKE SURE YOU HOLD MY BACK, SO WILL I MAKE SURE TO ACT BETTER THAN THOSE TWO!” Opiom didn’t mention Anlie or Lart’s names, but it wasn’t as if it was necessary. Everyone was most certainly understood who she meant. Lart held his axe tight, looking as if he was ready to charge another heavy attack.

As soon as Merie saw the flock hunting a single player. “SHE’LL LET THE FLOCK ATTACK US!” Merie didn’t need to look twice at the player, recognising that ugly face at once. The same fucking asshole that had set a group of monsters at Merie while training in the desert. “IF YOU LEAVE, I’LL SHOVE YOUR HEAD UP YOUR ASS, NEIJ!” Opiom seemed to know the player. And hopefully so would she have an impact on Neij’s decision. “YOUR MOM!” Neij followed her cry with a broad smile, continuing her dash toward them. “I don’t think she’s listening to you, Opiom.” Anlie talked calmly as she took place in front of the group, “And I think you girls should be extra careful, as I don’t want to go back to fetch you again.” “WE’LL BE CAREFUL! IF YOU MAKE SURE TO BE SERIOUS!” Merie was sure it would be the fine line between winning or losing. “HAVE FUN!” Neij followed her former behaviour, teleporting as she got close enough and leaving them to fight the pack of monsters, containing at least three bears, as Merie noticed directly.

–

“LART! NO CHARGED ATTACKS! JUST KILL THEM!” Anlie wasn’t even looking at him as she yelled. “JUST MAKE SURE YOU GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Lart seemed eager to start striking them down. “We’ll try to keep his and Opiom’s back free, Adu.” As the two idiots didn’t include them in their plans, so did Merie take it upon herself to decide how they would be to the best use. And it wasn’t as if she wasn’t protecting Anlie out of spite, but she suspected Anlie would be able to take care of herself. Not that Lart wouldn’t be able to take care of himself, but he wasn’t going for the tank-building.

“Blizzard!” Opiom’s spell didn’t only damage the monsters, lightly, passively but also tampered with their view. Lart followers her spell and run straight toward the pack, rapidly followed by Adu, both ready to kill. Merie was holding the rear, attacking the dogs passing by. Using one hand to hit it in the side of the head, and following with the other hand to stab it in the neck. Satisfied with her decision to stay in the rear and handle those monsters passing the others, which hopefully wouldn’t be too many.

Even better was the fact that the fight got much smoother than when Merie had been attacked by the flock back in the desert. Mostly because she was with the others, everyone holding each other’s back. And Lart’s ability to rapidly kill the monsters was also of great help. “YOU’RE IN THE WAY TOO OFTEN, ANLIE!” But of course so wasn’t it as everything was just fine, as they easily could get in each others’ line of fire. This was proven when Anlie was holding down monsters for Lart and because of that got in his way, which honestly not even should surprise him. “JUST KILL THEM INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING, SIR!” Adu had a point. It would have been better if Lart spent his energy on that. Honestly so didn’t Merie think Anlie would die if she’d got hit once by his attack, maybe she needed to get healed, but it might be about that. “AND YOU MAKE SURE TO PROTECT OPIOM, MERIE!” If Adu only had watched her, so would she see that it was just what she was doing. “SHE’S WATCHING MY ASS HARDER THAN ANLIE WATCHES HER!” Couldn’t Opiom expressed in another way? Not only so did it sound wrong, but it was also impossible for Anlie to even look at her as she was behind Anlie.

The area, they fought, was filled with white particles. Not only because Opiom was using the spell Blizzard, but also because Lart bisected a bunch of monsters every time he swung his axe. Anlie was also giving the fight her all, even though she doesn’t kill as many as Lart and Opiom did. Mainly because she hadn’t built her stats to be a powerhouse, but Merie couldn’t deny that she was doing a good job holding up the monsters till Lart killed them. “THE GIRLS ARE DOING A GOOD JOB FOR BEING WEAKER THAN THE REST OF US!” Couldn’t Opiom have expressed it in a kinder manner, without making it sound as if Merie and Adu were far weaker than the rest of the group. Not that Merie could deny that they might be slightly weaker because they were fighting out of the preferred element. But they were still doing a good job helping, and even Opiom would be noticing that since they were protecting her sorry ass.