Luntra really seemed confident in her success as she started to reason with the two that got inside our shelter:

"Listen, how about cooperation?"

"I told you to fuck off, didn't I?"

"I know you might be scared but..."

The door was slam opened and what appeared to be an ice dart flew out of the shelter. It missed due to lack of aim but I decided to join the conversation:

"I got a deal for you: either get the fuck out or die where you are right now!"

The dagger was ready, mana, stamina and health were high enough for a good fight on top of the new spell. Meqro seemed to understand where that was going as he pulled his own axe. Luntra seemed frustrated but she also got ready for a potential fight. Then a man came out of the shelter while holding a stone dagger near a woman's throat. Her face seemed weirdly familiar. I really felt like I had seen those brown eyes, the long straight dark hair before. All it rang a bell but I could not recognise it. A man's shout interrupted my thoughts:

"Come a step closer or try attacking me and she's dead!"

The three of us looked at each other as if we misheard something. Meqro decided to clarify:

"You mean that you will kill her exactly and not any of us?"

"Yes, I mean that!"

Luntra then turned to me, put her hand on my shoulder and said:

"Kuronto, I feel extremely sorry for considering you the biggest retard I've ever known."

"Well... I can agree that he is the biggest retard indeed."

While Luntra and Meqro were just confusingly looking at the man, I quickly opened spell list:

Water Bolt (1-10 MP)

Water Infusion (1 MP/s)

So it was indeed quite an interesting spell. I then decided to check information about it:

Water Infusion - Surrounds the weapon with water aura that deals damage based on the weapon's base damage. Only works for melee weapons.

Damage: [15%] of a weapon's base damage

As I was closing the menu, I realized the potential of that spell. I then quickly noticed something: the girl who pretended to be a hostage actually put hands behind her pack and as Kuntro and Meqro seemed unaware of it, I slightly charged the water bolt on my left hand and shot it aiming straight at the girl. As I was expecting, the girl then revealed her hands charged with fire bolts that were shot right at us with good aim while the guy also used his ice dart. Me and Meqro dodged quite easily but Luntra suffered some damage as I saw "-40" appear above her. The girl was dashing towards her with an axe so I dashed at the girl with my dagger. The usually short dashes made this look like a ruined moment. But then I knew it was a perfect moment to use my water infusion. And now dagger's reach was long as sword's, which caught the girl off guard but dealt just 1 damage. But I was not about to back down as I did a slashed her well in the head and while not actually having blood, there were red pixels of damage and this time the damage was 16 from a direct hit. The girl then jumped away increasing the distance and preparing yet another ice dart, while Luntra and Meqro focused on the other guy. I quickly tried to close the distance but she was parrying each of my strikes with her axe in one hand, while finishing charging the fire bolt. I then myself jumped away to increase distance and successfully dodge the fire bolt, which I did. But I then understood it was aimed for Luntra. She was already down 60 HP. Not a good sign. I quickly dashed towards Luntra as the other guy tricked Meqro in similar way and Luntra, who got distracted by the fire bolt, now was down already 80 HP. I then got hit with a fire bolt myself but it was still better than letting Luntra die. Meqro and me had an option to lgnore Luntra and likely making her die as the two were actually targetting her.

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But we decided to go the hard way, deciding to protect her.

"Guess that makes our job easier," the girl laughed, "the bounty on her head is sure a good one."

Bounty? Those are usually introduced far later on, maybe on level 30 or even 40. But not the beginning game. Although I could not afford to think even that much as some portal opened behind the two and a demon revealed itself. It had 2 horns as usual but was extremely muscular and with a pretty good axe in its hands. The two instantly jumped away from it but the demon was faster as his axe hit the girl's body and dealt impressive 70 damage, while also literally launching her in the ground, which actually killed her. No, she was not dead but extremely weakened. The guy tried to shoot the demon with his ice dart but then the demon just casted a fireball, which was an epic way of nullifying the effect of an ice dart but it also exploded near the poor guy, dealing 80 damage. One last spell that demon casted was the fire bolt, obviously far more powerful than the girl's or Meqro's, that left the guy in the weakened state as well. Meqro and me, despite this turn of events, still were not ready to accept something like that as our ally. However, it decided to talk with us as it took the bodies of two in a portal from which it came from:

"If you want to truly protect her, you need to get stronger. After all, the girl," it said while pointing at Luntra, "is the key to ending the war."

"Now what about war and key to ending it?" I could not help keeping my thoughts within just my mind.

"The only thing you should bother yourselves with is protecting her. I won't be able to stay with you for long nor I will come soon again. But if you fail, I will be sure to kill you the instance I get the chance."

"What if others come after her? There's a bounty on her after..."

"Only those two know about the bounty. But if you fail to protect her under any circumstances, I will still come after you."

"One last question: when should we be waiting for your arrival again?"

"Wait for at least 6 days. After that, I'll fill you in details of the entire thing."

And then it disappeared, leaving me, Luntra and Meqro very confused. We managed to hide in the shelter and all we needed to do at this point is survive a night.

"You need to rest, Luntra," I insisted.

"I'm too scared to," she was almost crying.

"It speeds up your HP regeneration, so don't even think of catching insomnia."

"And I know the chances of another attack like this are lower than the chances of Kuronto getting an actual girlfriend."

That was a very intelligent move indeed. I could not take it as a compliment to not scare Luntra, but I will remember that. And so, it appeared we all saw the same words:

The Night Has Fallen

Well, here we go.