'I can't believe she actually took the time to find another player and come back for me. This is ridiculous!' Ryan thought to himself as he ran for his life. What crime did he even commit? He did not want to team up with a stranger. Did that really require such a disproportionate response?
But, in all honesty, he also wasn't all that surprised. He had already experienced a lot of things in life like this. At the lowest point in his life, when he lost the use of half his body and his father, several people still kicked him. This was just the way the world worked.
Most people took pleasure in kicking a dog while it was down. The woman who was chasing him was no exception to this rule. She wanted revenge because he had rejected her. She probably wanted to teach him a lesson for noticing her true colors despite her outward appearance.
From the looks of it, she also had the power to get it as well. She actually brought with her a high-level player to deal with him a beginner player! Such an overkill!
Ryan smiled. Even if that was the case he did not plan to simply bend over and let himself get screwed. It might be an impossible situation but he was at least going to put up a fight and if not take down that player along with him. He skipped over the rocks and the tree branches and continued running forward without stopping or turning back.
The only plus point Ryan had was that he had sensed them coming a mile away, so he was able to react in time and sort of form a rough plan about how to tackle this situation. However, forming a plan was one thing, and executing it was an entirely different thing.
Ryan could tell that the player was probably level 25 or higher because he was currently gaining on him with ease. If this continued on, he would be caught and killed in no time. Before that could happen, he needed to reach the destination he had in mind which was nothing but the herd of boars he had seen a while back.
Ryan's plan was simple. He couldn't outrun this player and looking at his colorful gear, he probably had no way of defeating him. So he decided to go with the next best thing, lure him and trap him! For this, the herd of boars was the perfect target! He was almost there.
"Just a couple more seconds. I need to hold on." Ryan ran as fast as he could, physically pushing himself as much as possible. The player who was chasing him was barely a few feet away but the next second he arrived at the spot. Now his plan actually had a chance to work!
Ryan immediately made a beeline to the group, especially near the tail end but without getting too close to them and definitely not aggroing them. However, once he crossed them, he immediately started moving closer to them from the other side, still making sure not to aggro the boars.
On the other hand, the guy who was chasing him didn't properly observe the surroundings. He seemed to be frustrated with Ryan as he directly chased him, heading right into the aggro range of the boars.
"Fuck!" Martin suddenly put the brakes. It did not help as it was already too late. All the boars glared at him with rage and fury. The entire herd turned toward him and started rearing their front legs, ready to pounce and attack. "Damn it." Martin started sweating. Now he understood Ryan's ploy. The guy was aiming for this right from the beginning and hence had run away in a mad rush, trapping him with these boars.
These boars were in fact simply Level 5 and Level 6 boars and under normal conditions weren't that difficult to handle. After all, Martin was Level 30. But the problem right now was that he was completely exhausted! After chasing behind Ryan for so long, that too constantly running with his heavy tank gear, he only had 20% stamina left.
He quickly pulled up his inventory to see if he had any stamina potions left, but that was a dead end. They had just cleared a dungeon that morning and all of his potions were used up.
"God damn it. Am I really going to get killed by a fucking noob?" Martin cursed his bad luck. He did not care too much about one death but this was going to completely destroy his reputation in front of Sara. He let out a sigh and seeing all the boars rush towards him with mad rage, he pretty much resigned to his bad luck when he suddenly remembered something important. That was right! He had that scroll!
Martin hurriedly opened his inventory again and took out a magic scroll. This was a common-tier scroll that had cost him 50 silver coins and he purchased it specifically for dealing with the third dungeon boss. But now unexpectedly, it could help him out here. This scroll was the perfect answer to all of his problems!
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Seeing Ryan grin at him, enjoying his miserable plight, Martin slowly curled his lips upward. "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER! Take this reverse card!" Shouting loudly, he tore the scroll into two halves, thereby activating the magic.
[Divine Reflection]
Immediately, Martin began glowing with a bright light surrounding him. The boars who saw this unexpectedly stopped in their tracks. They seemed to look confused and the next second, something even more ridiculous happened. They turned around and all of their reddened eyes locked onto Ryan!
Ryan was extremely confused. What was happening right now? He was clearly outside the aggro range for the bears, so even if they did not continue attacking the other guy, they shouldn't be turning towards him? However, looking at the big grin on his opponent's face and at the several boars all snarling at him now, he knew that he did not have time to think about these things and analyze them. He immediately turned to run.
"Run! Run! You little bitch! Let me see how you are going to outrun a horde of boars!" Martin shouted. With a satisfied grunt, he then started walking back in a different direction. At the same time, he opened his system interface and checked Sara's location. Weirdly, it was at the nearest graveyard. Hmmm? He narrowed his eyes, but then he broke into a huge smile.
"Woah! She really has a lot of confidence in me. I'm guessing she knew I'd kill that idiot and is already waiting for me there." He rolled his shoulders and started to jog towards the graveyard with a big smile. Now the true show was going to start.
In 'Mana Online', a dead player respawned in the nearest graveyard, but the problem was that, they wouldn't be able to log out for at least 5 minutes after resurrection. In these 5 minutes, the player could once again be attacked and killed at the same spot, making death very punishing in the game.
Thankfully, after the second death, especially if a player is killed at the graveyard itself, they respawn at the nearest village or town. So the vicious chain of getting killed again and again did not continue, but dying twice in itself was a huge handicap as each death cost an attribute point. Especially at the beginning stage, this was brutal.
When Martin arrived at the graveyard, he flashed a big smile at the woman waiting for him, only to find out that she was still grumpy. "What's up? I killed that guy. He should be spawning here any second now."
"Fine." Sara gritted her teeth and replied back with an annoyed expression. Wondering what was wrong now, Martin silently stood near her. It looked like they had to wait a bit so he opened his system interface to clear some notifications. Finally, he noticed! One of the notifications was…
Now he understood the real reason why Sara was waiting for him at the graveyard. She had actually died. "Ah… What happened?" Martin apologetically ruffled his hair. "What do you mean what happened? You left me alone in a Level 10 area! What do you think will happen!" Sara huffed. Because of the idiot's blunder, she had actually died. So she was pretty pissed off at him.
Martin, on the other hand, was speechless. What an unreasonable woman! How was this his fault? She should have never stepped into the Level 10 zone in the first place if she wasn't confident enough. How was he responsible for her lack of talent?
Nevertheless… "Ahem. Sorry about that. At least you will get your revenge." He awkwardly tried to console her. Thankfully for him, Sara sighed and nodded instead of shouting at him again. The two of them then began to wait for the main chief guest of the event.
Meanwhile… Ryan was frantically looking around as he had absolutely no clue what to do next. He was running wildly but the boars seemed to be impossible to shake off. They were also right on his ass and were going to catch up to him anytime now. "Damn it. I am screwed. I can't run anymore." He noticed a rather large tree a few feet away from him and sprinted there using the last couple of seconds he had.
He fumbled sloppily and climbed the tree, barely managing to reach the lowest branch when the boars arrived. They fully surrounded him and the tree he was currently stranded on. "Hmmm?" Ryan bitterly smiled at the situation he was in. Were they going to at least leave him now?
As if answering his question, the boars started roaring and ramming their heads against the tree trunk. Yup, they clearly had no plans of leaving until and unless he was dead. With several boars charging at the thick tree trunk one after the other, everything shook and Ryan was vibrating along with it.
The tree he originally thought was big and sturdy did not seem like it was going to hold on for much longer. He was definitely going to die if he didn't do something. No wonder the dude who was chasing him casually walked away without even checking if he was dead or not. These boars were a 100% sure-shot death trap.
Ryan gritted his teeth and lowered himself slowly. He did not want to give up just like that. He clung onto the tree for his dear life and then tried clawing at the nasty bastards from above. Slash! He managed to land a hit!
-60
"Not bad!" Ryan grinned. He also had cut past the hard skin and actually drew blood. If he could somehow keep this up then he would really be able to kill a boar even from this uncomfortable location! If he kept going at it, he could eventually finish off all the boars surrounding him and gain a lumpsum of experience points!
Perhaps this situation was not bad after all!
However, the light of hope he saw at the end of the tunnel flickered and died even before he could land the second attack. The injured boar cleverly moved back and allowed its fellow herd member to take its place. The new one charged at the tree with a mad craze and fully brimming with energy. The tree once again shivered and trembled. There were also cracks starting to show now.
Ryan was completely speechless. Why were these boars so intelligent? It looked like his plan wouldn't be that easy to execute.