Several minutes passed by before Astrid finally managed to collect herself. All the while, Hazel had to witness her partner go through the five stages of grief, helpless to do anything since she knew that the dark elf would be unable to listen to her while in that state of mind.
Thankfully, that phase was over but now Astrid was sitting on an intact stool chair with her face buried in her arms over the bar counter. As soon as she went to the final stage, which was acceptance regarding her current situation, the dark elf miraculously moved back a stage, ending up back in depression and was currently at her lowest point.
While her current depression stage wasn’t as bad as her initial one, Hazel couldn’t help but feel awkward while staring at her Partner, whose current situation was beyond screwed up. But, she also knew that wasting more time here after finally leaving the Tutorial Dungeon wouldn’t solve anything either.
“Astrid,” Hazel calmly called out to her partner. “I understand that you’re upset, but we need to focus on our current situation.”
“And what situation is that?” The dark elf snapped, jerking her head out of her arms to face Hazel with a glare. “The fact that I’m in some unknown land that I have no knowledge of? The fact that I’m probably miles away from my home? Oh, or is it maybe the fact that even if I try and find my way back, something is going to get in my way at every damn turn?!”
Hazel took a slight step back, feeling the seething rage radiating off of Astrid. It looked like she reverted to the second stage of grief; anger. Despite their current problem, a part of Hazel wondered if Astrid would enter the Bargaining or Denial stage again.
Putting that pointless and unnecessary thought aside, Hazel focused on attempting to calm down the dark elf.
“Look, I know that this isn’t what either of us expected. But we can still fix it, alright?”
Astrid scoffed. “Oh, really? And how are we going to fix this, huh? There’s no way for us to navigate our way to my tribe. You wanna know why? Because our worlds were fused, causing a planetary Terraformation! That means maps are useless and so is our common geographical knowledge of our worlds! So, tell me how are we going to solve this problem of mine?”
Hazel hesitated to respond, knowing that everything that Astrid just said was more or less correct. Since their worlds were merged into one, their current maps are useless since there are currently no records of the geographical landscape of this new planet.
To make matters worse, Astrid’s tribe could be on the opposite side of the globe from them, so they had no real way of getting there at the moment. Hazel wasn’t sure if any of the vehicles from her world like cars, boats, and planes even worked after the System Integration.
Then again, they could also just have Nycteris fly them to Astrid’s location, but something told Hazel that this wasn’t going to be enough to ease the Dark elf’s rage. So, her best hope of getting through to Astrid was simply calming her down reason with her like before.
“Our worlds may have merged, but there’s likely a way for us to figure out-”
“What’s there to figure out, Thatcher?!” Astrid snapped, flailing her arms around dramatically in a fit of anger. “Even if we find my way home, it’ll take forever to do so, and probably even longer to get there in the first place!”
“It’s better than us just sitting around and complaining about it the whole damn time!” Hazel snapped back, finally losing her patience with Astrid. “I’m trying to help you here, alright? So, the least you can do is cooperate with me so we can fix this problem together.”
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“Yeah, and that’s the problem!”
Hazel’s eyes widened as she was taken aback by Astrid’s words before they narrowed angrily. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”
“What do you think? I wouldn’t be in this situation if I hadn’t teamed up with you! It’s your fault that I’m stuck here now!”
“My fault?!” Hazel repeated, sounding offended. “How was any of this my fault? I didn’t know about the stupid party teleportation!”
“Yeah, well, if I hadn’t joined your stupid party, none of this would’ve happened! The fact that I even encountered you was a mistake!”
Hazel scoffed after hearing this. “A mistake, huh? I think you meant to say a blessing, considering I’m the reason why you’re still alive.”
“Oh, so you’re calling yourself a blessing now?”
“Damn right! Because, in case you’ve forgotten, if I hadn’t shown up when I did, you would’ve been slaughtered by that group of Orcs back in the Forest Island. So, yeah, you’re alive because I risked my life to save your sorry ass.”
Hazel wasn’t fond of bringing up such a petty thing like her saving Astrid when they first met, but after hearing the Dark elf blame her, she couldn’t help but utter such a retort. That was how infuriated she was with her partner.
“Maybe I would’ve been better off being killed by those damn Orcs than being saved by some human who stranded me away from my home!”
The two players glared at one another, seething from their argument. Neither of them made a move, but both of them wanted to. They felt a strong urge to pick a fight with one another as if believing that venting their frustration out on the other would quell the boiling rage blazing within them.
Astrid tightly clenched her hands while Hazel cautiously flexed her fingers, preparing to cast a spell at a moment’s notice. Their standoff continued as each player readied themselves for a fight against the other.
In the background, Nycteris prepared himself as well as he crouched low, getting into a pouncing position. He let out a low growl while intently glaring at the dark elf, knowing that if she made a single move against his master, he would be there to not only stop it but also possibly stop her. Permanently.
Astrid took a brief glance at the Nightwing before focusing back on Hazel, keeping her eyes trained on both threats.
“You sure you want to try this, Astrid?” Hazel asked with a cold and menacing tone.
“I sure as hell am thinking about it...”
While Hazel felt hesitant to pick an actual fight with Astrid, she wasn’t going to be stupid enough to get killed over her aversion. If she was forced to take on the dark elf, then she would do it in a heartbeat.
And just when the tension had reached its limit...a third party reared its ugly head.
All of a sudden, something burst through one of the intact walls of glass before piercing the ground next to Hazel and Astrid. The two players momentarily stopped glaring to turn their attention to the object that was thrown in the coffee shop.
Looking down, they saw a long spear lodged into the tile floor. It was six to seven feet tall with a red ribbon wrapped near the shaft of the weapon. The player pair stared at the spear for a few moments, both of them curious regarding its origin.
Then, Astrid was the first to turn in the direction where the weapon was thrown as Hazel followed suit. Looking out the shattered window, they then witnessed a large group of bulky green monsters from across the street from the shop.
They wore battle armor like chest plates, bracers, and helmets while wielding a variety of weapons from spears, swords, battle axes, and bows and arrows. They looked like a tribal warrior army.
Hazel and Astrid instantly knew what they were facing. It was the very same species they fought back in the Tutorial Dungeon. Even without the glaring purple cracks spiderwebbing across their bodies that displayed their rapidly deteriorating vessels, they were able to identify their enemies.
“Oh, great...Orcs,” Hazel groaned as her shoulders slumped in annoyance.
“Out of all the monsters that could’ve interrupted us, it had to be those bastards of all things,” The dark elf fumed, narrowing her eyes at the tribe of Orcs.
Seeing their new targets, Hazel and Astrid glared out the window and directly at the Orcs before them. Just then, a small group of Archers emerged from the group and presented themselves before the players.
They readied their bows, aiming right at the coffee shop where their targets were. And a moment later...they fired.