“Veronica!” Yelled a voice. “Veronica!” It continued. “Wake up Veronica!” I woke up. I looked in every direction possible- I was in my room.
I was in my bed, a feeling I never thought I would have again. I saw my picture on the wall, of Casey’s competitions, of the future competitions I was supposed to have.
I positioned my back to rest on the bed frame. I forgot bed frames existed.
“Could I really be back?” I thought. It was finally over. The stress on whether or not the world was a simulation, a Psyop, or any other zany explanation. I could start thinking about other stuff again, maybe making friends or finding a way to actually enjoy school.
All of these things were more important to me than they every were before, more… meaningful.
“Veronica!” This time, my name was succeeded by fits of knocking.
“I’m awake!” I yelled.
“Are you really?” Asked the voice.
I rolled my eyes internally, “I’m talking to you, am I not?”
The voice laughed as it continued to knock on my door, “But are you really?”
“Huh?” I was getting more and more confused.
“I’ll say it one more time. Get. Up.” The voice demanded I awake.
“Get up!” I opened my eyes, I was being woken up by Cardinal while Bike stood aside us.
“I’m awake!” I yelled as I swayed my arms randomly to gain composure.
“Haha!” Cardinal started to laugh. “I thought Undead didn’t sleep.” He said jokingly.
“I could have sworn we didn’t!” I said in response,
Bike sat down before speaking, “Actually, Most Undead don’t need sleep, but vampires and zombies still have human parts intact like their brain; they require far less sleep than living beings, but still need it sometimes.”
“Thanks for the info-dump,” Cardinal said with verbal disinterest.
“You’re welcome!” Bike said enthusiastically.
I got up from my tree and dusted myself off, “Okay, it’s bright out, everything ready?”
Cardinal nodded, “Yeah, Bike packed the stuff we needed while you were asleep. I’m fairly decent with crafting potions, so I made 3 small health potions,” Cardinal ended his sentence with the throw of one of the potions. I caught it and put it in my inventory.
{Inventory Updated}
I would never get the hang of those damn magic words.
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After traversing the Fae Forest for what felt like hours, we finally made it to the road again. The pink and lime of the fairy vines transitioned into the brown and green of the standard forest biomes.
Halfway through the intersection between the normal and Fae forest, I heard a large howling sound echo through the forest. It terrified the hell out of me.
Cardinal’s ears twitched, “You guys heard that too?”
Me and Bike nodded before quickly joining Cardinal in hiding behind a tree. Nothing happened for a few minutes, but then the howling started again. It was a violent howl, like something was dying.
“What do you think that is?” I asked Cardinal.
“Wolves or something? I don’t know.”
Bike stuck his head out slowly, “Maybe an animal is sick?”
Cardinal had a stroke of genius and remembered what we had just learned, “Didn’t you literally just become nature guy or something closer to Druid?”
“Yeah,” I added.
Bike got visibly annoyed and winced at the statement. “I’m pretty sure I don’t have any skills to use, I just got this class after all.”
Before anyone could respond, rustling took the place of the howling. Within minutes of the rustle, a decently sized pack of wolves, some injured, ran past us and into the foliage of the forest on the other side.
“I think that’s our answer!” Bike said.
“Great, our answer is that whatever was causing those wolves to stress out is coming our way!”
“Shh, guys!” I said in a feeble attempt to get our cover to stay hidden.
Moments passed, and then it showed itself.
“Oh no…” Cardinal said.
Bike trembled as he stood between us and behind the tree.
The body was so large that it forced every branch and twig out of it’s way. It was an injured Wither. The wolves did some damage but not enough to win.
“Okay, I’m a rookie Druid Path follower, but isn’t that a Wither?”
I nodded in confirmation.
Wither were corrupt beings of nature, sometimes invading the Fae Forest to take revenge on them for the wrongdoings of the First Fae King. The only reason I remembered that lore is because I spent so much time here.
“Plan?” I asked Cardinal.
“Nope. How bout’ you?”
“Same answer,” I said.
“I-I think we have to fight it,” Bike said as he eyed the feet of the Wither. The mangled abomination had gotten even closer to us. Wither have the ability to talk to plants, a twisted version of the Druid’s ability to do so. Hiding from it was pointless.
I stepped out and ran. I know Wither do Nature and dark damage, with a mix of attacks from Undead bosses. My skeletons do physical damage, making them mostly resistant to the dark damage of Withers.
Without hesitating, I started my half-assed attempt at a plan.
“Summon Skeletons!” I yelled as 3 skeletons unearthed and ran towards the Wither. The damage spread across my view as they tore at its body, a body made of dead plant life and animals, notably wolves.
[-10 -10 -10]
Taking my opportunity of having an activated “Stat Sight,” I looked at the Wither’s health.
[ HP:10,000/15,000]
“Holy Shit!” I said instantly.
“What?” Bike yelled out with the shared concern of him and Cardinal.
They didn’t have the ability to see stats like me, for whatever reason, so I didn’t say. “Nothing.”
After their initial few hits, my skeletons were easily dispatched by the swift swipe of the Wither. I turned to Bike as i continued to run, “Use a light attack!” I yelled.
He nodded despite his fear being visible and cast a light spell.
[-50]
The number in yellow gave me some dopamine, but It wasn’t helpful in my predicament. I knew one hit from the Wither would be the end of me.
Cardinal joined the battle, throwing his daggers to chip at the health, all of which was useless.
After some running, the Wither had chased me nearly back into the Fae Forest we had just left.
“Shit,” I started thinking. “We just promised we would lessen the damage done to the Fae Forest; leading a Wither into it would definitely destroy that idea.”
I was ready to succumb, there was still no way the Nature Spirit could do anything about this, Her skills were useless against the Wither.
“My apologies,” A voice said loudly.
I looked up, seeing a trail of red-orange fabric coming from the air. The figure touched the ground, revealing themselves as a witch-hat wearing person with bandaged hands.
“Fire Blast!” As the person spoke, their surrounding area illuminated with the light of burning hot flames. The flames gathered and shot out into a ball, hitting the Wither dead on.
[-1000]
The Wither yelled in anguish before swinging again!
“Air Blast!” Within an instant, the wizard and lifted themselves over the branchy arm, giving them the room to finish off the Wither.
“Fire Blurry” With those final words, the air heated into visible red segments, each bouncing from one to another. They contacted with the Wither and decimated it, leaving nothing behind.
The flames were so bright, I didn’t even dare to look at the aftermath of it all.
I opened my eyes to see the outreached hand of the wizard.
“You okay there?” They asked.