“Who?”

Rushvatte heard Nubram suddenly talk to someone via whisper just when they had defeated a pack of bandits in Dorakkal Forest. The place was a bit different compared to what Rusahvatte had seen so far in the Grand Continent, barring Elian Forest.

To be frank, this place was more akin to Elian Forest with the tall big trees, nice grasses, and also rather warm and fuzzy environment. It’s a bit of a nice change of pace after the pesky marsh area or the overly sunny savannah.

“Whew, Gi, Vin, delete Arkengrad from your friend list.”

Rushvatte frowned. While picking some new equipment from the bandit bodies, he asked, “Who? Why?”

“Pras said that Mana said that Arkengrad is one or Lyra’s gang. They might have spied on our position through her. The two are now rushing towards Ega and Fathan’s location,” Nubram explained. He also checked some items that were shared from group loot.

“Wait.”

Rushvatte opened his friend list and saw the name there, with the location also in Dorakkal Forest. While deleting the person from his list, Rushvatte grunted, “Who’s this? When did I accept her?”

Rushvatte quickly rode on his tiger. He turned to Macepaw who was still doing God knows what. Rushvatte barked, “Vin, don’t just stand around, have you deleted her?”

“No,” Macepaw shook his head. He summoned some sort of goat with long legs.

Nubram, the only one not riding a mount, questioned the other two without heeding Macepaw’s answer, “Why are you guys on mount? [Conjure Portal: Kilran Outpost].”

“Don’t mess around, man,” Rushvatte grumbled to both Nubram and Macepaw while jumping down his mount. He turned to Macepaw once more and ordered, “Delete her!”

“How can I delete another person’s character?”

“Man, I mean delete her from your friend list!”

“Oh, Eggi,” Macepaw chuckled. “Even that I cannot do.”

“What? Man, you could get us killed.”

“Because she’s not even on my friend list.”

Rushvatte couldn’t answer, he was yet again being fooled by Macepaw for all the good intent he had. Nubram, on the other hand, just impassively commented to the elf, “You do entertain his shallowness that much, huh?”

Macepaw laughed happily. He frolicked without a single care about his surroundings, The wooden shield and the club he was holding were swinging around dangerously. There was a malicious green glow on the club. The monitor lizard shape on his helmet also looked happy.

The glow itself reminded Rushvatte of what had happened throughout their levelling experience with the shaman. He didn’t know what kind of element that shaman could wield, but he was pretty sure whatever Macepaw was using were definitely something out of the common elements.

Macepaw was using some corrosive stuff on their opponents, creating some weird havoc, using water abilities that can't be properly controlled, and causing some weird chain reactions.

Rushvatte suddenly shuddered. He felt a malicious intent and looked towards the direction. He saw someone was walking towards them and performed a slashing motion.

“Toy, watch out!”

Nubram cancelled his cast and jumped aside, he barely managed to avoid the crescent shaped light blade coming at him.

“Whoa, you guys have sharp eyes.”

Arkengrad, the person who attacked Nubram earlier, complimented them with a mocking tone. She was a female elf with blonde shoulder length hair, reddish glow in her eyes, glowing plate armour draped under red cloth, armed with a twin sword, and brought some sort of tome on her hips. She had one of those arrogant smiles.

“Dual wield, light based attack, tempest paladin, huh?” Nubram commented, but not loud enough to be heard by Arkengrad.

“Wow, she’s pretty,” said Macepaw abruptly.

Arkengrad held her cheeks with her hand and shook her head shyly. “Aw, don’t be like that, I might hesitate in dicing you all.”

“You mean pretty annoying? [Phantera], [Lightning Grip].”

Light green lines covered Rusahvatte as he dashed forward and morphed into a white tiger. His speed increased significantly as he pounced at Arkengrad.

“You know, I like the handsome and fierce type,” Arkengrad grinned. “But being dumb and reckless is a huge turn off, [Twin Flashing Blades].”

Both her swords glowed. She took a step back and slashed her sword, creating a light blade that struck Rushvatte midair. She also slashed her light blades to split Nubram’s [Blaze Bolt], [Winterblade], and send a few that hit Nubram squarely. All was done while laughing maniacally.

“Seriously? You managed to get away from Lyra? With this kind of mediocrity?”

“Shut up!”

It was not Nubram who countered Arkengrad’s words, but the raging tiger Rushvatte. He attacked once more by lunging forward and slashing past Arkengrad just for his claws to meet the hardened steel of her armour that absorbs most of the damage. Also making Rushvatte’s nails feel painful in the process.

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“You know that panther form can’t do much against plate armour, right? Unless you have one of those special armour penetrating claw weapons.” Arkengrad sighed. She barely moved after Rushvatte’s attack.

“Bear could do some damage since it has shock damage, but they are not that good. [Light Lance].” She raised her sword then stabbed Rushvatte, pinning him to the ground while also using her ability to block another of Nubram’s magic with a light spear. “Then again, I’ll be honest with you, only the swan and wolf form stands out among mystics. Others are… meh.”

“I’m not here to listen to your lecture!” Rushvatte struggled to release himself.

“Lecture?” Arkengrad frowned. “I thought that was toxic enough… whatever.”

She looked at the only person who hadn't attacked her, Macepaw, and asked, “Why are you not trying to help this guy? You don’t care or anything? At least that wizard still tried, you know. Then again, wizards are pretty weak against paladins. [Flashing Blades].”

Arkengrad slashed again, making light blades to block Nubram’s attacks. It was then that Macepaw finally decided to act.

“Oh you mean like this? So uh… how about… [Buckminster Dihydrogen Monoxide].”

Macepaw raised his shield where water quickly condensed. Then, a ball of water was shot from the shield, but not towards Arkengrad.

Arkengrad looked at Macepaw with such wonder. “Yeah, but where are you aiming? I’m right here you know… Ugh!”

Macepaw’s water ball bounced off a tree then hit Arkengrad very hard from behind, causing the blond elf to fall headfirst. Rushvatte was once again free.

“[Crystallise]!”

Nubram took the chance to freeze the already drenched Arkengrad. Meanwhile, Rushvatte jumped back because he was not sure if any damage could break the disabling effect.

“Awesome!” Instead of preparing another spell like Nubram, Macepaw dabbed.

“Why are you dabbing at times like this?” Rushvatte roared. He finally decided to attack right when Nubram’s [Blaze Bolt] hit Arkengrad.

“Ouch, that blue flame hurts. [Unshackle],” Arkengrad moaned. A flash of light exploded from her, removing the freezing effect. “But I have to say that water ball hurts more even though it didn’t damage me much. Weird.”

“This will hurt more, [Bite]!”

Arkengrad blocked Rushvatte biting strike by using her hand. Seeing how Rushvatte was clinging on the bite, she asked curiously, “Are your teeth okay? That’s steel, you know.”

The question enraged Rushvatte, throttling him to commence relentless assault at Arkengrad. Which sadly got blocked or parried with relative ease.

“Oh, I remember,” said Arkengrad she kept toying with Rushvatte, “You are the mystic that Slicer mentioned. He talked trash about you, but your fierceness is interesting.”

Nubram helped with a barrage of [Fireball] or [Winterblade]. Though that didn’t help much to change the situation.

“Ah, come on, don’t you guys have more variety or anything? This kind of skill is barely enough for Clashing Realms.” Arkengrad slashed Rushvatte's belly. She yawned then dashed towards Macepaw. “Anything more interesting than the water ball, shaman?”

“Vin, run!”

Macepaw didn’t heed Rushvatte’s warning. Seemingly oblivious about Arkengrad’s warning, he raised his shield. Water started to condensate on it.

Brandishing her sword, Arkengrad lunged at Macepaw. “Such a move can’t be done in short range.”

Macepaw grinned maniacally. He pulled his shield and questionably leaned forward as if offering his neck for guillotine.

“[Hydrochloric Breath].”

“Hnngh!”

Arkengrad was instantly choked when the reptilian head on Macepaw’s helmet opened its mouth and had puked a substantial amount of white cloud towards the tempest paladin.

“Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha…”

The mad shaman pranced around. There was no huge damage dealt to Arkengrad, but the ability was clearly a dangerous one on another level. Especially towards someone’s mental state. The hindrance caused by Macepaw seemed to give Nubram enough confidence to start conjuring up a portal.

It was then, Macepaw’s madness continued. He stopped prancing. Still with an excited smile, he asked, “Gi, Mrs Lia said when HCl meets with metals, it will release hydrogen gas, right?”

“How can I remember that in this condition?! You better ask Pras!”

Macepaw grinned maniacally, he raised his wooden club and whispered, “[Flicker].”

Seeing the club start to ablaze, Rushvatte warned “You wacko! If there are real hydrogens there, don’t put fire on it!”

The shaman didn’t heed the warning. His eyes were gleaming in maddened glee when he swung the weapon at the dissipating white gases.

A huge explosion happened afterwards. Macepaw’s body got blasted away though there was no real damage to him. Rushvatte anchored his claws to the ground to avoid being thrown away. The person who was in the middle of the explosion was wailing in pain.

“That hurts! [Twin Flashing Blade]!”

Still screaming in pain, Arkengrad slashes around to put down the fire. She quickly dashed at Macepaw with her sword ready to thrust the green orc.

“I’ll dice you into a green burger, maniac!”

“[Chlorophyll Wave].”

Following the swing of the shaman’s hand, a pile of green leaves buried Arkengrad in an instant. There was no apparent damage dealt to the paladin. Even she was being stunned by her own confusion at what the ability actually meant. A huge chance for Rushvatte to close the gap.

“This…” Arkengrad growled, “... What kind of ability is this?!”

Light waves blasted from Arkengrad towards all directions, shoving away all the green leaves. Right when Arkengrad attacked again, Rushvatte pounced at her.

The paladin was able to block the pounce, kicked Rushvatte’s stomach, then slashed his back. Rushvatte landed hard on the ground, but he forced himself to turn and shove Arkengrad’s leg with his.

Miraculously, the paladin was actually tumbled by that.

Rushvatte didn’t know what happened, but he took the risk to attack. Only to be thrown away by a light ball unleashed by Arkengrad.

It was then that Nubram roared a command, “Vin, your smoke thing, now! [Winterblade]”

“It's pointless!” Arkengrad quickly blocked all the ice blades with her sword. However, this time she actually still got slowed.

“Okey-donkey, [Smokesteam].”

“It’s ‘okey dokey’, you…,” Arkengrad fumed as she tried to dash towards Macepaw, but got her feet tripped by Rushvatte’s claw.

Macepaw’s club was ablaze in intense fire while his shield was covered with a lot of water. He smacked the club several times to his shield, causing intense steam to puff to the surrounding area. Rushvatte even had a problem trying to see further than three metres ahead.

Suddenly a hand pulled Rushvatte and he felt his body being teleported. A moment later he was standing near the portal that Nubram had prepared.

“Toy! Alvin is the perfect counter against her, we can win this!” Rushvatte protested to Nubram and Macepaw that was ready to get into the portal.

“No way,” Nubram shook his head. “Both me and you will still have a bad time facing her. Also the damage done by Alvin was not significant.”

“Messing with people is fun,” Macepaw grinned and jumped into the portal.

“Likewise.” Nubram sighed. “I have a lot to learn from you,” he continued before jumping into the portal.

Rushvatte growled. He sensed that Arkengrad was still raging and disoriented in the middle of the intense steam. He considered taking the chance, but remembered that he still needed an armour piercing weapon to do that.

Thus, following the other two, he chose to retreat. Perhaps it was time for him to really take another form.