“[Phantera]![Dash]!”

“Why are you running away?!”

Rushvatte ran away as fast as he could without heeding any words shouted by the orcs. Those must be foul words spoken to lower Rushvatte’s guard or to enrage him.

It was not far from there that Rushvatte saw a svannire with blue-ish feathers named Xildur who was soaring above the trees towards his general direction. Rushvatte admitted that he won’t have the capabilities to fight such high levelled and armoured orc, thus he tried to tell the svannire, “There's an orc warrior behind there!”

Xildur, who apparently didn’t notice Rushvatte’s position at first, suddenly dived towards him. It was there that Rushvatte felt and murderous intent emanated from the swan.

Rushvatte rolled sideways, avoiding three energy balls being thrown by Xildur. Only now he realised there was a burned leaf symbol next to Xildur’s name, the mark of a traitorous elf. This swan must be the ally of that Grok.

Xildur unleashed several icicle blades that Rushvatte managed to avoid once more. The phanternal mystic had seen too much of Nubram’s [Winterblade] to know the weakness of such ice projectiles. Rushvatte then leaped high to avoid the icy wave unleashed when Xildur spun low near the ground.

Rushvatte knew svannire’s were designed to be an agile spellcaster, therefore their casting range was much shorter than typical spellcaster. He also knew the limits of these swans' agility. They won’t be faster than phanternals. The adrenaline rush from trying to survive had pushed his fighting instinct to kick in stronger than the choice of flight.

“[Saber Slam]”

Before Xildur had the chance to fly away, Rushvatte clawed at him. The white tiger spun the helpless svannire midair and slammed it to the ground during landing motion.

“Tsk, only your level is high,” Rushvatte growled, landing more strikes at Xildur with his claws.

However, just as Rushvatte felt that Xildur was such a lousy helpless player, He felt some weird vibration from the glowing swan’s body.

“Get away!”

Something pushed Rushvatte aside, throwing him far to smash a tree. Moments later he heard a loud explosion and someone groaned in pain.

What Rushvatte saw after was unbelievable. The one who pushed him was Grok. The orc kneeled while resting desperately on his zweihander. On the other side, Xildur flew around and indiscriminately unleashed barrages of energy balls.

“Duck, kitty!”

Someone slammed on Rushvatte who was late to realise that one of Xildur’s attack was directed to him. He was saved once again.

“Stay down, kitty, we’ll deal with that pesky one for you,” said Sammy, his saviour, with a rather easy going but deadly tone. She had short hair, dark skin, clearly human, and also clearly a rogue due to the mixed materials of her equipment.

Sami dodged Xildur’s attack and tried to slash him with her dagger, but Xildur also managed to dodge. When Grok tried to block his escape, Xildur unleashed a brief flash of flight and snow haze that blinded everyone for a brief moment.

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And he disappeared.

“Drat, he got away again,” Grok sighed. He then gave a thumbs up at Rushvatte. “You have guts, bro.”

Rushvatte snorted. His muscles tighten up in preparation for a fight. Though these people fought Xildur and saved him, he needed to be a bit careful. He asked, “Who are you guys?”

Plainly, Grok answered, “I’m Grok and she’s Sami.”

“Phlease, Grok, that was not what the kitty meant. You and your division leader are just the same.”

“Esferta? We are not alike at all.”

“Not her, your real leader,” Sami sighed, shaking her head in disappointment. She sheathed her weapons and walked towards Rushvatte. She assured with a warm calming smile like a mother, “We come in peace, kitty. We were here looking for that bastard.”

Rushvatte cowered, he glared at Grok with highly suspicion. Sami seemed to realise that, she cleared her throat and nudged Grok.

“Oh, well,” Grok explained awkwardly, “I was guarding this area yesterday, got bored and logged out. When I logged it, well, you know the condition between orcs and elves, so I got stranded.”

Sami patted Rushvatte on the head. “You see? This sword freak definitely couldn’t devise a smart enough plan to mess with a lower level player. You can trust us kitty.”

“Then what’s wrong with Xildur?” Rushvatte asked while avoiding further patting by Sami.

Grok answered with a rather clearly annoyed tone, “Isn’t it obvious, bro? He’s one of those players that’s messing around with lower levelled ones. How long do they indeed keep this up? What kind of satisfaction did they get from this? They can’t beat equally geared and levelled players, huh, so they turned to weaker ones? What a bunch of noobs.”

Sami chuckled. “Well, Grok, you know Lyra can still beat us fair and square.”

“She’s an exception, bro, why would she hang around these people anyway?”

“Wait, Lyra?” Rushvatte frowned. “No wonder that svannire had that kind of attitude.”

Sami looked at Rushvatte concerningly. “You knew Lyra, kitty, you faced her before?”

“Those bastards kept messing with us. I haven’t met Lyra, but she attacked my friends. The ones I faced were Slicer and Arkengrad.”

“Arkengrad?” Sami let out a long sigh. She put her palms on her face, shaking her head once more. “Why would she do this? I can’t understand that girl's way of thinking.”

“Bro, you know getting out from a whirlpool of toxic people is hard. She might think these people accepted her after what her supposed friends and allies had done to her. Can’t blame her, really.”

“Getting out from one toxic environment just to be stranded in another one, huh?” Sami said in a rather somber voice. “Rosdan was too late in expelling those jerks from Clashing Realms.”

“And look how it has cost us, bro.”

“I know, Grok.”

Rushvatte couldn’t completely understand the whole conversation but he stood around just to listen. The point that he got was that Arkengrad might not be as bad as the other part of the gang. He couldn’t agree much with that but at least Arkengrad were not as detestable as Slicer.

“Anyway about Lyra,” Sami turned to Rushvatte. “If you have any intention of joining Clashing Realms, kitty, don’t randomly accept people in your friendlist. They could be spies to check your location. Also, you better get your friends or anyone to play together. That would be much safer.”

Rushvatte's heart was clearly disturbed by the advice. He had those friends to play together with, but he was avoiding them because that would mean he gotta hang around Manna. And he was not in the mood.

Grok nodded, he tried to convince Rushvatte, “She’s right, bro. Don’t go around alone. I knew someone who is restarting her character. Maybe you could play with her considering your playtime should be around her playtime as well.”

“Who?” Rushvatte frowned. “I already have friends to play with.”

“Oh, good, you can bring her with your friends as well,” Grok answered assuringly. “Her name’s Manna, she’s a guardian paladin.”

Rushvatte was startled. He quickly questioned the two, “You two knew Manna?”

“Bro, you knew Manna?”

“You two answer first!”

Sami exchanged glances with Grok. She smiled lightly when she explained, “His real division leader that I said before, that’s my girl Manna.”

“What? Division leader? How long had she been playing this game?!”