-Aries Home-

I reached home and it's already dark. I went inside and it seems that they haven't still taken their dinner yet. I prepared a good meal for us. I called them and took our dinner.

Ugh... I'm really exhausted. My body is not used to long travels. I should probably do some exercises when I have the time. As soon as I finished doing what I have to do, I entered the game.

-Near Crystal Cave-

(WARNING: Mana and energy regeneration is slightly reduced due to coldness. Fatigue increases slightly.)

Ugh... it's so cold. I forgot that the temperature is different from the real world. It's really hard to get used to this kind of climate. Hmmm...

*CLANG! SLASH! CLANG!* I heard sword slashes not far from here. It sounds like a familiar type of swordsmanship. I have a clue but still not sure.

I slowly checked the area and dead wolves and raw blood can be seen everywhere. I knew it. She's the only one who hates these wolves.

(MAISIE / BERSERKER RANK: A)

"AWOOOOH!" Wolves surrounded her and in an instant but she managed to kill every single one of them with her mysterious kind of sword style techniques.

(WARNING: Hostile player is nearby.)

*SWOOSH!* Ugh! A dagger flew aiming for my head. She attacked me out of nowhere. I somehow managed to dodge it, it was a surprise attack from her. Why did she attack me? What the heck?!

I am really far from her but she managed to detect where I was and not only that, she also attacked me in a blink of an eye. If it wasn't for my instincts, a dagger would be sticking through my skull by now.

"Hey hey... wait a minute there. I'm not here to fight. I am just checking what is happening around here," I answered but...

"..." She didn't answer. She readied her fighting stance and lashed out a powerful slash wave.

There's no way I can defend from a powerful attack like that! Even my shield can't handle that kind of power.

"Shade! Help me!" I asked shade to help me out.

*SWOOSH!* Her attack just passed right through my body. Shade activated his passive that enables me to ignore physical attacks. Her attack cut trees behind me like they were nothing. Damn, that was one scary attack.

"You want to fight huh. DARKNESS!" I used one of my spell that hinders her sight while trying to sneak to get near her.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"DARK FLAME SLASH!" I aimed for her body trying to inflict a server injury so she won't have the chance to counter back.

*BOOOOOM!* What?! She parried my attack and my spell created an explosion.

After that, I looked at her and she only received a minor injury on her shoulder. She's one tough opponent. A normal player would be already unconscious from that attack.

"I think we should stop this fight," I said while not lowering my guard. It's bad if she uses one of her techniques again. My voice triggered her senses and decided to attack again.

*SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH!* Three consecutive waves flew in my direction! Damn. Her accuracy is really great making her attacks so hard to avoid. But because she can't see me and her attacks were just random, I managed to avoid all of it. She's insanely dangerous and this needs to stop!

"TITAN'S DARK EXPLOSION!" I readied my powerful attack to end the fight but...

(WARNING: Mana is getting low.)

"BASILISK WRATH! SCALE OF PROTECTION!" Someone protected her from my attack with a giant shield made of earth element large enough to protect both of them. It was made out of solid rock that looks like a scale.

*BOOOOOOOM!*

It was Sieg! Why the hell did he stop my attack? Thanks to him, though, it prevented me from killing someone.

"Oops. That was a really dangerous spell, Scy. I'm sorry for the trouble my little sister had caused," Wait, what? Is she really his little sister? Damn, I didn't know...

"I'm sorry too. It's just that your sister is really aggressive. She almost killed me a couple of times earlier," His sister slowly walked away from us. She's nuts for being so aggressive!

"Well, she has some social problems. She doesn't really like to talk much and she's a bit competitive. This happened a lot of times. Most of the travelers she met ended up dead. And I'm here to escort her back to the stronghold before she kills anyone again. I'm really sorry again about my sis' behavior," Well, that was a pain in the ass. If my sis was like that, I don't know what to do. He really cares for his sister.

"Don't worry about it. Anyway, thanks to you. I thought I almost killed her from my last move. I'll make sure to hold back a bit next time," That move actually used a lot of my mana. If it wasn't for him, I could have lost the battle if she survived from that attack.

"You take care of yourself out here. I heard, you guys are now wanted and there's a reward on your heads. Bounty hunters must be lurking around and waiting for you to let your guard down," Wow, I never thought of that.

"Thanks for the warning, Sieg. Don't get killed by your own sister! See you later," We bid our farewells.

-Wolves Area-

A couple of minutes have passed, the guys just logged into the game.

"Hey guys, you were late. I almost got killed earlier," I whispered to them.

"Jeez, where are you? We will meet you there," Elou asked.

"I'm here at the Wolves area where we met the girl wearing a red hood and slaughtering the wolves,"

They came really fast because it's not that far.

"I thought you said you almost got killed? You don't even have any injuries. But this place really looks wrecked," Elou looked around the place. The place got wrecked because of our attacks and skills that destroyed some trees.

"The girl wearing the red hood was Sieg's little sister. She attacked me without any warnings so I fought back. I almost killed her, thanks to Sieg, he saved her. I almost did something terrible," I explained to them.

"Well, at least both of you were alive. There're no hard feelings right?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I hope so. It was her fault, not mine. I tried attacking her to cause minor injuries but she's tougher than I thought. Anyway, let's just continue our training and hunt some bosses for you guys before the tournament," I suggested.

"Sure! Let's go train ourselves and win the tournament!" Akko shouted with enthusiasm.

-Vanguard's Stronghold-

After days of training, hunting dozens of bosses and doing our best, I hope we are all ready to challenge the most powerful players in the world of New Life Online!