Callie logs into ROW. She checks an update notice. “So they added parrots as an obtainable familiar. That is kind of cool but I don’t see why they didn’t add them when they added pirates in the first place. Parrots and pirates are kind of a package deal. The parrots are not so tough in terms of stats but they have the ability to copy three spells per battle.”

“That is a really strong ability for a familiar. I can see why they need a casting limit. The summoner class players are going to have a field day with this kind of effect. Speaking of summoners I wonder if Heli is going to get a parrot. It would add some variety to her limited skill set.”

Callie scrolls along. “They added angels as playable characters! That is cool! The update also adds a few new classes such as Trapper that angels have the option to unlock by default whereas other characters must accept quests from angels to unlock the classes. I wonder who discovered angels in game. There is no way that my discovery of a museum painting was significant enough for the developers to drop an update.”

“Kind of annoying though since I will have more enemies to worry about with an elemental advantage that works both ways. Light being strong against dark and vice versa.”

Callie logs into ROW and her character wakes up in the sleeping bag in Heli’s apartment where she last left off. There are a few obvious differences that she notices.

“Why is this place such a mess? There are feathers, bread, and soda spills everywhere! Heli kept her apartment all nice and tidy. She is going to be so mad when she returns.”

Zinnia drops a set of playing cards in her hands onto a table. “Callie, It is about time that you woke up! We need to leave the city! There are some fallen angels after us and they are going to know that we are connected thanks to the magic that we share. They will attack you too."

“Nice to see you too, Zinnia. So tell me, who is that? Either I have dementia or she wasn’t here yesterday night.”

There is another girl in the room with white hair and a single angel wing.

“Hello! Peri Nonya!”

“Is that your name? Peri Nonya? Nonya, Non-ya, like none-ya business. Ha, good one Einstein. Very funny.”

Peri starts to cry. Days of repressed emotions swell and burst through the dam containing them. “Why are you making fun of me? That is not funny! I don’t even know you and the first thing you do is make fun of me! What did I ever do to you? First the angels keeping the pirates in cages, and the pirates holding a sword to my neck, and now this? Is there no pleasant place in the world below the heavens?”

“Sorry, sorry! I thought you were making a rude and cheesy joke that I have already heard a hundred times before. Forgive me! Why is my earnest apology working? Uuuuuuuhhhhh? Okay then how about a peace offering?”

Peri cuts apart a so called ‘can of fruits’ that is actually a decorated slice of cake previously bought at the Wonder Mall.

“So as I was saying, my name is Peri Nonya and I am angel! It is nice to meet you!”

“An actual angel! Where did you come from? Who discovered you? What happened to your other wing? I thought that was a cosmetic item because you only have one of them!”

“Huh? What? I don’t want to talk about my wing!”

Zinnia replies, “That is an adventurer thing! Kind of like a fun game. Something that I do not entirely understand myself either. I guess me and Melissa discovered her. We got into a lot of trouble yesterday when we went out to explore an island in the sky. There were some fallen angels keeping some parrots and pirates locked away in a bird cage. We fought with a monster called the Parrot of Envy at first but later realized that the fallen angels were unjustly punishing the innocent offspring of criminals.’ The original sinners had already perished in the cage from old age.”

“We decided to rescue the captives instead and so the ‘pirates’ set off in various directions. Envy is feeling under the weather after being cooped up for so long and is not able to fly very far yet. so they are currently hiding away at an elven city in the forest near here."

Callie responds, “So let me get this straight. So far we have fought with the Centipede of Greed, fought with some Tick of Gluttony underlings, and you have fought with the Parrot of Envy. Are we looking to pick a fight with all seven sins just for smirks and giggles? Well we can cross out sloth because I would feel bad about fighting a sloth. We can cross out lust because there is no way I am coming within restraining order distance of anything called lust.”

Callie counts the number of sins on her fingers. “And now we have run into a feud between pirates and fallen angels spanning across at least two generations or more. Sounds like fun. I think I know just the right place where a bunch of pirates could fit in. Not a boat but they will just have to take anything they can get until they can get back on their feet. Or until they can at least afford a boat of their own.”

Callie stores her sleeping bag into her inventory. “Alright. I am ready to set out. First things first, we better make a quick stop at the wonder mall to pick up the custom gear we request yesterday. We are going to need all the help we can get for the precarious journey ahead of us. Could you wake up Melissa?”

Zinnia replies, “If you say so. Shield Bash!”

“No!”

Melissa wakes up to a very unpleasant alarm clock. She simultaneously hisses, leaps out of her seat, and scratches Zinnia in a moment of sheer panic.

A moment later and Melissa soothes her frayed nerved with a cup of tea. There is a very visible bruise on her face. “You don’t have to do that! I may be asleep but I am not suffering from the negative status condition of inflicted sleep! Remember next time that I don’t need to take damage to wake up from this kind of sleep!"

“Sorry. Humanoids are so complicated and difficult to understand.”

Moments later and the party travels to the Wonder Mall lead by Melissa as she is the only rogue in the party.

Melissa peeks around a corner. “You were right. There fallen are angels lurking around everywhere on the city streets and some of them are even searching through stores. Thankfully we came here yesterday and more or less know about all the niche secret areas of the maze-like mall. We should have no trouble avoiding them here.”

The fallen angels are different than Peri. They do not have majestic pairs of wings. Instead of boneless wings, they have wingless bones. That is to say that they have wings that are just bare bones like skeletons without any feathers.

Melissa states, “They left to the next room. Come on while we have the chance to slip past.”

The party make their way to the jewelry store where the proprietor is a jackal that accepted a custom item request. They present Callie with an earring. A rare ‘Ingot of Greed’ was given to the merchant. The item crafted from the ingot is called an ‘Eerie Earring of Greed’ and is a rare tier item. The color of the item is purple as all greed series items tend to be. The shape of the earring is a simple small disk not to be confused with a hoop earring because there is no gap in the center.

Callie equips the earring. “The active ability that this item grants is incredible! I cannot wait to test this ability in combat! The ability reminds me of a type of skill that a thief might use. Maybe you can teach me how to use this kind of ability properly, eh Melissa?”

Melissa takes a proud stance. “Of course! With a teacher as excellent as me, you will get the hang of timing the skill in no time! I just hope that you aren’t scared of projectiles flying at your face all the time.”

Callie cannot help but prod and poke the earring. “With this earring I have collected three pieces of the greed series of items and I have permanently unlocked a new branch of skills for my disciple class too. I still have to spend skill points to unlock anything though. So the gimmick of this class seems to be that I am so damn greedy. The more items I have from the series, the more skill options I unlock for the class. A funny play on part of the game developers.”

Peri looks nauseous. She asks, “You are just going to wear that gross item like some kind of morbid accessory around your ear? How are you so comfortable doing this? What has life in the world of ROW come to with the absence of pure angels?"

The jackal interrupts. “That’s what I said!”

Callie playfully teases. “I am just evil and malicious like that.”

Callie poses in an innocent manner obviously teasing her party. A phantom eyeball appears on the earring in stark contrast to her cute demeanor that everybody but Callie seems to be aware of. A pudgy and grotesque phantom hand of Greed gently drapes over her shoulder like an adult proudly patting their child.

The next place the party stops at is the Cursed Forge blacksmith shop in the same mall where there is a blacksmith that is dressed in dark armor that makes them seem like a heavy armor version of a witch. She presents Zinnia with light boots that are purple in color and named ‘Light Boots of Greed’. The main material used to craft the item was a rare tier ‘Ingot of Greed’ provided by the blacksmith and lighter less important metals and materials such as steel included in the price of forging the item. The quality of the boots results in a rare tier item that replaces her uncommon boots.

Zinnia proudly flaunts her new shoes. She steps on a footstool and then walks around the shop to get used to them. “Now I have better boots! They are moderately better in terms of stats compared to my old set and they do not grant as severe of a movement penalty as equipping the ‘heavy’ alternative would. I like them a lot!”

Callie calls out, “Hey, Zinnia! Equip my earrings really fast and let me borrow your boots for a second. There we are. Even more skill tree options unlocked. We still need some pants, a shirt, and a helmet. A wand counts as a weapon which is the same case for my dagger. A shield unlocks the same branch of the skill tree that our weapons do so there is no need to swap those around.”

“But I want to! I want to try your cool dagger!”

“Okay, sure. If that makes you happy.”

Zinnia waves Callie’s dagger around like a wand as though she were casting spells. She has a childish and goofy smile on her face.

The party steps out of the store and cautiously make their way to the nearest exit to the Wonder Mall. Melissa takes the lead. She uses a small pocket sized mirror to peek around one of the corners. She gets really unlucky and sees the reflection of a group made of three fallen angels standing a few feet away.

One of the fallen angels leans in for a better view. “What is this?”

Melissa swiftly retracts her mirror and then pounces around the corner. She throws a dagger dealing twenty percent damage.

Melissa states, “We got really unlucky. There is no avoiding this encounter so we take them down quickly and silently. Then we keep moving.”

One of the angels shouts, “There they are! The blasted mage tank and rogue that freed the pirates! They have a new party member as well!”

A pair of fallen angels both cast, “Holy Light!" A ray of light shines down in a wide and nearly unavoidable circle. Peri resists the damage and takes sixteen percent damage. Melissa takes twenty percent damage thanks to the area of effect type of attack. Callie and Zinnia are weak against the element and take twenty four percent damage.

An angel wielding a sword attempts to slash at Melissa. Melissa nimbly avoids the swing of a sword with a quick back step. She drastically outpaces the swordsman with her impressive speed and cat-like reflexes.

Melissa throws a dagger in return while continuing her backwards retreat. The swordsman flinches a little as they take twenty percent damage.

The swordsman then advances with their arm extended and points at Melissa. They shout, “Grounding Chains!"

Melissa makes a confused expression. “A swordsman casting magic? You don’t even have a wand! How do you expect to deal any damage?”

Melissa hears the sound of some metallic clanking by her feet. Metal chains burst from the ground and aim for Melissa. She leaps out of the way and against the nearby wall where she hangs on with one arm. The chains do not rest for long. They redirect and aim for her again. They force her to leap off the wall and to a new spot. The chains then disappear from the battlefield after their second failed attempt to strike anything.

The swordsman lunges and are attacked by Melissa’s next thrown dagger that meets them halfway. The swordsman is unable to block the attack but they tank the twenty percent damage and continue their lunge that closes the distance between the two sides.

The swordsman slashes Melissa for twenty percent damage.

“Who said anything about dealing damage with magic? I will cut you down when you cannot move!”

Melissa replies, “Again with the cages and chains! You are such a pain in the—."

Melissa does not have the time to finish her sentence as she watches the swordsman move their sword. She preemptively slashes the swordsman with her dagger.

The swordsman raises their sword high in the air. They shout, “Brutal Strike!"

Melissa quickly draws her pistol previously gifted to her by Melody the pirate. Melissa fires. She shouts, “Lucky Shot!" The attack lands a critical hit dealing double damage that defeats the fallen angel.

By the time that Melissa has defeated her opponent her party members have defeated the rest.

Regret quickly forms into an expression as Melissa realizes what she has done. “Shoot! I was the one who said we should be quiet in the first place! I am so sorry, everybody! The eerie name of their unfamiliar skill made me panic. We better get out of here before they respawn.”

More fallen angels wandering through the mall make their way over to the sound of loud gunfire. One of them sees the wanted party and exclaims, “After them!”

The party makes a mad dash into one of the shops. They appear on a second floor visible to the floor below them. The fallen angels fly in pursuit only to chase them into a dead end store. The party then appears a moment later from a store on the opposite side of the hall.

The party runs into a weapon store chased by angels. The angels run out of the weapon store chased by the mages using the Hand of Greed spell to indirectly wield colossal two-handed hammers each at level one hundred. The scene soon looks like a game of wack a mole. Each slow attack misses by a wide margin but shatters the mall’s stone floor. The effects of Hand of Greed run out soon enough and the hammers drop to the floor and create a massive crater where they land.

An angry blacksmith exits the store shouting, “Thieves! Come back here with those hammers! I just finished repairing them!"

Callie’s party is long gone after the hammers fall to the floor. The Hands of Greed spells wielding the hammers are guided by sets of laughing phantasmal faces of Greed that close their eyes and then disappear shortly after.

One of the fallen turns back and forth. “I lost them boss! I don’t even know where we are anymore! The mall attendant that was standing here ran away too! How are we going to get out of here?”

Another fallen angel replies, “There they are! I see them over there walking out of a clothing store! They think they are so smart that they can pull the wool over our eyes merely by changing their outfits! Do they take us for utter fools? This place is what the humans call a ‘shopping mall’ after all!"

There are two players with distinct hair styles and colors. There is no doubt that the hairstyles belong to Callie and Melissa. One of them even has cat ears and a tail.

A fallen angel swordsman stabs ‘Callie’ in the back. The sword is harmlessly deflected off of their body as though the target in question was made out of solid metal.

The player takes a measly amount of two points of damage despite the attack being a successful critical hit. The two points of damage are not to be confused with two percent of their max health.

Both of the players then turn around to reveal their faces. Their faces are different than Callie and Melissa’s. A classic case of players using the same presets for their characters.

The fallen angel looks shocked. “Blast! We got the wrong person.”

“Damn right you did! You picked a fight with the wrong person! I am level one hundred!”

The player resembling Callie cracks their knuckles. Their eyes gleam with anger. They land a punch to the face that sends an angel crashing against and breaking through a stone wall into the next shop. The attack instantly wipes out the angel’s health despite only being a normal unarmed attack.

Their companion resembling Melissa knocks out the next fallen angel in a similar fashion. The entire group of fallen angels is promptly defeated in a one-sided battle thanks to a fifty five level difference.

Meanwhile Callie and her party exit the mall. Melissa guides the party through the city.

Melissa states, “There are too many angels roaming the streets. They will come swarming like a bunch of locusts at the first sign of conflict. There are no places to hide on the streets when a city like this has such a clean design and organized layout. Come into the buildings. I can pick the locks to the doors.”

Melissa’s party make their way through the city through indirect means. The city has no such thing as dark alleyways or shady parts of town. After all, the entire city is made of marble and themed around being as shiny and reflective as possible to ward off monsters sensitive to light. The party instead travels through the ground floor of both public buildings and private apartment complexes as much as possible to reduce visibility from the fallen flying around like swarms of birds.

The party reaches the other end of the city where the marble streets disappear. The scenery changes into overgrown fields of grass. The trees are wild. They are not contained within small patches of dirt and they are not maintained within small picturesque parks. The trees are numerous, block vision, and there is no clear path leading through the forest. The only ‘guides’ present are a few handmade, painted, and worn out signs that are placed throughout the forest. They vaguely serve as a trail leading in a few directions to nearby cities.

Zinnia states, “I know where to go! Heli told me that a trek through the forest should not be hard so long as we use the signs as landmarks. She even gave me precise directions for even the most difficult to navigate parts of the forest where there are no signs to be found. She gave me a warning against straying off her usual route as the monsters around the area are both fierce and territorial. They immediately attack adventurers on sight."

Zinnia asks, “By the way, did you know that Heli used to work as a ranger here to save up money for culinary school? Not a ranger as in an archer wielding a bow, but as a forest ranger that would travel back and forth looking for lost travelers. She would work with animals sometimes too which is how she became good enough with animals, at least the small ones, to become a summoner."

Callie replies, “I had no idea. I never even wondered about that kind of thing. I will scratch off ‘learning something new from your friends’ off my bingo card and mark today’s date. I am so close to getting a bingo that Jade is not going to believe me about how quickly my card is filling up. He is going to flip the next time we meet."

The party wanders through the forest. Melissa stops twenty minutes or so into the trek when she hears somebody’s voice. She peeks through a bush to see a group of fallen resting in a small clearing. She can see that one of the fallen is awake and keeping watch over their makeshift camp.

The party retreats a respectable distance away.

Melissa states, “Some of the fallen angels had the same idea as we did. What a shame, I really thought Heli was onto something when she said the angels flying overhead would never notice a city hidden by the forest’s canopy. We better find another way around. It will only be a matter of time before the fallen give up on the city of Tan and the entire swarm moves on to search the forest.”

Peri turns her neck to look up at the sky. She sighs out of frustration and then places her hands together as if praying. “I wish the fallen would swallow their pride and leave those poor parrots alone. If only they would channel this sort of energy into improving themselves."

Callie squints her eyes as she checks her menu. “Heli wasn’t kidding when she said the monsters are fierce. According to my map, this forest’s description states that different parts of the forest are split up into separate level ranges. Every segment presents some kind of challenging area except for the default middle of the road trail. I wish I could see more than my empty and vague map. I should have bought a detailed one from a cartographer or something.”

“The best that I can do is tell where the area with the level fifty through sixty monsters are. Beyond that, I am as blind as a bat. I have no clue what kind of monsters might be lurking there. We better hope that we do not come across any boss type monsters along the way.”

The party takes a generously wide route around the angels. The numerous trees block any direct line of sight between the angels and the party.

Melissa states, “I don’t like this dreadful feeling. I feel like I am digging a deeper and deeper grave for myself. There are so many monsters lurking around the outskirts of the main path. It feels like they form a natural barrier blocking us and practically forcing us to stray even further and further from the path."

“The forest is so serene and quiet. I feel like the angels could hear us from miles away if we fight against anything so we risk making too much noise if we try to cut corners by fighting with the closer monsters. On the other hand, we risk encountering stronger and stronger monsters the further we wander.”

Callie replies, “I get what you mean. I feel like there is no way somebody new to the area would be able to find their way around only by following the road signs. The trail itself even cuts in and out of patches of grass. I have a feeling the world of ROW intended for adventurers to get lost around here and run into some of the tougher monsters."

“Lets see what the situation looks like in terms of strength. I am level thirty eight. You and Peri are both level forty five. Zinnia is level fifty. Hard to tell how well we will fare in a fight with such a mismatch of levels between party members.”

“The mysterious nature of the world of ROW favors the monsters instead of adventurers in environments such as this one. The world will strengthen any enemies we encounter to match the fact that we are a party of four members. We should split the difference and risk fighting against a level fifty five monster. I am not so sure if we will survive anything higher level than that."

Callie thought to herself, “The so called mysterious nature being game design balancing the enemies according to the levels of the players and NPC.”

The party moves a far distance away from where the fallen were resting so as not to attract attention.

Melissa states, “This is as far as we can go without fighting something. We have boxed ourselves in with the monsters roaming behind and ahead of us.”

“Time to bite the bullet and decide what we should attack. The common type monsters all seem to move in groups. There is no way we would survive a swarm of monsters with the vast level difference even if they are only common types of enemies. I think our best option is to try our hand against a sole uncommon rarity monster. Is everybody ready? We should take a moment to check our gear."

The common enemies in question are packs of wolves that are busy feasting from a deer carcass. There are a few more enemies around the area moving in numbers such as mushroom monsters and stone golems.

Nobody seems to have any complaints so the chosen target is a sole uncommon Dryad. They have a rough humanoid outline. The monster’s body is made of wood and has a few twigs and leaves growing from them. Their mouth is made of interlocking twigs that look similar to a closed Venus Flytrap. They are wearing a cape behind their back made of a bunch of leaves.

Melissa equips her pistol. She makes the first move and fires a shot that strikes the Dryad for five percent damage.

The attack attracts the Dryad’s attention and makes them roar. They start charging after Melissa.

Callie and Zinnia cast, “Combo skill Hand in Hand!” The Dryad’s movements are interrupted. The Dryad is lifted into the air away from nearby shrubbery. They are restrained and crushed for ten percent damage by phantom hands.

Callie looks a bit annoyed. “Sorry everybody, my half of the spell did basically zero damage. The damage was all Zinnia’s doing. It seems as though I have to play a support role in this battle. I am just too low level for the area."

Peri replies, “Then keep the monster hindered for as long as possible!”

Peri draws her wand. “I cast Grounding Chains!" Metal chains burst out from the ground that snatch the monster out of the air and force them to drop down to the ground. The chains deal five percent damage.

The monster’s speed sharply drops as the monster is now restrained by metal chains and has to carry the extra weight for a few seconds. They choose to stop moving entirely.

The Dryad instead channels a spell that makes a green aura surround them. They make a swinging motion with their arm as though they were attacking with a sword that makes a series of roots burrow from beneath the ground in a wide area of effect attack that follows the direction of their imaginary swing.

Callie casts Wind of the Fairy to sprout transparent fairy wings and lifts Peri to avoid the attack through flight. Zinnia blocks with her shield and takes ten percent damage.

Melissa attempts to evade by jumping to the nearest tree which proves to be a mistake.

The Dryad points at the tree and makes a quick stabbing gesture. Roots sprout from the tree and mimic the Dryad’s stabbing motion for an attack that targets Melissa and deals twenty percent damage.

Melissa looks embarrassed. She shouts, “In hindsight, that was a dumb move! My muscle memory kicked in! Consider every tree that you see as a potential hazard while fighting against a Dryad!"

Callie replies, “At least we know for certain that their class is a Druid as opposed to a couple of other classes they tend to be! There is no way they would have such a wide range Bramble attack and strong Flora Manipulation otherwise. We can bet that they aren’t about to evolve into some other kind of second form either."

Melissa fires a second shot for ten percent damage.

Zinnia advances towards the Dryad.

Callie drops Peri down now that the danger of the Bramble attack has passed.

Peri habitually chants, “Holy Ligh—!" Her spell is interrupted when Callie places her hand over Peri’s mouth.

Callie warns, “They may look like a monster but they are not. They are a technically a plant. They get energy from the sun. You will only heal them and restore their stamina by using light elemental spells."

Callie releases Peri.

Callie then casts, “Icicle!"

The Dryad lowers their hand as if about to use an ability. This time they do not take the time to channel mana. Their movement is interrupted when rapidly forming ice appears from the ground beneath them and freezes their hand in place.

The Dryad tugs their hand in a failed attempt to shatter the ice. They do not fail a second time. The ice shatters and their hand is freed.

Zinnia lunges at the Dryad to close the distance between them and deals ten percent damage.

The Dryad bashes at Zinnia’s shield in return for twenty percent damage.

Zinnia attempts a shield bash but the monster raises their sturdy wooden arm in defense. They resist the effect of the stun and only take five percent damage.

The Dryad stomps their foot against the ground. The roots from their foot ingrain into the soil below. A flurry of vines emerge from all directions around Zinnia that restrain Zinnia and leave her unable to defend.

“I can’t block this!”

The Dryad then leans back and opens their gaping mouth. They chomp at the air and a larger than life Venus Flytrap appears from the ground that bites Zinnia for forty percent damage.

Callie mutters, “I have never seen that before! Must be a new ability.”

She gasps when she realizes something important. “The plant has a small health bar! Shoot it now or she will be stuck there!”

Melissa shoots the Venus Flytrap and defeats the plant in one move. Zinnia takes ten percent damage from the attack as well but at least she is released from the clutches of the Venus Flytrap.

Peri looks disheartened. “What a cruel ability! It turns friends against one another! Zinnia’s health has dropped to twenty percent with that attack! You need to get her out of there and defend her!"

“I cast Healing Hum!” Peri begins to sing in an angelic voice that sounds like the voices from a church gospel. The song continuously heals Zinnia the longer that the song goes on.

Callie casts, “Pillar of Earth!" The Dryad takes no damage but they are struck by the erupting pillar and still stunned by the spell’s effect.

Zinnia slowly retreats with her shield raised.

Melissa advances. She swaps from her gun to her daggers. “We better buy some time so Zinnia can recover. We have to fill in for the tank role. I will try my best to avoid getting hit.”

Melissa lunges at the Dryad with a stab that deals five percent damage.

The Dryad attempts to bash Melissa in return with their sturdy wooden arm.

Melissa swiftly hops back at the first sign of movement to avoid the attack. She throws a dagger at the same time as she retreats that deals another five percent damage.

The Dryad channels mana and places their hand against the ground again to cast Bramble. Vines sprout from the ground in a wide range area attack.

Melissa leaps on a large boulder to avoid the attack.

She barely has a second of respite before the Dryad chases and leaps after her. The Dryad misses as Melissa dodges and crushes the boulder instead.

Melissa leaps off of the boulder to dodge. “There is nowhere else to run! I have no other choice!” She leaps directly into the fray of swinging roots across the forest floor. She takes twenty percent damage.

The Dryad extends a finger and points at a nearby tree.

Melissa changes weapons her to her pistol. She casts, “Lucky Shot!" The bullet strikes against the Dryad’s hand for a critical hit dealing ten percent damage. The Dryad’s attack is interrupted and they defensively cover over their wounded hand.

Callie casts, “Combo skill, Frozen Pillar of Earth!" Callie summons a Pillar of Earth behind the Dryad. She hurls a spear that pins the Dryad against the chunk of earth. The attack deals negligible amounts of damage but the spear freezes over the pillar and stuns the Dryad.

Melissa mutters to herself, “I am using much more ammo on a single enemy than I should. The daggers can always be reused but I cannot afford to spare any more bullets.”

Melissa throws a dagger for five percent damage. The Dryad’s health drops to thirty percent.

The Dryad channels their mana and casts Bramble. A number of roots appear from the ground below.

Callie steps forth. She touches her earring. “Time to check out the skill of this new earring of mine in action! I cast, Greed Greed!" Numerous phantom faces and hands of Greed appear that stop the Bramble attack by grabbing and tearing out the roots from the ground the moment that they form. The roots are dragged into whichever abyss the phantom faces and hands come from. The phantom faces laugh as though they were content with their prizes. The phantom faces and hands promptly disappear with their newly collected treasures.

Callie states, “That was awesome but I am out of unique stun and hindering effects! My stuns are not going to work a second time against a monster so I leave the rest of the battle to the party.”

Zinnia steps forth. “I have healed up to sixty percent. I am ready to return to battle!"

Zinnia charges back into the scene and lunges at the Dryad for ten percent damage.

The Dryad raises their arm in anticipation to make a counter attack.

Peri casts, “Grounding Chains!" Metal chains focus solely around the Dryad’s other hand to deal five percent damage.

The Dryad aborts their previous attack. It flinches while hiding their wounded hand behind their back. The hand is already severely wounded thanks to the lucky gunshot earlier. They instead raise their foot and prepares to stomp again.

Zinnia strikes them with a shield bash. The attack does not stun them this time around but they take ten percent damage.

The Dryad stomps and vines begin to constrain Zinnia a second time.

Zinnia slashes at the Dryad with her sword and finishes off the monster a second before the stun effect of the vines kick in.

Zinnia victoriously attempts to twirl her sword in the air. “Hooray! We won!” The sword comes falling down. Zinnia attempts to catch the sword by the handle and takes twenty percent damage when the blade of the sword strikes her hand instead.

Callie comments, “That is not a cheerleader’s baton! You have nowhere near the kind dexterity stat necessary to do that with a sword!"

Callie states, “The Dryad was tough! I earned the max amount of exp possible from a single battle and I leveled up. My mage class went from level thirty eight to level thirty nine. My Icicle spell has evolved to Ice Wall. My Disciple class went from level eight to level nine. I spent the skill point to upgrade the effect of Greed Greed a little."

Melissa slowly and silently creeps closer and closer to Callie.

Callie continues. “The effect of my ‘Greed Greed’ spell is kind of like Melissa’s Steal ability. I cannot steal an enemy’s physical equipment like she can, but I can use the ability to stop enemy projectiles and attacks. The spell even seems to work against some AOE attacks that would normally be difficult to counter. Imagine that, the whole point of AOE attacks is that they are weaker than normal attacks in exchange for a good amount of range.”

Melissa is now standing face to face with the clueless Callie. She inches her face even closer and closer to test the limits.

“The downsides are that my earring only allows me to cast the ability once per battle and I can’t take whatever Greed Greed steals for myself. My spell is so damn greedy that it doesn’t want to share whatever it takes with its own caster.”

Stolen story; please report.

Melissa shouts, “Callie!"

Callie closes her menu. Her heart sinks and her whole body strikes a defensive pose when she closes her menu and is suddenly presented with a Melissa jump scare.

Melissa states, “I leveled up too! By the way, the Dryad dropped a bunch of uncommon Leaf Capes that boost nature elemental magic. You should pick up yours before you forget. You can at least sell them if you don’t know nature magic.”

Zinnia states. “I have collected the max amount of exp necessary to level up but I have come across a problem. I require class specific evolution materials before I can break through the level fifty limit and I cannot store any more excess amounts of exp.”

Callie replies, “I forgot about that level cap. Never reached level fifty myself with any of the classes that I tried. Always got bored and swapped around to try new classes. We will have to worry about acquiring those materials later. I have no idea how we would search for them on this recently discovered continent."

The party advances through the forest once more and return to a safer trail once they feel as though they are far enough from the angels they saw on the road earlier . They battle against two more unavoidable but much weaker Dryad encounters along the way. Peri and Melissa level up to level forty eight. Callie levels up her Mage class to level forty and her Disciple class to level eleven.

The party rests by the stump of a colossal tree during one of their breaks. Peri begins to sing to restore the party’s health.

The hand of a mysterious monster covered in brown fur extends down from the tree. The hand is now lurking above the party member’s heads. The fur camouflages against the bark of the tree and so the hand remains unnoticed. The face of the mysterious monster appears from the foliage next. The monster inches closer and closer until their claw reaches for the top of Melissa’s head. They suddenly make a stabbing motion that lands a double damage critical hit.

A green liquid runs down Melissa’s face. Her hand trembles as she feels the warm liquid run down her face and runs over her eye making her close it. She mumbles in a shocked daze. “I-I-I am bleeding? Since when?”

Melissa slowly turns her head upwards to see a level fifty five legendary tier monster smiling back at her. A gigantic monster several times larger than her size. A monster who’s entire body is covered in brown fur. The monster is lanky and has long arms that end in fierce claws.

Melissa warns, “We are under attack! They are camouflaging with the trees!"

Peri replies, “No we are not. They are not doing anything harmful. All they did was squish and pull a green bug out of your hair."

Melissa sticks her tongue out in disgust. “I can taste the bug!”

Callie sits back down. “I guess we are safe here.”

Callie raises her hand to her chin. She spawns her camera bot. “Start live-streaming. The fabled Sloth of Sloth! We finally meet in person. I must say it is a nice, refreshing change of pace to encounter a friendly boss type of monster for a change."

The sloth has a goofy smile. They eat the green bug.

Callie opens her inventory and spawns an apple. “Oh, slothful one! I present to you with a tribute! Save yourself the trouble of foraging later. Would probably take you, what? Give or take, a few hours to find an apple?”

Callie chuckles as she extends her hand. The sloth reaches down and takes the apple. Callie receives a notification stating that ‘The Sloth of Sloth has accepted your tribute and wishes to bestow upon you their blessing’. Callie is presented with the option to replace one of her classes with a new class called the ‘Disciple of Sloth’.

Callie starts laughing maniacally. She has to wipe tears from her eyes.

“I am sorry! I am sorry! I didn’t think anything would happen! I just wanted to see if you would react or if sloths could even eat apples! Turns out that they do! I was not expecting to uncover one of the world’s secrets! Sadly I am already a Disciple of Greed so I cannot accept a second disciple class. Thank you for offering. Does anybody else want to be a Disciple of Sloth?”

Callie cannot stop giggling.

Zinnia replies, “The same goes for me."

Peri politely refuses. “I respectfully decline. I am not so sure that a pure angel should have anything to do with a class named after one of the seven sins and I am content with my current classes. I much prefer to heal others in need.”

Melissa angrily stomps her feet a few times in a movement mimicking the Dryad they fought earlier. “Ooh, I am so jealous! I should have thought to feed them first. I am the one who got bug guts all over me! I should have been the one who discovered one of the world’s secrets! As a rogue, I can’t even have anything to do with a class that makes me slower!”

Callie is given an option between two choices. She can either take credit for discovering the hidden class alone or share the credit with her party members. Taking the credit for herself will drastically increase the amount of global reputation she earns but reduces her personal reputation with each of her party members.

There is a penalty that her Disciple of Greed class imposes. Sharing the credit will slightly debuff her abilities and stats for a day. Hogging the credit will slightly buff her abilities and stats for a day.

Callie contemplates. “To be greedy this time around or nah.”

Callie replies, “We are the only ones who saw for ourselves what happened here. Whatever story we decide to tell becomes the truth. As far as the rest of the world knows, we all discovered the hidden class together. Congratulations on discovering one of the world’s secrets."

A global announcement is displayed on the corner of Callie’s screen. “Congratulations! The unnamed party including the members: ‘Callie Graph Reed’, ‘Lady Zinnia’… have discovered the hidden class ‘Disciple of Sloth’. Details regarding the class will be revealed to the public in twenty four hours.”

A personal notification appears that states that Callie’s universal reputation has increased by one hundred.

A phantom face appears that visibly cringes at Callie’s decision before dispersing a moment later.

The party ventures through the forest once more. They find a road and well traveled path decorated with numerous lamps that are made in the shape of triangles. They look as though they are all pointing in a line to a direction ahead of them. The party follows the lamps and there is a city waiting for them at the end of the line.

The forest city is built across a few stories of massive trees as large as buildings. The trees have been carved out and made into multiple story homes. The city’s design revolves around the height of the trees. There are wooden ramps that spiral around the trees to ascend. Instead of city streets, there are suspended bridges made of wood and rope that link from place to place. There are a few large public plazas made of wooden platforms that are spread out across several stories and they are interconnected from tree to tree. The wide public plazas are crowded and seem to be the only places where people can gather together in public in an otherwise narrow city.

Callie states, “I don’t like it! I don’t like it! The buildings are too tall! Looking down would be terrifying! Can we just stay on the ground floor? There are some nice shops and buildings down here too. I see a blacksmith for one. Probably a good idea to keep all the buildings that need fire away from the city."

Zinnia tugs on Callie’s arm to pull her along. Callie leans back and her heels are creating a trail in the dirt as she is pulled along.

“Don’t be so human afraid! You will respawn if you fall.”

“Forget dying, falling is exactly what I am afraid of!”

“We have to find Heli and the pirate crew!”

“Maybe we can write them a letter at the nearest postal office and they can come to us instead.”

“We do not know when they will check the postal office. The next time could be days from now.”

Callie snickers. “Speaking of never checking the postal office. We should check. They probably would have written us a letter if they found a place to stay.”

Callie places her hands by her eyes to narrow her field of vision. Beads of sweat run down her face. She can feel her heart pounding and her body trembling. She reluctantly takes step after step she ascends in the spiral ramp.

“This is so much worse than a Ferris Wheel at an amusement park! No matter where I look all I can see is the sheer hundred foot drop! Once we are done here, I swear that I am never coming back to this city again.”

Peri suggests, “Maybe singing something will keep your mind off your fear. I learned this sea shanty from Melody. There once was a ship that put to sea…."

Callie sings along for a while. “Singing is not helping.”

Callie steps on a wooden board. Her footstep makes the board creak as if warning Callie to step off or plummet to her doom. The entire suspended bridge shakes and sways with Callie’s added weight.

“Is that supposed to happen? I feel like the entire bridge is going to collapse beneath my feet!”

Melissa snickers. “You are willing to fight against monsters that are so much stronger that you cannot inflict any damage. You will stare face to face with a legendary tier monster that was camouflaging so well that they were practically invisible without so much as flinching. You can even nonchalantly strike up a conversation and think to offer them fruits while I was shaking in my boots. But heights are what make you lose your composure! Last I checked, you knew how to fly!”

Melissa obnoxiously laughs and brazenly points her finger.

“Shut up! I can’t even fly for that long and I never ever fly this high! Do you have any idea of the kind of motion sickness I get just for adventuring in the world of ROW? Messes with my damn mind!”

Callie perks up when she sees a sign depicting a letter. “Ah, I see a postal office! Finally somewhere indoors! I never thought I would be so happy to find an enclosed space!”

Callie bashes against the door. She runs to the counter where she starts breathing heavily as if she had been holding her breath without realizing.

The alarmed postal office worker raises their clipboard in self defense. They mutter, “Why do I always get the weirdos? Mam?"

Callie releases her clenched fist and unintentionally pounds on the worker’s desk as she tries to unwind. “Do you have any mail for me?! My name is Callie…."

“Eek! Y-yes we do. Please sign here if that is not too much trouble!”

Callie snatches the clipboard out of their hand. She grabs a pen and writes with doctor approved handwriting, which is to say terrible. She rubs her hands against her pants to wipe off the sweat so that she can comfortably hold the pen. Her trembling hand makes writing neatly practically impossible.

“Are you okay, miss? Do you need me to call a healer?”

“What, were you expecting calligraphy? I’m fine! Why do you ask?" Callie is drenched in sweat. She looks like a shivering dog caught out in the rain.

Callie checks the letter. “Heli gave me the address of the inn where she is staying. Lets go, but like after a short break to calm my nerves.”

Ten minutes later and the party finds an inn near one of the plazas. They are redirected by one of the pirates staying there to find Heli and the others in one of the plazas.

Callie states, “The plaza is not so bad. I cannot see the edge if I stand around the center of the platform. So all is well."

There is a crowd made of a few elves and Heli gathered around the plaza. Envy and Melody are at the center. The crowd members are playing with the parrot, brushing their feathers, and challenging the parrot to repeat the words spoken. Some of the elves offer seeds and vegetables that the parrot eats right out of their hand.

One of the elves excuses themselves to their friends. “I will see you guys later. I am running late for my ranger job. I better start patrolling.”

Envy is happily chirping, singing, and dancing.

Melody is speaking to the crowd. “Do not think that picking up a parrot at the nearest pet store will be a lot of fun just because you see this one performing a few tricks. Have you ever woken up to the sound of screeching at three in the morning or found your pets chewing on everything you own? They are a lot of work to take care of and train. Most parrots are loud and never learn to speak the way that people do. Envy is a special case. I have been working with Envy for several years now.”

Envy replies, “Melody is a lot of work. She chews on everything I own. She screeches at three in the morning."

Some of the crowd members laugh thinking that is part of the performance. Melody turns to stare at Envy. Envy turns away and whistles inconspicuously. The performance ends a moment later.

Heli looks delighted to see the party again. “You guys made it! Great! Take a look at this little fellow perching on my shoulder! They are my new familiar and I have named them June as in short for Junior. You know, as in Envy Junior. They have been making a great playmate for Glutton.”

“Parrots are kind of cute when they are small, not mimicking the sound of your friend’s voices like some sort of eldritch monster in the middle of the night, and not barging into your apartment.”

Callie and Zinnia flock to Heli.

Callie pets June. She asks, “Who’s a good girl?”

Zinnia mimics Callie’s behavior words and all, but she pets Heli instead.

Heli proudly declares, “I am!”

Peri interrupts. “I am afraid that we have come to deliver some bad news. The city is not as hidden as we once thought. There are some fallen searching through the forest on foot. It is only a matter of time before they discover this city and come swarming for the parrots and pirates. We should leave soon."

Heli frowns. “Dang it! The forest is such a nice place too! The forest would have been a perfect match for the parrots! I am so sorry this place isn’t working out!”

Melody replies, “Not a problem. Being cooped up in the cage for so long has left us with such a strong feeling of wanderlust. We would go roaming around the continent sooner or later anyways. So where else do you think we should go?"

Callie randomly thought to herself, “Wanderlust, wanderlust. Wanderlust is such a nice sounding word.”

Heli frantically paces back and forth. “I am sorry but I do not know of any better places to go! This is the most difficult place to find that I know about. We could move to cities further down the continent so that we can at least put some distance between us and the fallen still lurking around the city of Tan.”

Melody states, “We need to collect my crew first. They went wandering around the city and there is no telling if they will return or spend all night getting drunk in a tavern somewhere. We thought we would have some more time before the fallen came knocking. We better split up and start searching."

The party’s conversation is interrupted by a panicked elf. They points out at something in the distance. They frantically shout, “Forest fire!”

There are several trails of smoke in the distance coming from several different directions. The culprits are not far from the scene of the crime. There are fallen flying away from the flames.

Some of the younger elves begin to panic and scream.

Callie murmurs, “The fallen don’t know for certain whether we are in the forest or not. What are they trying to do? Burn the whole forest down just to narrow down their search? They are insane! Which one of those psychos came up with that idea?"

Melody raises her hands to cover her mouth. Her eyes widen out of shock. She states, “The fire will grow to be uncontrollable by the time that the elves get there on foot!”

Melissa near instantly makes a call for action as she is an experienced guild receptionist. She replies, “Don’t just stand there! We need to call for help! We need to report this to the guild and have the parrots carry as many people as they can to put out the fires! They need to prioritize transporting water elemental mages!"

Zinnia states, “That will not stop the source of the fires. The fallen behind this malice will continue flying around and starting more fires until we stop them. We need to target them first."

Callie breaks free from her temporary paralysis to look at her quest list. She checks the details of the quest and sees a timer counting down from fifteen minutes. “Call it my intuition cause something tells me that we better hurry. There is no telling how much damage the forest is going to take. I would estimate that we have fifteen minutes to cut our losses and minimize the damage as much as possible.”

Callie steps to the edge of the plaza and feels dazed from the daunting sight of the drop. She states, “There is no way I could handle flying that high. I will warn the guild and try to coordinate an effort from here. I will find the rest of the parrots and pirates and inform them about what is going on. Backup will come flying as soon as they can. The rest of you better get going.”

Melody nods. “Sorry, Envy. Looks like your recovery has come to an abrupt end. Alright everybody, hop aboard. The clock is ticking.”

Zinnia, Heli, Melissa, Peri, Melody and Envy form a temporary party. Envy carries four of them on their back and two of them in their claws. Envy takes off in a burst of speed across the sky. They stop a fair distance away from the swarm of fallen.

There are small groups of fallen flying around the area and casting Lightning Bolts against some of the larger trees. After a moment of flight some of them land on the forest floor. Other clumps that were already on the forest floor fly and take the last group’s place.

Melody notices the pattern. “So even something as ethereal as angels have stamina bars. Who would have thought? Alright, I have a plan. We cannot handle so many fallen at once. I want the lot of you to sneak around the forest floor and pick off the exhausted ones. Envy and I will distract the main horde. We will keep them busy for as long as we can in a game of cat and mouse across the sky. Good luck.”

Envy and Melody leave the party.

Envy swoops in against one of the airborne angels and slashes them with their claws for a critical hit dealing double damage. Envy then flies away with a swarm of thirty or so fallen chasing after them.

Several fallen cast Grounding Chain spells. Chains burst from the ground to try to snatch Envy out of the sky. Envy dodges them one after another in a never ending flurry of movement without a moment’s respite.

Melody instructs, “Fly through the forest and the trees! We will last for longer if we avoid direct combat!"

Some more Grounding Chain spells fire off but miss as all the plant life in the forest blocks view and gets in the way.

One member of the fallen stands out more than the rest because of their attire. The world of ROW states that their name is Fowl Clay. They are wearing a cloak made out of gigantic peacock feathers that stands out in terms of size more than the rest. The cloak emits a nauseous green aura that looks like a toxic cloud that the other fallen do not have. They seem to be the commander giving instructions to the rest of the fallen while he stands behind them.

Fowl states, “I saw them land somewhere around here! Keep your eyes peeled! My map isn’t going to tell me where they are if they are hiding!”

Envy suddenly dives into one clump of fallen made of four members. They bash against all four of the members in a body bash type of attack for a critical hit type of attack dealing eighty percent damage to all of them.

Melody finishes off one of the weakened fallen with a shot dealing twenty percent damage.

Three fallen cast Lightning Bolts that strike Envy for a total of thirty percent damage.

Grounding Chains are cast that Envy dodges except for the final one dealing ten percent damage. The chain drags Envy down to the ground.

Envy shrieks and flap their feathers. They give up on flying away and instead escape through a thicket of bushes and trees. They narrowly avoid a flurry of arrows and more spells that strike against some of the trees they use to escape.

Fowl warns, “Watch out! There is no telling from which direction they will come from next!”

The silence is deafening. The fallen anxiously turn to face every forest animal and monster the moment they make a sound. Even as time passes Envy does not return a second time.

Fallen realizes something is off so he checks his map. “Blast! They have left combat range! They are taking their time to heal naturally! Spread out and find them at once!”

Groups of fallen made of four members spread out. There is one group that has five members instead of four to account for the odd man out. Some of them start to fly at a height below the canopy.

The fallen search for a few minutes with no results to show. Envy’s health regenerates back to full health in the meantime.

Envy charges through a party of four fallen a second time. This time the fallen are prepared and somewhat expecting an attack. They avoid bunching together close enough to be struck all together. The unlucky target avoids taking a critical hit as well. The target only takes forty percent damage this time around.

Melody chants, “Lucky Shot!” She fires a bullet that strikes the weakened fallen member for forty percent damage.

A fallen underling shouts, “Do not let them escape a second time!" Grounding Chains are cast that force Envy to land and deal ten percent damage.

Three Thunder Bolts are cast, two of which strike Envy for twenty percent damage. One of the bolts strike Melody who is much more fragile than the legendary tier monster. She takes twenty percent damage from the single attack.

Envy casts, “Squawk! Grounding Chains!" Envy copies the fallen’s spell. Grounding Chains appear that restrains one of the fallen.

Melissa fires a second shot that results in the defeat of a second fallen member.

A second wave of fallen attacks deal forty percent damage to Envy and drops their health down to twenty percent. The effects of Grounding Chain wear off and Envy takes off into the forest once more.

The Fallen members that were not restrained follow after them in flight until they loose sight of them once more.

One of the fallen states, “I will let the others know where we are!" They start to sing in a loud voice that echoes through the forest. Some of the other fallen start to sing in response as if communicating.

The pattern of Envy and Melody taking down one fallen at a time and retreating afterwards continues several more times until eventually their luck starts to run out. After each attempt the fallen start refining their search range to smaller and smaller areas.

A few groups of fallen fly off in the general direction of the singing and make their way closer and closer to Envy and Melody. They cut off Envy and Melody as they attempt to escape from the last group of angels.

Melody grits her teeth. “This is bad! We haven’t had the chance to heal! Turn that way now, big guy!”

Envy makes a turn with some angels following closely behind them. They come across a third group of angels blocking their path in another direction so they turn once more.

“Hide over there! We need to buy more time for natural health regeneration to kick in!”

Envy and Melody hide within one of many overgrown bushes.

Some fallen scatter in the same general area and begin searching and slashing at some of the rustling shrubs and examining some of the holes made into the nearby trees. They are attacked by the monsters hiding inside of them including Dryads and some larger than life animals including Woodpeckers.

Melody silently counts, “Fifteen percent health restored. Sixteen, seventeen…." She shuts up when somebody comes within earshot.

A member of the fallen comes searching too close for comfort. They slash at some of the wild and large shrubs near them. They have the surprise of their lives when they are suddenly are shot by what appears to be a shrub and restrained by Envy’s cast of Grounding Chains.

Melody and Envy take off once more. Envy is struck mid-flight by two Lightning Bolts that basically negate the small amount of healing they worked so hard to escape the fallen for.

They come across another group of fallen that spots the duo in the middle of flight. Grounding Chains are cast from the surface of a tree that makes Envy bash against a tree.

The awkward angle from which Envy was caught and the force of the chains dragging them to the tree makes Melody fall from the sky and takes ten percent damage from the fall.

There are three fallen members working on restraining Envy. They cast more Grounding Chains that drag him down to the forest floor until their health drops to zero percent and they can no longer resist as they attach a physical ball and chain to their foot.

Melody turns bright red with rage. She shouts, “Get away from Envy!”

Melody chants, “Lucky Shot!” Melody shoots the moment she manages to recover from her fall and get back on her feet. She is barraged with two attacks dealing forty percent damage. A second exchange of attacks drops down her health to ten percent.

Grounding Chains constrain her and drop her health to zero. She can no longer resist as they attach a physical ball and chain to her foot.

The fallen dressed in a cloak made of gigantic peacock feathers approaches the parrot with a wicked smile. Fowl asks, “Would Polly like to return to their cage for the rest of eternity?"

Some time ago Zinnia, Heli, Melissa, and Peri were dropped off on the forest floor. Meanwhile, Envy and Melody flew away to redirect the horde of fallen’s attention.

Melissa takes the lead. “Get ready. I saw a group of them land somewhere over here.”

There is a clump of four fallen grouped together. All of them are level forty five.

Peri examines the enemy party. She states, “Hey, I know these guys. Sort of. A little. That one in heavy armor is a Tank. That one with long robes and sleeves is a Healer. That one with with a wand is a mage that specializes in holy and lightning magic. The second one with a wand and their arms decorated with chains is a Trapper that specializes in hindering movement and restraining enemies.”

Melissa throws a dagger at Fallen Healer for a critical hit dealing forty six damage. Zinnia casts Hand of Greed for twenty five percent damage. Heli casts a Fireball for twenty percent damage.

The Fallen Healer staggers as they are constrained and their health immediately drops to nine percent.

Peri casts Grounding Chains at the same time that the rest of the party members cast their spells. Due to the slow nature of the spell, the chains barely form and burst from the ground once the rest of the spells have already hit their target.

Fallen Trapper pushes Fallen Healer out of the way. They take the twenty percent damage from Peri’s Grounding Chains in Healer’s place, effectively saving them.

Fallen Healer takes a deep breath of air.

Peri warns, “Don’t let them sing! The rest of the swarm will come running!"

Melissa throws a knife as fast as she can but she is not fast enough to make up for the distance between them. Fallen Tank steps in between with their shield raised. They take thirteen percent damage.

Fallen Healer starts to sing. They start restoring their own health.

Melissa grinds her teeth together. “So much for stealth. Take them out as fast as we can before the next wave comes running!”

Fallen Mage casts Lightning Bolt. Melissa takes seventeen percent damage.

Fallen Trapper casts Grounding Chains which creates metal chains that deal twenty percent damage and slow down Heli.

Zinnia is forced to advance into the fray as her party is pressured for time whereas Fallen Tank remains at a distance to guard their party members.

Heli commands, “June, copy Hand of Greed!"

“Squawk! Two casts remaining!” The parrot on Heli’s shoulder casts Hand of Greed against the Fallen Tank. The hand forcibly pushes them out of the way and deals twenty percent damage.

Melissa draws her pistol. She chants, “Lucky Shot, come on, seize your chance!” The bullet strikes the Fallen Healer with a critical hit that defeats them and makes them collapse.

Peri chants, “Healing Hum!" She starts to sing to restore her own HP.

Fallen Mage chants, “Holy Light!" Zinnia’s entire party takes ten percent damage from the wide area of effect light that shines upon them.

Fallen Trapper chants, “What spell should I use? Ball and Chain for sure!" A chain appears that links Zinnia to Peri.

A second clump of four fallen lands and joins the fray. They dress similar to the fallen already in the middle of battle but they carry different weapons.

Zinnia tries to step forwards and the chain tugs on Peri making her fall to the floor. The chain interrupts Peri’s healing at ten percent and makes her gasp.

Zinnia turns back to see her the chain. She calls out, “Not good! They are trying to force me to drag the healer to the front lines! I can’t stop here with the forest on the chopping block! Everybody else needs to advance to avoid breaking formation!"

Melissa instructs, “Focus fire on the wounded ones!"

Melissa advances. She fires a second bullet at Fallen Mage for twenty percent damage.

Heli advances. Heli commands, “June, copy Hand of Greed!"

“Squawk! One cast remaining!” The parrot casts Hand of Greed against the Fallen Mage. The hand forcibly raises them into the air where they are completely vulnerable even as the Fallen Tank does their best to try to defend them. The hand deals twenty percent damage.

Peri advances. “Grounding Chains!" She casts the spell on the Fallen Mage from a distance that drags them away from the rest of their party members and deals twenty percent damage. They are left with a tantalizingly low twenty percent HP.

Fallen Trapper casts Grounding Chains on Peri in return for twenty percent damage.

Fallen Tank slashes Zinnia but she blocks for eight percent damage.

Fallen Mage is constricted. They drop down a moment later.

Fallen Archer shoots an arrow at Heli for twenty percent damage.

Fallen Rogue throws a dagger at Peri for twenty percent damage. Her health drops to twenty percent.

Fallen Swordsman slashes Zinnia for eight percent damage.

A second Fallen Healer that recently entered the fray casts Holy Light for ten percent damage to Zinnia’s entire party. Peri’s health drops to ten percent.

Melissa hurls a dagger that Fallen Swordsman intercepts for twenty three percent damage.

Melissa shouts, “There is too many of them! I can’t even aim my attacks anymore with how many are body blocking the weaker ones! I bet more are on their way as we speak!"

Heli replies, “We cannot give up now! Melody and Envy are counting on us!"

Heli commands, “June, copy Hand of Greed!"

“Squawk! Zero casts remaining!” The parrot casts Hand of Greed against the Fallen Mage. The hand defeats the Fallen Mage.

Three ranged attacks are launched aiming at Peri. Heli intercepts the attacks for sixty percent damage.

Heli collapses.

A Grounding Chain is cast that captures June and drags them away from Heli’s side.

Heli makes a fist and smacks her fist against the ground. “Damn it! I will come back to kick your glasses in when I respawn!”

Two melee attacks strike Zinnia for sixteen percent damage.

Melissa fires a shot that strikes one of the angels, though it hardly even matters which at this point. They each blend into the next in their large party.

Peri casts Holy Light that deals a low amount of damage to the entire enemy party.

Zinnia slashes at the Fallen Swordsman.

Three ranged attacks are launched at Peri. Melissa intercepts and takes fifty one percent damage. She has twelve percent health remaining.

Two melee attacks strike Zinnia for sixteen percent damage.

Melissa shouts out, “How dare you slay my ally! I shall have my revenge!"

Melissa dashes into the fray of angels with a crazed look in her eye as though she has entered some sort of frenzy. She masterfully lunges and dodges a volley of ranged attacks and slashes some of the angels with her dagger in retaliation.

Melissa’s evasion streak does not last forever. She is defeated over the course of the next round of exchanged attacks. She collapses but not without uttering some final words. “I will make sure that you are all locked behind bars for the rest of your lives just like those parrots and pirates! Mark my words!”

Peri is defeated with the next volley of attacks. She exclaims, “I will never give up! The righteous will prevail in the end!”

Zinnia narrowly manages to defeat the Fallen Swordsman.

The scene of the battlefield is grim. Fire sears the battlefield. Smoke and ash cloud the scene. There are a number of defeated NPC lying on the floor. There is a parrot that is now trapped with a miniature ball and chain attached to their foot. The fallen may have lost some members during the battle but they are victorious in the end.

Zinnia is struck with a series of Lightning Bolts that drop her health to zero but she does not collapse. She remains standing.

Zinnia holds her face and makes an expression of agony as though she were in pain despite robots typically being unable to experience such a thing. She falls into a pit of despair with her dark elemental mana running rampant, surging, and surrounding her body in a bleak veil. Her dark elemental mana runs off into the battlefield making it seem as though night has descended.

An overwhelming number of phantom faces and hands appear from her dark aura and start flailing and biting the fallen surrounding her. Whatever Zinnia did makes it seem as though she somehow cast a better version of Callie’s Greed Greed spell which she should not be capable of casting without Callie’s earring.

Some of the fallen step back out of fright. One of them states, “I have never seen such malice! What manner of monster is she?”

Zinnia mutters, “I wish that I could see Callie one last time before I die.”

Zinnia screeches in a robotic tone of voice uncharacteristic of her typical calm and collected behavior. “The anguish is too much to bear! It hurts so much! I want to see her again! I want to, I want to! I want to see Callie again!”

Zinnia tries to walk forward through whatever means necessary and staggers as a result. Her eyes eyes start to feel heavy. She can no longer keep them open and so they close.

Zinnia opens her eyes a moment later. She has respawned in the elven city with the rest of her party members and they have bumped into Callie who is in the middle of sending off some pirates and mages towards the battlefield.

Zinnia’s eyes gleam with delight. She almost tackles Callie with an affectionate hug. “I missed you, Callie! How are you?”

“Nice to see you too. So, you guys died or what?”

“Yeah.”

“Tough luck! At least you guys bought some time. The fallen would have started even more fires if they were not busy fighting. I have already sent the next wave of parrots to deliver the locals to the battlefield. They should keep them busy while the majority of the ground forces advance. Wait a minute, where are Envy and Melody? I thought all of you went together.”

Heli whimpers, “They probably took them! They took my pet parrot too!"

“Do not worry. We will get them back. They are not going to get far with the next wave of locals attacking them. I sent a bunch of elves that are familiar with the era. I told them to stall for time for as long as they can.”

Callie takes a glance at the quest description on her menu where she sees a timer marking that the quest still has twelve minutes and thirty seven seconds remaining out of the initial fifteen minutes that the quest started with.

Callie states, “Something tells me that we have more than enough time for a round two rematch against the fallen and I have a plan B in mind.”

“The only problem is that I cannot handle heights, so I am going to have to resort to a super secret forbidden meditation technique passed down from adventurer to adventurer. I will be blind, deaf, unable to do so much as control my own body during this time, and unresponsive to all forms of stimulation during this time. I will have to count on the rest of you to keep me from falling to my doom. Can I count on you to carry out the plan in my place?”

Callie mounts on a parrot once they return. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes as she begins meditating to enter a zen state where she is one with the universe. She mutes all game audio, leaves the game tab open, opens a tab in her browser and starts watching some short videos. She checks in every fifteen seconds or so to see if the party is still flying or not.

Envy, June, and Melody are forced to walk through the forest with chains hindering her movements. The soot and ash are suffocating.

Melody bursts out into an uncontrollable coughing fit.

Fowl holds the end of the large chain that restrains them. “Afraid of a little fire and flame? We would not be in this mess if you hadn’t left your cage or if you hadn’t wasted our time and stamina with your little game of cat and mouse!”

An uncontrollable urge to cough overtakes Fowl. They hold back their cough for as long as they can before eventually they burst out into a coughing fit as well. They raise their finger as a warning against the captives. “Not a word! Don’t say it! Don’t say a thing or the shackles around your neck get tighter!”

The captives all silently smirk.

The fallen continue through the forest until they come across an unusual scene. There are flames that are burning but they are flickering at such a slow pace. The ash and the smoke looks unnaturally serene. The flames are burning so mesmerizingly slow.

Fowl cautiously and slowly approaches the flames. They tear off a piece of their subordinate’s sleeve and place hold the sleeve against the fire. The cloth takes unusually long to catch on fire even when exposed directly to the flame.

The subordinate complains, “My shirt!"

“Quiet, you! Something is wrong here. Why do I feel so lethargic all of a sudden? What is the meaning of this?"

Another fallen replies, “Sir, the word ‘this’ is a pronoun that means…."

“I know what it means!”

“Do you, sir? Please share. I never really thought about what the word ‘it’ means in the context of a proper dictionary definition. I only have a general idea based on the context clues I have gathered during my time.”

One fallen is added to the line of chained up prisoners.

A moment later some singing can be heard coming from other fallen in the area as a warning.

Some larger than life parrots drop off bunches of pirates, adventurers and elves who start clashing with the fallen. The biggest catch is a larger than life level fifty five legendary tier monster with a goofy grin on their face.

One of the fallen seems confused. “A sloth?”

The fancily dressed commander replies, “You fool! That is not just any sloth! That is the fabled Sloth of Sloth!"

The sloth is dropped right next to the party of fallen that includes Fowl. The sloth reaches for one of the angels.

The angels fly out of the way. The sloth is much too slow to keep up with them normally.

Peri chants, “Land of the Lethargic!" A blue aura surrounds the immediate vicinity with an area of effect type of ability. The fallen that were attempting to fly out of the sloth’s reach are caught in the aura. The fallen slow down to a pace even slower than the sloth.

One of the fallen shouts, “Why am I so damn slow!?”

The angels are left helplessly watching as the sloth slowly reaches toward them. The dread they experience is unimaginable as the sloth slashes one of the fallen out of the air with their gigantic claws for forty percent damage.

Land of the Lethargic is an ability that does not last forever. Except that it does. The Sloth casts the same spell after Peri’s cast of the spell ends. They switch targets to the next fallen to repeat the same attack.

“Its no use! I can’t raise my shield in defense! I cannot move fast enough despite holding the shield in my very hands!”

The next fallen is crushed and then hurled against a tree in a two attack combo dealing eighty percent damage.

There are tears running down Peri’s face. She sobs obnoxiously and furiously wipes the tears from her face. She then nervously nibbles on her finger. “I am a sinner. May my forefathers forgive me for straying off the path of righteousness.”

Callie glances at Peri. Her main class is a Choir Singer but her subclass has changed from a ‘Trapper’ into a ‘Disciple of Sloth’. She has several hundred points of good karma and changing one of her subclass into a Disciple of Sloth did absolutely nothing to affect her karma.

Callie rolls her eyes. “Okay, Satan. They are just a sloth. They cannot help if their metabolism is slow.”

“Sinner! I am a sinner!”

“You don’t think your forefathers would forgive you this one time on account of changing classes to help save the entire forest? Your reputation may have taken a hit among some social circles but your karma hasn’t changed at all unlike when I got my Disciple of Greed class.”

“Sinner, sinner, sinner!”

The prisoners in chains take the opportunity while everybody is clashing to escape the immediate area. They cannot run very far without great difficulty thanks to the shackles around their necks, arms or wings, and ball and chains attached to their feet. The best they can do is hide behind some nearby trees before their stamina bar runs as dry as a desert.

Fowl finds his own special targets during the battle. He makes his way towards Callie, Zinnia, Melissa, Heli, and Peri.

“You scoundrels! You are the thieves that have stolen all of my beauty sleep! Do you have any idea how infuriating it is to wake up to a call in the middle of the night only to hear that my precious day off replaced with another shift? All of this effort wasted on an unnecessary manhunt that could have been avoided if the lot of you never stepped foot onto our island!”

“To top it all off, you have already been defeated once and you dare to return to oppose me again? We have made a mistake allowing the four of you to leave. I will not stand for this kindness a second time. Try as you may, the endeavor is pointless. Nobody escapes the fallen. The prisoners will return to their cage in the end and this time the lot of you will be their new cellmates!”

Peri retreats a distance away from the group and towards the sloth. “I am going to focus on assisting and healing the sloth. Please take care of that guy! We can handle the rest of these fallen."

Callie can see that the enemy’s name is Fowl Clay. They are an epic tier level forty five boss. Their main class is a ‘Disciple of the Peacock of Pride’ and their subclass is a ‘Trapper’. They have two separate health bars.

Callie is level thirty eight. Heli is level forty five. Melissa is level forty eight. Zinnia is level fifty five.

Callie places her hands to her face as if she were horrified. She mutters, “The Disciple of Pea—."

She is interrupted when Fowl casts a Grounding Chain that strikes her for twenty seven percent damage and makes her gasp.

She returns the favor by casting, “Pillar of Earth!" A pillar strikes Fowl for thirteen percent damage and launches them into the air.

Zinnia casts, “Hand of Greed!" The phantom hand grabs a hold of Fowl while they are still stunned and then smashes them back down against the pillar that Callie created for a super effective hit dealing twenty four percent damage.

Heli casts, “Fireball!" The fireball deals twenty three percent damage.

Melissa smirks. “Would you look at that? I have one cast of Lucky Shot per battle and here you are sitting at a pretty forty percent HP. The perfect opportunity to finish you off in one shot.”

Melissa seizes her opportunity. She chants, “Lucky Shot!" The bullet strikes with a critical hit that drops Fowl’s health to zero.

The battlefield effects clear. Fowl is dropped to the ground where he stands looking downcast. He slumps as if he were about to drop to the floor in defeat.

Heli states, “That was easy. So much easier than the disciples of gluttony we faced against a while ago. There were three of them but this guy felt so much easier even when comparing them on a one by one basis."

Callie replies, “Remind me, didn’t they have a second stage?"

Fowl shouts at the top of his lungs, “I refuse to be defeated by the likes of you! So be it if I have to borrow power from the wicked in order to defeat greater evil! I call upon the power of the Peacock of Pride!"

Fowl’s first health bar is replaced with his second health bar. The fallen’s cloak spreads out by extending the individual feathers much like a peacock in nature would move theirs. The phantom face of a peacock appears by his side.

Heli gasps. “All of his stats have increased!”

“I will not stand for this nonsense! Not a moment longer!” Fowl spawns a plastic chair from his inventory that he unfolds and sits down on. He begins to fly as though the chair were a mount. He bashes against Heli and her familiar Glutton for forty percent damage each and momentarily stuns them by sending them tumbling.

The ‘boss’ type attack deals a default amount of forty percent damage on account of the battle being a four versus one.

Ranged attacks are cast in retribution. Fowl dodges most of the attacks with the abnormal movements of his whimsical flying chair.

Melissa aims her gun. “You are not so tricky! I can read you like a book! I predict you will move right over-over there!" Melissa manages to land a shot that strikes Fowl for thirteen percent damage.

Attacks against ‘boss’ type monsters deals a default amount of ten percent damage on account of the battle being a four versus one. Melissa deals an extra three percent damage on account of the three level difference between them.

Fowl lands his chair somewhere nearby where he retrieves and stores the item back into their inventory. He starts to fly.

Instead of boneless wings, fallen angels have wingless bones. That is to say that they have wings that are just bare bones like skeletons without any feathers.

Fowl starts to fly through the use of his wingless bones. His wingless bones are not to be confused with his cloak that is made of peacock feathers.

He plucks a bunch of peacock feathers from his cloak and throws the feathers one by one. The feathers cuts through the air with the strength and swift precision of a throwing knife aiming for Melissa.

Melissa nimbly dodges the first few attacks but is lead directly into a path that ends with the final thrown feather. She no longer has the option to dodge with one feather thrown ahead of her and one feather thrown in the direction she came from.

She stops dead in her tracks and raises her gun as a makeshift defense. Unfortunately the effect of blocking does not trigger. She takes thirty seven percent damage when guarding should have at least mitigated some of the damage.

She calls out, “Beware, he deals piercing damage!"

Fowl taunts, “How pathetic. I lead you like a Judas goat to the slaughterhouse. You are neither graceful enough to dodge nor smart enough to block with the proper equipment. What are you? A novice posing as an adventurer?"

Melissa raises her gun. Fowl scurries behind some shrubbery before she can aim. Melissa takes a blind shot that misses.

Fowl’s voice can be heard coming from somewhere from the nearby area though telling from what exact point is difficult. “I have learned a few tricks about using the environment to my advantage thanks to that no good envious parrot. They may have made a fool out of me before but now I have learned how to do the same!”

Melissa warns, “They are going to try to leave battle and heal back to full health! We have to stop them!"

Fowl goes silent. A moment later the audible sound of leaves rustling can be heard. Fowl appears shortly after from the top of some branches of a nearby tree.

He throws a feather that strikes Melissa again for thirty seven percent damage.

Melissa habitually tries to guard and fails once again. She grinds her teeth together. “You sly devil! Resorting to foul play?”

Fowl Clay does not respond to the accusations.

Heli casts, “Fireball!" The fireball strikes Fowl for thirteen percent damage.

Melissa takes a shot dealing thirteen percent damage.

Callie and Zinnia combo cast, “Hand in Hand!" Two phantom hands attempt to crush Fowl.

Fowl’s feathers rise as he casts, “Endure!" He guards against the phantom hands for a halved fourteen percent damage mostly coming from Zinnia’s side of the attack. The spell is super effective and the base damage of the spell was increased.

Callie complains, “Damn, he timed that Endure perfectly! He has resisted the effects of my stun."

Fowl then retreats a second time. So far his health has dropped to forty seven percent.

Callie calls out, “He is not going to bother to stop to heal. We have a healer with us and could easily out heal him several times over than if he were to stop to naturally regenerate health over time. Unless he gets desperate when he has barely any health remaining."

Heli replies, “No point in wasting any time waiting for him. I cast Iron Skillet!" She starts to cook some pancakes for Melissa that restore Melissa’s HP by twenty percent during their brief respite.

Zinnia states, “That is not the name of a real ability. The ability you used is called Cooking”

The sound of rustling chains can be heard coming from somewhere nearby.

Zinnia slashes at a suspiciously swaying brush. Her sword bangs against metal chains set as a trap that strike her, slow her down, and deal thirty percent damage.

Fowl throws a series of feathers that strike Heli and Glutton, her chubby ghost familiar, for forty percent damage each. Their health drops to twenty percent each. Fowl shows no signs of stopping there and continues to throw more feathers directed at them.

Callie interrupts by casting, “Morning Glory!" The spell only deals a measly three percent damage.

Fowl hesitates when their eyes are suddenly assaulted by the bright light and their ears are assaulted by the sound of the explosions.

Fowl blindly attempt to throw some more feathers around the area where they were throwing before but all of them miss as Heli and Glutton have already scurried away elsewhere.

Heli taps on a red fire elemental gem on the handle of her frying pan. The gem starts to shine. The gem was recently embedded by the same jeweler that created Callie’s earring.

“So, you like setting forests on fire huh? Lets see how you like it! Blazing Fireball!" Heli creates a Blazing Fireball in her pan that spins wildly. She tosses the Fireball into the air and then smacks the Fireball with the flat side of her frying pan like a tennis ball and racket.

The Fireball strikes Fowl for a mere five percent damage but the attack sets them ablaze. The fire deals continuous damage over time.

Melissa tries to reload her gun but realizes something important. “I ran out of bullets!”

She swaps weapons to her daggers. She lunges at Fowl with a slash dealing thirteen percent damage that drops Fowl’s health to twenty six percent.

Fowl recovers from Morning Glory’s blinding effect. They use a feather as a makeshift guard against Melissa’s second attack for nine percent damage. The feather only reduces damage by twenty five percent whereas guarding with proper equipment cuts damage in half.

Fowl spawns his plastic chair behind himself and then sits down. He charges at Melissa and bashes into her for thirty seven percent damage that drops her health down to nine percent. The attack stuns her by making her tumble.

Fowl continues traveling forth and makes a wide turn to face his enemies.

Fowl casts, “Grounding Chains!" Grounding Chains burst from the ground near Melissa in an effort to finish her off.

Callie taps on her earrings. She casts, “Greed Greed!" Numerous phantom faces and hands appear around Melissa that grab a hold of the grounding chains and tear them straight out of the ground that they are linked to. The phantom faces laugh as though they are content with their prize. They disappear and take the chains with them.

Fowl spontaneously changes targets and aims to charge into Heli.

Glutton unsuccessfully attempts to block his charge and Glutton falls to the floor defeated. Their eyes start to spin as though they were feeling dizzy.

Fowl powers through the familiar and continues traveling to Heli as their intended target only a few feet away.

Callie casts, “Ice Wall!"

A wall of ice forms that separates Fowl from Heli. Fowl cannot stop their momentum in time and as a result they crash against the ice. They take only three percent damage but they fall out of their plastic chair and are momentarily stunned.

The effects of Blazing Fireball kick in and Fowl takes five percent damage. Their health drops to nine percent.

Zinnia returns to the fray once the effects of Grounding Chains wear out. She makes her way closer and closer to Fowl and prepares her sword for a Lunge attack.

Callie calls out, “Wait! Do not finish him off! I have not stunned him yet with the effect of my Hand of Greed!"

“If you say so!" Zinnia stands by with her shield raised.

Fowl recovers from the stun effect of bashing into a wall. He rises to his feet only to have a phantom hand contain him and stun him once more.

“No damage? What are you doing? Release me this instant!” Fowl squirms in an attempt to escape from the spell.

Callie smiles. “You cannot escape from the almighty stun effect.”

Callie waits patiently.

The effects of Blazing Fireball kick in and deal five percent damage that drops Fowl’s health down to four percent.

“You witch!” Fowl’s flailing becomes more and more intense. The stun effect of Hand of Greed wears off not because of the squirming but because of the stun effect’s duration wearing out. Fowl’s health drops to three percent.

Fowl dives for the wall of ice a second time.

Callie snickers. She waves her wand and makes the wall of ice despawn.

Heli shouts, “He is going to get away!"

Callie replies, “Not in time. You said it yourself, we should see how much he likes fire. I wonder how much dread they must be feeling right about now. A real race against the clock to see if he can put out the flames before his health drops to zero."

Fowl dives for the ground and starts to roll around in an effort to extinguish the flames. His health drops to two percent.

Heli creates a Fireball. “He is going to put out the fire! I am going to strike him down!”

Callie repeats, “Not in time.”

Fowl’s health drops to one percent. He rolls furiously until the effects of the flame catch up to him and drop his health down to zero. His movement abruptly stops.

Zinnia pinches Callie’s cheeks. “You are doing that weird face again! I want to do that funny human face too!” Zinnia attempts a pale imitation.

A moment later Fowl respawns. He crosses his arms clearly displeased with his defeat.

There are several armed elves surrounding him with their spears raised at him.

One of them speaks up. “Fowl Clay, you and the rest of the fallen here are being arrested for your crimes against Gaia the goddess of the earth. You will be locked away for the maximum penalty possible under elven law in accordance with the global treaty of 0.6.1. You have the right to remain silent…”

Heli gasps as though she is horrified. “What is the maximum penalty?"

The elf responds, “Seven days in a jail cell. Should be more than enough to set him straight.”

Heli and Melissa both flinch as if the punishment were unimaginable.

Melissa replies, “Serves him right. Add the charge of unlawful imprisonment of various parrots and pirates. Still wouldn’t be a fraction of the time the fallen kept them as prisoners."

Callie rolls her eyes. She thought to herself, “I remember that update. That was when certain classes like warden, guard, and knights were first introduced. The update allowed players to join various city’s versions of a police department and enforce the law. The lore on the side of the NPC is that various world leaders united to agree to penalties and punishments for various crimes. Not that the laws stop many players or NPC. This is a game after all and players can practically get away with anything."

Fowl complains, “They have stolen my cloak and I wish to press charges!”

The elves hardly seem to care.

One of them jabs him in the back with a spear. “I don’t see any cloak. Get moving.”

Fowl shouts, “The feathers, the feathers!"

His shouts are ignored as though they were the ramblings of a madman.

Fowl’s cloak has been stolen, already torn apart into feathers, and shared between Callie’s party members.

Callie examines a feather. “So this must be the introductory material used to make Peacock of Pride series of gear. A similar story and quest line to how I got my Wand of Greed that unlocked my version of the Disciple class. Sadly I still cannot use equipment from other ‘sin’ series of gear. At least this feather is an epic tier item with a high value. I could make a pretty penny for selling this.”

A moment before Fowl respawned, the larger than life parrots kept on dropping off a few combatants at a time to keep the rest of the fallen busy. There were a handful of elven familiars such as griffons and owls capable of flight that assisted in the endeavor as well. The combatants stalled for time with hit and run tactics and were usually able to last enough for a next wave of combatants to be dropped off to the battlefield.

The skirmish lasted so long that adventurers and elves mounting flightless forest beasts as familiars such as bears and tigers had enough time to reach the battlefield.

An average elf was level fifty five whereas an average fallen was level forty five. The elves drastically outnumbered and overpowered the fallen once a decent number of them were able to assemble together. The fallen were defeated, arrested, and put into shackles for transport to the elven city.

The next problem was the raging fire. There were few elves and adventurers capable of putting out the forest fires by means other than carrying buckets of water from nearby streams and rivers.

Peri shouts out, “I cannot slow down the fire forever! I am running out of mana and potions! The sloth is running out of steam as well!"

A water elemental mage is practically dressed with soot and ash. “I hear you but damn! I can’t be everywhere all at once!”

An elf drops a blue gem to the floor that has lost its bright luster. They call out, “These lightweight water elemental mana cores aren’t helping much either! The forest wasn’t exactly blessed with an abundance of water elemental gems!"

The elf stomps on the fragile gem in a fit of rage and crushes the gem into shards beneath his feet. They shout out to the Sloth of Sloths, “Screw it! How about you make me one of those whatever you call it disciples of yours? I will do anything if that helps me stop this fire! I don’t want to see my hometown burned down right before my very eyes!"

Another elf raises their hand. “Me too! Even a level one slow down ability is better than nothing!”

A number of elves and pirates change classes. A number of level one Land of the Lethargic spells are cast that slow down the spread of the fire even if only for a brief amount of time.

Peri pants. She gasps for air in an environment where there is none. Her mana runs dry after a certain point. Donated supplies of mana potions do not last forever.

She watches her mana bar rise slowly. She counts, “Eight, nine, ten percent mana! Land of the Lethargic!"

The spell drops down her mana back to zero percent. She strains her body and her breathing becomes more and more erratic. She slumps down against a half burned down tree doused in water.

“Alright! That was the last of the flames in this area! Take a short break. In a moment I will sing for a parrot to pick us up and take us to the next place. Exactly like before.”

A moment later Peri sings and a parrot comes to pick up some of the people near her. They fly above where the canopy used to be before the flames burned it down for a birds eye view. They scout the area for more fires and the exhausting cycle repeats seemingly endlessly.

Much later, Peri joyfully screeches in a loud cry that can be heard echoing all throughout the forest. “There is none left! WE DID IT!”

A hearty round of cheers comes from Peri’s temporary fire extinguishing party.

Peri very weakly raises her arm into the air in what would have been considered a victorious movement if she did not look so under the weather. Her hand suddenly drops without warning and her head slumps down.

One of the elves asks, “Is she okay?!”

A pirate reluctantly places their fingers on her neck. “She Is fine! She just passed out! I can still feel her pulse. Not that I am saying that is a good thing! All I am saying is that I am happy she didn’t drop dead!”

Hello! This is the author Ether Marble. Likes and comments are appreciated. Please consider donating to my Stripe or Kofi if you like my content. My goal is to provide entertaining content and I gladly accept donations.

I prefer donations directly to my stripe.

https://buy.stripe.com/6oE17O2Bqfw87Uk9AA

Kofi instead.

https://ko-fi.com/ethermarble