Using the tall mountain for guidance, it was easy for Aegis to make sure they were moving in the right direction, and as they got closer to it it became more apparent just how tall the mountain was. The soft forest floor transitioned into a harsh, rocky terrain, and the trees and vegetation around them became sparse and spread out, they began walking on an incline upwards until abruptly coming to a rocky cliff.
Aegis in the lead, he looked down over the edge of the cliff to see a roughly 6 meter drop into a wide flat stretch of land at the base of the mountain, sitting between the cliff and the mountain itself. Through the flat stretch of land was a wide, fast moving river running along the base of the mountain which flowed eastward, wrapping halfway around a ruined keep that sat in the center of this stretch of land. The keep looked like it had at one point been square shaped, with four tall towers on each corner, but at this point in time only one tower remained standing - the other three had partially collapsed outside of the keep and were laying on their sides, overtaken by vines, moss, and other plants that crept over the stone.
The keep itself, the main building, seemed to be mainly intact save for some missing walls, and the walls around the outside of the keep were passable, though portions of them were missing. The stonework was of large grey stones but it had been mostly overtaken by green plantlife.
They were at least a kilometer out from the keep from where they stood, but they had a good vantage point to gather information. There was certainly movement from within, all three of them could see the cloaked Darxon cultists moving about along the walls, inside the keep, and some patrolling along the river.
However what drew their attention the most was exactly what Aegis had been warned of. Walking around the fields just outside of the keep was a large black wolf, it’s fur shimmered and reflected light occasionally, almost as if made of glass. The wolf was easily the size of an elephant and left enormous paw prints in the dirt that indicated it was doing circles around the keep, walking through the river even, to keep watch of the perimeter as a guard dog would. Even from this distance, they could see the text [Boss] written above its head.
“That’s a Ferrawolf… why is that here? Well, I guess it’s a bit smaller than normal Ferrawolves... Like a runt, but still…” Lina commented as she watched it move around.
“What’s a Ferrawolf?” Aegis asked.
“They’re usually living near the edge of islands in level 30-ish areas. They’re not usually considered bosses and they’re much bigger. Most people don’t hunt them though, because they have an annoying skill that makes them stronger the more players are nearby. This one is a lot smaller than usual though so it’s probably a bit weaker.” Lina replied.
“You know a lot about the game, huh?” Darkshot commented.
“Y-yeah.” She nodded shyly.
“Well, my quest is just to find the creature whose blood they’re using for the poison. I didn’t get the quest completed so I don’t think it's that thing. But that fur… looks really valuable…” Aegis was almost drooling. “It’s easy for small groups right? Let’s go get it.” He looked around the edge of the cliff for a few seconds before finding a footing on the jagged cliffface and began climbing down. Without saying anything, Lina started behind him.
“Why’re you climbing down? I bet there’s a ladder, or stairs or something somewhere.” Darkshot said anxiously as he looked over the edge.
“It’s faster to just climb, come on.”
“N-nah, I’ll find some stairs and meet you at the bottom.” He replied as he pulled back from the edge.
“Come on, this way is faster. Unless… are you afraid of heights or something?” Aegis asked while looking up at him, now about half a meter down.
“Pfshh, scared of heights? Me? Yeah, right. Y-you are, I bet you are scared of heights.” Darkshot stuttered back. Lina held back a chuckle, but Darkshot noticed. “You just wait, I’ll find a staircase down real fast and meet you at the bottom, while you’ll probably fall and take tons of damage. Th-then we’ll see who is laughing.” Darkshot said as he stormed off.
“So he’s afraid of heights.” Aegis sighed to himself. Lina and Aegis reached the bottom without issue, and by that time they couldn’t see Darkshot anywhere along the edge above them.
“So these Ferrawolves, they’re not tough for small groups?”
\ “I… don’t know that much.”
“Let’s try it then.”
“Should we wait for Darkshot?”
“Eh, he’ll catch up.” Aegis eyed the wolf wandering around the keep alone, nearing their side of the river now.
“Okay.” Lina smiled excitedly. “I learned a thief skill called feint, it reduces a target's aggression towards me, so you can keep it attacking you. If you need me to stop using it, let me know… I think I can run away for a bit, but the Ferrawolf is probably faster than me.”
“Got it!” Aegis marched forward, shield fastened on his wrist.
“Stupid Aegis. ‘Are you afraid of heights? Mhu mhu mhu mhu…’” Darkshot said in a voice mocking Aegis’. He continued along the cliff ledge for a few minutes until he happened across a sloping edge that led down the bottom like a ramp. “Hah, I told them.” Darkshot said triumphantly as he strutted down the ramp, but as he got closer to the bottom he spotted a group of players gathered together, speaking with each other. There were 7 of them in total, all standing around a single player named Galanis. When Darkshot approached, they all turned to look up at him.
“Oh, good, you’re here to join the Darxon Hideout party?” Galanis asked with enthusiasm, he saw the faces of everyone suddenly beaming up at him. Darkshot nervously fiddled with his party communication chat.
“Psst, hey, Aegis, Lina, the other party is here, looks like they’re grouping up to fight the wolf again.” Darkshot said.
“Don’t let them near it, -ahg, dang it hits hard. Keep them away.” Aegis replied, his voice sounding strained.
“Why does it sound like you’re already fighting it…” Darkshot turned to look over the side of the slope to see the Ferrawolf biting at Aegis’ shield while Lina maneuvered behind it and started stabbing. The moment he looked, Galanis’ group looked as well.
“Galanis, look! Someone is already fighting it!” Eccen called out.
“Come on, we need to help them!” Galanis replied, all the players drew their weapons and were about to rush forward.
“Wait! You mustn’t,” Darkshot dashed to stand between them and the battle taking place in the distance, he had changed his voice to a deeper tone. “The wolf, it is a deadly foe, beyond your abilities. You must wait here, and allow me and my companions to deal with it.”
“Heh? Move out of the way, or those guys are going to die.” Galanis protested.
“What the heck happened to your face?” Another player mumbled.
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“You want to know what happened to my face?” Darkshot ran his fingers through his hair. “When I was a young boy, my village was attacked by those wolves. That is how I learned to hunt them.”
“Young boy? You’re a player not an NPC…” Eccen replied annoyed, but Darkshot continued.
“But I will never forget the darkness that fell on my village that day. I imbue that anger into every arrow I shoot from my bow. That is why they call me, Darkshot.”
“Is this guy for real?” Another player mumbled.
“Look, man-” Galanis started, trying to be polite.
“Darkshot.” Darkshot corrected him.
“Darkshot, I appreciate some good roleplay, but we’ve got to get into the kill the wolf and get into that keep to save Orm, seriously, those guys -” Galanis looked over his shoulder to see that both Aegis and Lina were still fighting it, without showing signs of struggling.
“Trust in my companions. Those who are born from the darkness understand best how to defeat it. Wait here, we shall slay the wolf so that you may rescue the village.” Darkshot placed his hand on Galanis’ shoulder reassuringly. He gave a final nod before turning and dashing towards the battle taking place.
“Aegis, don’t worry, they’ll stay back. I handled it. I am such a badass.” Darkshot spoke through the party chat communication.
“That guy’s such a loser.” One of the players of the group commented, the others nodded in agreement.
“Should we go and help them, or wait?”
“Sounds like they want to fight it by themselves, so let’s just wait and see what happens.” Galanis shrugged, the group watching intently with their weapons still at the ready.
With the use of Brace, Aegis was able to reduce the damage of the Ferrawolf’s attacks down to 40 and 35. It alternated between biting at his shield and clawing at him, the force of the hits knocked him back a few centimeters each time, but he had enough time between blows to heal himself with Minor Heal whenever needed. If the fight went on for too long, he’d run out of mana, but luckily Lina was able to continuously stab it from behind uninterrupted.
“Don’t worry guys, I am here! Piercing Shot!” Darkshot shouted as he got close enough to attack. He released a giant arrow from his bow and it pierced the side of the Ferrawolf, magically passing through the creature out the other side and dealing decent damage.
“About time, scaredy cat.” Aegis mocked him.
“Let’s kill this thing fast so those guys back there are even more impressed. Multshit, piercing shot!” Darkshot shouted, shooting three piercing shots this time.
“Ah, wait, be careful!” Lina warned him, but it was too late, the three arrows pierced the Ferrawolf, dealing a large amount of damage, and it stopped attacking Aegis to turn and growl at Darkshot.
“Wait why is it looking at me?”
“Aegis doesn’t have any good aggressive building skills yet, so I was using feint, but Archers don’t get any aggression reduction until they take intermediate classes!” Lina shouted out worriedly.
“You idiot.” Aegis shouted angrily. “How do I get it back on me?” The Ferrawolf began charging at Darkshot, who turned and started running away while screaming.
“Pinning shot, pinning shot, pinning shot!” He shot backwards, the arrows hit the wolf but it was immune to the snaring affect, it ripped out of the vines and continued chasing him. “Aegis get it off of me!” He screamed.
“I’m trying, stop pissing it off even more! And don’t run towards the other players, it’s only going to make it stronger!”
“Where the hell am I supposed to run!” He looked back to see the Ferrawolf gaining on him quickly “Holy shit that thing is fast!”
“Your healing generates aggression, but only if the person you heal has taken damage.” Lina chased after the wolf, still getting hits in every now and then.
“Darkshot, you’re going to have to let it bite you.” Aegis shouted as he ran behind as well.
“Hell no!” Darkshot shouted back.
“Why not, you’ve got plenty of health, you’ll be fine!”
“Because I turned my pain threshold up to 10!”
“Why would you do that?!” Aegis yelled.
“I didn’t want to fall behind you!”
“Well then take the hit!”
“I’m scared!”
“Is there anything you aren’t scared of?”
“Getting bit by giant wolves is a perfectly reasonable thing to be afraid of, Aegis!”
“Isn’t that guy just running away?” Eccen commented as they watched Darkshot fleeing, the large Ferrawolf stampeding after him over the open field.
“Maybe it’s part of their strategy.” Galanis watched intensely.
The wolf lunged forward with its gigantic fangs, snapping at the spot where Darkshot stood, but he dashed out of the way to avoid it.
“Guh, just let it bite you damn it!” Aegis shouted.
“Easy for you to say, you’ve got a shield!” Darkshot called back, as it tried to swipe at him with its paws he ducked underneath the attack and kept running.
“He’s just going to keep dodging, so I can’t heal him. Lina, can you?” Aegis asked as he looked at her, the two running behind the Wolf, barely able to keep up. Lina nodded, took out a spare dagger from her inventory, and whipped it through the air between the wolves legs and into Darkshot’s back, dealing 90 piercing damage.
“Ow, shit, what the hell? Did you just throw a dagger at me?” Darkshot yelled angrily while glaring back at her for a moment, she shrugged innocently.
“Minor Heal!” Aegis shouted, healing up the damage on Darkshot and causing the Ferrawolf to turn its aggression back on to Aegis. He lifted his shield to block the attack, Lina continued damaging it as usual while Darkshot put his hands on his knees to catch his breath.
“Good, my plan worked, you had time to recover some mana.” Darkshot replied, once again speaking in his deeper voice. Aegis rolled his eyes. “So how am I supposed to deal damage without pissing it off?”
“Just use light attacks and from where it can’t see you very well, and not too much at once.” Lina explained.
“Got it.” Darkshot nodded, maneuvering behind the Ferrawolf. He shot off quite a few regular attacks and after a few more minutes, the Ferrawolf cried out in an angry howl, collapsing on its side and dying.
> Darxon Enslaved Ferrawolf [Boss] has been Slain!
>
> You gain 1413 Experience!
>
> You gain 20 Favor of Eirene.
>
> Level Up!: Minor Heal reached level 14!
>
> Level Up!: Leather Armor Proficiency reached level 16!
>
> Attribute Up!: You’ve gained +1 Spirit.
“It didn’t enrage?” Aegis looked confused as he watched it keel over, a single green orb rolling out of its mouth. The orb cracked open to reveal a green quality greatsword.
“I think because it’s just a weakened version of a higher level normal mob, it’s not really a boss exactly.” Lina suggested as she walked over to look at the sword. “That’s pretty good for low levels, but none of us can use it.”
“What should we do with it then? Sell it, right? We didn’t talk about how we’d handle loot drops.” Aegis asked the others. Darkshot and Lina both glanced at each other, and without saying anything they seemed to come to an agreement.
“How about you handle all of it? Just make sure you keep us well equipped.”
“Are you guys sure? We’ll be beating this stuff together, so it’d be fair if we split it.”
“Nah, you keep it. You’re giving me a Simbox so I’ve got nothing to complain about. Use extra money to keep getting us all better stuff. As long as we split gold drops, it should be fine, right Lina?”
She nodded. “Good enough for me.” Lina smiled.
“Alright. I’ll make sure everything is handled fairly.” Aegis replied as he put it in his inventory and took out his skinning knife.
“It’s a good thing you weren't streaming that yet though, I looked so uncool.” Darkshot said with relief.
“Oh, Shinji said that once we logged in, they’d be able to use any footage of my gameplay from that point onward, even if I’m not streaming.” Aegis replied as he began skinning the wolf.
“W-wait, what? Really? Tell them not to use that footage!”
“Are you kidding me? That was quality entertainment!” Aegis grinned devilishly at Darkshot.
“Those guys really did it? How?”
“I’m not sure, they’re around our level…” Eccen replied to the party member that had asked. The group remained watching from the base of the cliff in disbelief.
“Well, no matter, we’ve got some quests to complete.” Galanis said as he began to walk forward towards the keep. “Come on, the people of Orm are counting on us.”