Drawing close enough to the other Party after another sprint amongst the trees, I hop up a tree to observe the slow-moving group, seeing that they have the same Class composition, roughly, as the first, except for one outlier, a woman at the middle of their formation:

{Human, Solar Soldier, Lv.20}

The rest of the interlopers are in the mid to high teens but this one…she is in the Journeyman tier already!

I feel a slight twinge of unease, we have yet to face a legitimate Player at that tier. The closest we have come is likely Burgess’ final golem. That one took a lot to take down and in a far more controlled and, more importantly, friendly environment.

“Fear not.” Artemis interrupts my concerned ruminating, continuing calmly, “Look closer at her movements….she lacks.”

Narrowing my eyes, I peer harder at the woman and notice what my observant pup means.

The soldier variant, no matter her level, clearly has nowhere near my stats or even Artemis, my titles and extra Class points just buffing me too much, especially with the collared Brutal Bear leading them activating my Class ability once more and raising those stats even higher still.

But it is even more than that, her movements lack a certain…grace, knowledge, even power that shows how little she knows her own body and the limits of her recently advanced stats. She has yet to push them like us to the breaking point and beyond, to grow or fail on the very knife’s edge.

Reinvigorated, we go with the same plan that worked before, I leap out and split the last man in half, his armor like tissue paper before my might.

Artemis crushes a ribcage before leaping on the enslaved bear with a howl of battle-lust echoing out into the gloom of the enshrouding forest.

I block a strike from the next attacker, his spear attempting to sneak past my guard, before retaliating with a swing of my own, minus the sneakiness and adding for my power.

My strike splinters the spear’s haft and my blade drives, further unchallenged, through his chest and into his fragile spine beyond!

“Hmm, surprised you even have one…” I muse with a dark chuckle as I notice Horus finishing off his single target before I move on to the Journeyma- errr, Journeywoman?....whatever, you get it.

The Solar Soldier, looking left and right with wide eyes as she realizes she is the sole survivor, her features placing her in her 30’s, I belatedly notice, hurriedly begins to swing one of two thick batons she carries.

The tip of the steel-looking material lights up like the very sun, its brightness and heat palpable as she swings, not at me, but at my enlarged pup, still busy keeping the equally sized bear occupied.

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Growling at her pragmatic, if dishonorable, actions, I leap to my furry Companion’s defense with all of my strength!

Time slows as my desperation urges me faster, faster-- the baton coming down upon the vulnerable back.

Roaring now, although it sounds glacially slow to my sped-up perception, I realize I will be too late…

Crack!

The baton lands and I hear the breaking of bone, my bond flooding with pain as my poor girl spins away, favoring one side of her front paws, the side hit affecting that half of her body.

Urging her mentally to go use my Spell to heal, she grudgingly accepts but I can feel her pain and I need her to be okay.

Turning back to the woman standing there next to the bear, my rage grows, the flames fanned higher and higher by the harming of my best friend.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” I state quietly as I grip my hatchet with white knuckles.

“Why? It’s just a Beast, not like matters. Our Clan owns anything and anyone here anyway.” She replies acidly.

“Owns?” I ask incredulously, “You own nothing and no one here. All that you have left to your name on this earth is one simple, final thing…..

…your last breath.”

With that witty rejoinder, I’m on her.

My Style flows like never before, each strike landing on her hurriedly raised batons with the force of an avalanche.

My movements flow around her like water: smooth, clean and fast.

As she turns white from awe and sheer terror at my strength, my very presence, I watch her begin to struggle, her hands suffering small breaks and fractures from the sheer power of every attack she takes.

Finally, the inevitable happens and she screams out as her hands break, shatter even, under the grueling pressure I put on her.

She raises her limp hands and attempts to begin casting a Spell but is caught off by a blur accompanied by a loud, piercing scree!

The women freezes as the blur passes and flies off…

Then the front half of her face slips free from the rest of the skull and falls to the ground with a satisfyingly wet slap.

I lower my weapon, turning right away to my girl and hustling over to her.

“I’m fine. Get the collar off the bear. He deserves his freedom.” she says as she waves me away with a flick of her paw as she uses some Aster Aid to heal up.

I reach out mentally, see her recovering HP and give her a small nod, my concern ebbing.

Turning to the poor bear, I quickly yank off the blighted collar with a grimace of distaste and stow it away as well, the Beast rushing off without so much as a thank you.

Now, since the main force is some distance away, I send Horus to find the scout that was supposed to be watching the progress of this fallen group.

He has to swoop over the scout’s head a couple times but eventually, the woman gets the idea and follows Horus back towards us.

Time to loot!

I decide to give the lion’s share to the scout to run back and distribute accordingly to our small army of defenders.

Mainly, the loot consists of staffs, wands and the occasional bladed weapon too, all of higher quality than the average carried by our own force.

As the woman runs off, her face pale at the sight of the broken and shattered bodies littering the forest floor at our feet, we make our own way back but with a slight detour to scout the main force ourself.

Utilizing Horus, our eyes in the sky, we make good time and find the enemy army with a mile or so of marching left before they hit the settlement clearing.

Perched on a convenient tree branch nearly 60 feet in the air with Artemis’ claws digging scars into the bark for traction, we scan over the force and see much of the same mid-teens in levels with a smattering of collared beasts but I do notice a few outliers, one in particular raising my brow.

{Human, Solar Sorcerer, Lv.19}

{Human, Flame Warrior, Lv.19}

And finally, the brow-raising one:

{Human?, Solar Son, Lv.21}

I have yet to see any question marks such as that one in any of the System description, which means this is something new and that makes me nervous, I must admit.

Could this be another Player with System interest placed upon him?

Only one way to find out…