A wide swing tears into someone's flesh.
It's not the first fight, but zombies and even bandits are different. These are players, real human beings behind their avatars. A chill runs through my spine from this weird feeling, is this how it feels to wound someone in real life too?
It didn't do much damage, it's a surprise that it even connects, as that's my off-hand. These guys don't care about defense though, they want to bring me down, whether they survive or not. If they do, the Angels will get them anyway, whenever they finally get here.
The weapon is not made for this.
It's like a regular hammer with a few extra spikes, not what the usual fantasy tropes try to sell you. No enormous stone slab bolted onto a two-handed iron rod that dwarves throw around. It's more like a cute little framing hammer the size of a forearm.
According to its description, its main purpose is to deal with armor, and these guys have none. Neither does the avatar and they have many tools to exploit that, even if they use cheap equipment. Why carry more than what's necessary to kill someone unsuspecting?
They know what they're doing, even if they act sloppy.
Closing in from all sides, they box in the avatar, and without breaking out of here first, there will be no escape. The shield does a better job at that than the war hammer, pushing them to the side. If there was a second one in the inventory, I'd equip that too.
It's a bad idea to rely on one thing too much, that's why I spent so long on practicing the parries. The kid with the dagger tries to stab after me, he's the fastest of the bunch but gets a taste of my feet. Are they on auto-battle mode or something?
He looks surprised after that kick, but it's all the better.
If his avatar is anything to go by, he's younger than me. There was no age slider in character generation, though it can be some Premium thing too. It doesn't matter in this situation, whether he's five or fifty, I won't let them take me down.
The first shield bash only bought a few seconds, and now it gave one of them a Stun effect. It was an older dude with a sparse beard and the most dangerous-looking weapon of the bunch. This is everything one could hope for; stepping over him is easy.
The alley to the Training Grounds is within reach.
When the guys blocking the exits of the plaza realize what I'm aiming for, they're too late. It's easy to tell these are different from the ones who always chill by the Adventurer's Guild. They must've come from Taji after having their fun there.
The local thugs would know about the regional modifier of the Training Grounds. Although, this is the starter village after all, they all should know about it. Their main goal should have been to block that path, rather than the exits.
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Or did they think it was a higher-level player?
No, I still couldn't figure out how to hide the number next to the name. Who cares, the character is on the run. They swing after it from free sides, but only one of those lands which is still enough to cause panic.
All damage feels higher than usual without armor. It wasn't even a dagger this time, is he using a literal club? It still stung, though talk about low effort. Thank God the guy with the arming sword is still stunned. That would have done a lot worse.
[02:06:02. A Heavy Stab with Battered Club on Noob. +4 Damage.]
Why does this game call everything a stab, even when it's a blunt object? Whatever, ouch, it leaves the avatar with three tiny hearts. Wait, not two? What caused one to recover this fast? Was it pure luck? Run, damn it, there will be time to think about it later.
Right! Recovery. The inventory is full of potions, for fuck's sake. Even better, those were the only items organized as they should have been. Smartass. Scatterbrained. This is why reflexes don't do shit when your brain is in the clouds.
[Status effect: Healing Potion +5000% Regeneration Speed 0:02.]
You love to see it. This should be enough to propel me through that little alley. It fills up the stamina bar too, I already forgot it does that. They're far from done though. The first flash appears in the sky only after ten seconds in combat.
The area becomes noisy, the other players try to gain distance from the fight, and some even log off on the spot. They don't want another massacre but aren't concerned by what's happening either.
These must be everyday occurrences in CineMraft.
How long until those lazy-ass Angels descend? It'll be longer than reaching the Training Grounds. Let's hope the thugs won't catch up to stab me in the back before the green potion does its job.
Two seconds are all it takes for the effect to kick in and bring me to full health, but this combat happens fast. These aren't zombies, they know how to take someone down. And Arnim the Numbered knows how to run for his life.
Name a more iconic duo, I'll wait.
Or rather not. The mace comes close to bashing the skull again, but he misses. The dumbest thing I can answer is to throw the hammer back at him, losing the second weapon too. It doesn't do much other than trigger his reflex to avoid it, but that's an extra moment to run.
They had nobody in the alleys, did they even know it was here?
Shit, that kid with the dagger is fast, he catches up and wins a slap with the shield in his face. He looks more surprised than hurt, though I don't care as long as it stops them. It's ten meters at most, and the character should be safe.
Where is Tank? He was always in the center, waving even at night, and now he's nowhere in sight. Is it past his bedtime or something? Is it a guy after all, with set working hours? Does it matter? He's an NPC, whether the AI controls him or a human.
He wouldn't take sides in a PVP match, would he?
Well, as long as the Training Ground's area of effect or whatever keeps them away from me, I don't care. They move fast though, and are still on my heels. The avatar should have a dagger somewhere too. Make sure you don't throw it away as well, idiot.
The stun-effect wears off, but the arming sword-guy is too far behind to make a difference at this point. The most worrisome is the one with the mace and the kid with the dagger. The former wasted precious seconds on avoiding the war hammer.
The latter still struggles with the shield.
And then, there is a blunt hit from a blind spot.