The group set out from camp just before dawn. The first light of the sun was just beginning to show itself over the horizon and they wanted to get a head start on the day.

They’d opted to bring Liam and Sasha with on this excursion. Andy had let them know it would be perfectly fine to leave the duo behind, as they wouldn’t have access to open the gates or do any harm to the base, but Liam insisted they come along.

“I understand you don’t trust us. But we’re going to earn our place here. I talked it over with Sasha. We can help with scouting Knox’s camp, and really, we need experience too. We want to help rescue Lexie and free those people, and we can’t do it at level 6.”

Liam and Sasha were very underpowered at the moment, that was a fact. Calvin saw the logic in having them come along. The know where Knox’s camp is, and they might have details about how the scouting parties operate. Plus, they’d be able to keep an eye on them out here. A big downside is that they would be a liability in any tougher fights.

“Alright, we’ll take you along. If we encounter anything at your level, we can let you get the kills. Let me be clear though, you’re going to have to follow our orders. I won’t tolerate anything that puts us at risk. Is that clear?” Calvin said.

“100%. We will do what you say and keep out of the way.” Liam confirmed.

With that, the group set out for Water Beartopia. This journey was much more tense than previous jaunts through the jungle. This time they had the sense of being watched from every rock, tree and shadow on their march.

Liam however, immediately proved useful. He was a scouting class known as a wayfinder. His skills gave him the ability to move silently through the thick brush and blend in with the foliage. Even knowing he was there, the party had trouble seeing him among the leaves. He also had a heightened perception and could sense living creatures within the forest. In fact, this is how Knox knew of Calvin’s team hiding in the tree line when they attacked.

They’d made good time on their journey thanks to Liam’s scouting abilities. They did not encounter any of Knox’s men, however, they did locate signs that they’d been there poking around. Having hostile humans roaming around in their part of the jungle could prove to be an issue. Seth was working through ways in his head to help secure this area a little better.

A little over an hour after sunrise, they reached their destination. They could see the numerous water bears roaming around, getting started on their morning breakfast routines. The fuzzy little bastards slowly began filtering out from their dens in the area, moving toward the pond.

From here, they would tackle a few objectives. Seth and Liam worked to get Scout ready for its little intel flight. Liam pointed out a rough direction for Knox’s camp and Seth set Scout loose. The range was limited, so they needed to have it fly more or less in a straight line and back to maximize the range.

Next, they opted to pick a fight with some wandering groups of water bears. This was for Liam and Sasha’s benefit. The group would remain as a rear guard and support but planned to let the duo get the kills themselves.

The first fight against two water bears was rough. The duo were completely uncoordinated and had clearly spent no time harmonizing their combat style together.

Liam had opened up the fight with an Aimed Shot. This particular skill was a channeled ability that let him fire an arrow at a weak point, doing additional damage. It was a great opener, and Calvin could see the potential in it.

After that, it just turned into a brawl. Sasha charged in, screaming and swinging wildly at the bears. Her movements were stiff and unplanned. Numerous times she’d taken a swipe that should have been an easy dodge for her, yet, she took it anyway and continued hacking away.

Liam was firing shot after shot, trying to position himself so that he wouldn’t hit Sasha. This ended up setting a clunky pace for the fight where the bears were able to focus their efforts almost entirely on Sasha as long as they positioned themselves opposite her. They might just be overgrown rodents, but they weren’t completely dumb.

Calvin started to wonder if they should step in and he had Marshall get ready with his pistol just in case. But they held off for the moment.

Sasha had finally wounded the first bear enough to put it out of the fight, although she sported several nasty wounds herself.

Once the first bear had been decommissioned, it went much smoother after that and Sasha was able to bring the other one down in short order.

Marshall made his way over to the exhausted swordswoman and began patching up her wounds.

“Well…” Calvin began, “Would you like some advice?”

Liam initially looked offended and took a defensive posture on impulse, but quickly backed down. “Sure, I think we could use it.”

“You don’t work together. I wasn’t able to see what Sasha’s abilities were besides ‘hit things with sword’ but you aren’t playing to each other’s strengths. She was in your way, and you struggled to reposition for effective shots.”

Liam nodded, listening and absorbing the lesson.

“You have a strong tool with that opening shot, you should capitalize on that. Does it have a recharge time?”

“No, I have to charge it for a few seconds though, and it drains my stamina while I do.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Distance is your ally then. You and Sasha should coordinate on that. If you open with a shot, and begin charging another while they charge you, Sasha could wait for the second shot to ambush. Best case, you take an opponent out of the fight before it starts. Worst case, you interrupt their charge and then you’re in control of the flow.”

Sasha, now healed up, approached to listen as well.

“I was just giving some pointers to Liam here. We’re not experts or anything, but we’ve had a few rough scrapes and have learned a lot from them so far.”

“Anything helps, so thank you. In our old scouting parties, Knox’s generals would hog all of the kills, we were just there for backup.” Sasha said. True appreciation was evident in her tone.

“Would you mind sharing your skills? I wasn’t able to really see what they were in that fight.”

“Sure, truthfully, I didn’t use many. I have a skill called Tackle which is exactly what it sounds like. I gain some movement speed and toughness when I do it. The downside is that it hurts… a lot. When I crashed into your little armored warhound I was sure I’d broken something. I also have a skill called Shattering Riposte but it requires a shield, it allows me to disarm an opponent with my shield and follow up with a quick strike. I can also use stamina to increase my movement and attack speed.” Sasha said, listing her capabilities.

“That’s it?” Calvin asked, surprised. “Only three skills?”

“I picked an iron rank class. Knox made me. I guess he didn’t want us getting too strong.”

“Sheesh, I hate this guy more every minute. That’s ok, you’ll get the chance to upgrade at level 25, so let’s just work with what you’ve got. I notice you don’t have a shield, and you’re really losing effectiveness without it. Even your tackle could use one.”

“Agreed, I haven’t been able to get one. These swords I was able to grab from the pile of junk left for us.”

“We’ll have to change that. If we don’t find something, we’ll see if Seth can come up with something for you. He’s pretty handy like that. Are you good to keep going?”

Sasha banged her swords together, signifying she was ready to roll.

Calvin recapped what he’d discussed with Liam and after forming a loose plan, they found another group of water bears who volunteered completely and without duress to help test their skills.

This fight went so much better. They engaged the two water bears from quite far off, giving Liam time to land two Aimed Shots. Killing one bear outright before Sasha ambushed the other. Liam worked to position himself in concert with Sasha’s strikes, and they communicated to each other through the battle.

Seth figured Scout would be out for several hours, so the team decided to push deeper into water bear territory and see if they could find stronger prey. They fought several roaming groups on the way in, letting Liam and Sasha lead the charge. It was great experience for the two of them and it made the group feel much better about having them around. They didn’t trust them completely yet, but they did get a sense of their sincerity to not be dead weight.

Water Beartopia might have begun as a lush forest littered with small bear dens dug out of the ground, but as they pushed deeper, the environment changed significantly. Emerald green undergrowth and dense trees gave way to a barren soil, smelling strongly of rot and decay. The reason for that was fairly obvious. Carcasses of slain creatures were strewn about in various stages of decomposition. Piles of bones littered nearly every surface leading up to the entrance of a large stone cave boring into the hill.

“Well, that’s ominous.” said Marshall. “Anyone getting any good vibes from that cave over there?

Seth crouched down to inspect some nearby bones.

“These were definitely something’s food. These bones are crushed. Look at those big teeth marks.” Seth looked over at the cave, “I have a feeling the culprit probably lives in there.”

“There? The big scary cave surrounded by bones and rotting corpses? I don’t know….” Marshall said. “I say we check it out.”

The group hesitantly agreed. They did come here for a challenge after all.

Calvin had Liam and Amy scope out the surroundings first. Mostly to make sure Knox didn’t have people sneaking up on them. Sure, Liam could have done it by himself, but Amy was there for moral support… and to make sure he didn’t do something stupid.

With the coast confirmed clear, the group cautiously approached the gaping cave maw of doom.

As they passed through the opening and into the large tunnel, the smell nearly overwhelmed them. The air was like a humid porridge of wet rat, dung and rotting meat. Liam and Sasha nearly abandoned their post right there. Partly because of fear and partly because last night’s dinner was about to make a comeback in a violent way. The group trudged on anyway. Power didn’t come easy out here in systemville.

The tunnel was just barely three times as tall as Calvin and nearly as wide. The edges of the rock wall had been scuffed and eroded away with the passage of whatever creature lived inside. They could see just ahead that the tunnel expanded into a cavernous area and they quickly slowed their approach.

“Amy, cloak up and poke your head in there. Tell me if it’s safe.” Marshall said.

She gave him a murderous glance

“And here I was, thinking about using you as bait.” she followed up, slipping under cover of Static Cloak anyway. She knew her role, and this was it.

A few seconds later, she returned, “There is a big ass sleeping bear in there. Like… BIG. I was able to catch its level. 18.”

“Are you sure it’s asleep?” Calvin asked.

“Oh definitely, snoring, drool, pretty much the whole, big monster sleeping in a cave checklist.”

“Easiest experience ever.” Marshall said, drawing groans from the rest.

“You’re a living, breathing curse. I’m sure of it.” said Ian, and the rest of the group agreed.

“Alright.” said Calvin, “Let’s move in slow, get a feel for the situation and get set up. Liam, Sasha wait at the entrance.”

“We want to fight. We need the experience too.” Liam argued.

“We’re not shutting you out of this. But if that thing’s level 18, we need you at the back line, for your safety and ours. We need to be able to move around and not worry about tripping over your mauled corpse in there. We could use your arrows.” Calvin produced three of the old Javelins he’d been carrying around. “Sasha, take these. At the very least, once the fight starts, toss a few of these in there. I don’t think you should get too close.”

With that, they moved into the room and everyone got a chance to see what they were up against.

“Amy…” Seth said slowly. “I don’t think you adequately emphasized ‘BIG’”

He was right. This creature would likely stand 15 feet tall on all fours. At the moment, it was a rather ungraceful sight. The creature was rolled over on its back, with its legs dangling wherever gravity took them. Loud rumbling snores erupted from the bear and massive pools of drool leaked out from its dangling lips. Behind those lips were huge gleaming fangs, each one the size of a short sword.

“Well, fuck me. I take back what I said about the easy experience” Marshall said. “This is gonna be a walk in the park.” This almost sealed the deal on using Marshall as bait.

They took up positions, Liam and Sasha guarded the entrance, Amy, flanked around to get behind the creature while Calvin and Freya took point in front of the rest.

Calvin signaled for Liam to begin charging his Aimed Shot. The arrow lurched out of the bow like a viper. The very same instant, Ian held out his hand and a gout of flames erupted from the creature’s nose. He’d summoned Enkindle right in its mouth. Boy did that wake it up.