In another dimension both Sylvia and Kai were enshrouded in darkness. Around them in every direction is viewed as passing scenery at very high speeds. Instead of instantaneous teleportation the power is actually high speed movement in an alternate phase of existence. Catching Kai out of reflex Sylvia ended up being teleported as well. Able to move around as the darkness acted like a bodysuit, Kai focused on it and activated [Reality Comprehension].
- Teleportation active, requirements seal. It may be possible to disrupt the teleportation mid use.
Without second questioning the latter part of the prompt. Kai tried the only possible course of action he could think of, while Sylvia seemed to be in a daze from the initial impact. Using the skill [Self-Reality Alter], he changed the description of how the shadow bodysuit perceived him. Turning himself into a boulder one meter wide and tall, Kai hoped to disrupt the spell. Soon after, the shadow bodysuit gradually broke off, first from Sylvia then from Kai’s frame due to the requirements not being met and deactivated the teleportation mid jump.
*SPLASH*
Exiting the alternate plane of existence Kai plunged from the air directly into a lake.
“Fwuaa!”
Frantically rising up to the surface to catch his breath Kai coughed up water. In the attempt to avoid from drowning he slowly made his way to land. Kai noticed that luckily since the skill worked, it hadn’t encompassed Sylvia and due to that she was thrown out first. Going for the shortest distance to land he spotted an area with no signs of life, hoping Sylvia chose the same side of the lake as him.
Moving along the shallow muddy waters. Kai found himself still currently in a forest. Observing the surroundings to be quite different from before Kai deemed his area to be far from his friends. Taking the time to relax and gather his thoughts. Kai believed Sylvia would be able to take care of herself and didn’t rush to locate her. Kai started to strip and set aside his wet clothes and shoes to dry.
Upon inspection of his backpack Kai noticed the original two compartments underwent an alteration. Now existed a new lightweight version at the expense of storage capacity. The second outer compartment was completely sliced off leaving only the first part. Thanks to the quality of material Kira used in the backpack, none of the items within were affected by the plunge into the lake. The assessment of the contents within the backpack contained several days worth of food supplies and fresh water, with the addition of a first aid kit. However, it seemed that the important camping and survival kit were gone with the other half of the backpack. Kai placed the seal within his hand into the backpack for safe keeping.
'First off, I need to find Sylvia then to find some shelter, as well as gather more food.'
The issue of water was taken care of by the lake he knew was safe, when he unintentionally swallowed water in the process of trying not to drown. Despair never appeared as if survival instincts had kicked in, Kai pushed the thoughts of reuniting with Marc and Tessa aside. Affirming the situation at hand was more important. Kai opened his status window. Instantly his expression took a plunge, followed by a long felt sigh.
“Ugh, as expected I got hurt from that fall.”
As any lonely person would Kai spoke aloud to himself. Having registered the amount of damage to be a tad over half his current health. Kai’s remaining health was 32 out of 70. While fidgeting about in frustration a noise from the trees grabbed his full attention.
‘Huh, Sylvia should be coming from that direction… Oh, crap I’m butt-naked!’
Noticing too late and opposite of what he envisioned, a magical creature similar to a large black bear with hide of stone emerged. Kai activated his [Self-Reality Alter] in an attempt to hide. Changing his appearance to that of a wide tree stump.
‘Ah crap, it saw me didn’t it!’
Scared for his life at the thought of meeting eye contact with the beast and second guessing the possibilities of failure. Kai activated [Reality Comprehension] as the bear approached.
- Stone Bear: [Lvl:25] - Common lower level predator seeking resting grounds with drinking water. Current status: Bewildered
With the cautiously approaching Stone Bear, Kai’s first thought was directed at the level. Thinking of ways to beat the Stone Bear and how long it would take to accomplish. Imagining this world as a game with more than advanced graphics. He thought about the grind necessary to compete against these creatures on equal footing. However, with a halt to his imagination, due to the rising fear of being found out. Kai started to question the details revolving [Self-Reality Alter].
‘Won’t he be able to smell me? I’ve yet to try it on anything living.’
Trying to stay as still as his appearance to not give himself away. The Stone Bear appeared right in front of the face, of the crouched down Kai. Able to feel the breathe of the beast, Kai’s fear meter rose uncontrollably.
‘It’s going to eat me!’
There’s no way that the Stone Bear did not sense Kai. With all the shaking and high level of fear by no means was his imitation of a tree stump accurate. Although to the wild beast all it saw was a tree stump on the edge of a lake, in an odd location no less.
‘Huh, it’s turning around. Yes! I’m safe...’
The Stone Bear turned and tension started to relieve from Kai.
‘Wait! What the hell is it doing? Don’t tell me...’
To Kai’s amazement the bear ended up marking his territory by pissing all over him.
‘Ahh! For crying out loud. Are you serious...’
Complaint after complaint the Stone Bear eventually left down the side of the lake opposite from the direction Sylvia was known to be at. Without noticing, the first thing Kai wanted to do was jump into the lake. But with a pause he considered the benefits of being doused in piss. As he thought, he activated [Reality Comprehension] on his pee covered naked body.
- A fool covered in Stone Bear urine. Side effects: Unpleasant odor, reduced threat from most small to medium sized creatures.
“Ah ha! Just as I thought, reduced threat. Now I only have to decide…”
Debating on whether or not to leave the urine on. Kai decided that it would be better to withstand the smell for reduced encounters with monsters. He would also run out of mana in no time using his [Self-Reality Alter] too frequently. The cause being the fact that the monsters in the area were immensely stronger.
Kai recognized that the lake is a frequented hot spot that many creatures would travel to. To avoid confrontations he quickly dressed up, drank water from the lake and ate food on the way towards Sylvia’s direction. Kai recovered twenty-six health points making his current health 58 out of 70. Along with his health a slight mana recovery occurred, which brought his mana to 80 of 100.
Kai’s thoughts were focused on the details of how [Self-Reality Alter] worked. The skill affected all five senses of the targeted opponent. Not only changing the sense of smell it worked for sound. Through the encounter with the Stone Bear, Kai found out that the skill would work regardless of location. Meaning the ability to move, after the skill was activated is possible. That the skill technically places an illusion at the dedicated activation spot. As for the last sense of taste, it had yet to be tested, but Kai determined that as well would be altered and successful.
“...”
“...”
“I took the piss head on… I could’ve moved!”
Failing to notice this factor beforehand dealt a sharp blow to his ego. After regretting the prior event, Kai noticed he had been safe thus far and accepted it at face value. It was all thanks to the Stone Bears urine…
‘I wonder if Sylvia’s alright.’
If Kai had a choice of who to be stuck with, he couldn’t have chose any better. The perfectly figured Sylvia with white hair shaded gray, flowing elegantly down to her buttocks was the first image that entered into Kai’s thoughts. Now starting to worry whether or not she encountered a monster as well, Kai’s mind was put somewhat at ease when he remembered what her class and stats were when everyone said theirs aloud. Sylvia being a specialist class along with Sedric, made her overall stats for everything rather high. The side effect of allowing her to do generally anything, made all her stats dramatically high. Kai wondered about what she did in real life, figuring if the stats were like his own and proportionally related to what one has done in real life. Then she must know a lot, at the very least self-defense to protect herself. This relaxed his mind, nevertheless Kai ended up increasing his pace ignoring his logical conclusion.
To his surroundings all Kai could see that allowed him to use as a weapon, were numerous rocks and small twigs. Everything else numbered from large logs to boulders.
‘Heh useless, just gonna have to wait till we enter the forest to grab another stick.’
As Kai walked along the muddy shore his mind fell back into the gutters, filled with visions of being alone with Sylvia. Retracting him from his thoughts the sounds of a fight entered his ears while approaching a bend of rocks. Kai ran around the boulders and used [Reality Comprehension] on the monster currently engaged with Sylvia.
- Young Ballisk: [Lvl:12] - Considered a child, however still dangerous. Evolved form of a snake gaining stronger scales and can easily grow past 3 meters long. Avoid the acid spitting if possible.
The ballisk was roughly one meter long as it slithered onto land in pursuit. Sylvia continued to further back away from the water, accompanied with a bleeding arm that was partially melted from acid. Sylvia stopped to stand her ground when Kai came up and threw a rock at the ballisk. The monster easily dodged the rock and immediately headed in Kai’s direction. Kai activated [Self-Reality Alter] to scare away the creature in hopes to also impress Sylvia. Changing his appearance from the monster’s viewpoint, all it saw standing there was a smaller version of the Stone Bear, Kai had encountered. Kai hoped for the monster to fear the Stone Bear’s presence and took a chance with a smaller version, enough to not be recognized as an adult. To the ballisk all it saw was a Stone Bear ferociously roaring at enemies in their territory. The ballisk slithered away in fear. The Stone Bear's were known to be natural enemies with hides of stone that prevented all acid attacks making confrontations dangerously pointless.
“How did you do that!” Sylvia questioned while moving closer to Kai, who stared at her and the exposed flesh of her bleeding arm.
“Oh this, it’s no big deal.” Sylvia activated her skill [Healing Essence]. The next moment her arm was the enactment of a video player’s rewind feature. At a steady pace the blood on her arm flowed back into the closing wound just like new, repairing the melted flesh and purging the acid.
“See?-... Eww, What in the world is that horrible smell?!” Sylvia covered her nose as she asked with an appalled voice.
‘Why does this always happen! Can I never have a normal conversation with her?!’ Kai thought as he sought an explanation or excuse that the smell didn’t come from him.
“Ah… This is urine of a bear I encountered before coming here. I ended up playing dead and it pissed on me… I decided to keep it on for the possibility of deterring monsters. And look it worked! That ballisk ran away in fear.” Kai said as he told half truths and started laughing to mask his humiliation.
“That’s disgusting, please don’t come near me.”
“...We should head into the forest, it’s probably safer than staying near the water.”
As Kai replied, Sylvia stared at him with an expression that said she wouldn’t go anywhere together with him.
“Fine, I get it. I’ll go clean it off…” Kai sighed as he striped to his boxers in front of Sylvia and went into the lake to wash the urine off.
After the wash Kai walked out of the lake and was confronted by Sylvia who gave him a towel to dry off with.
“Huh, thanks. Where did you get that?” Kai accepted the secondhand wet towel and started patting himself dry.
“From my backpack. I saw that yours was cut in half. You’re missing important supplies, so we have to share for now.”
‘Oh, she's quite reasonable maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to lie to her.’
While attempting not to show his enjoyment of Sylvia’s scent, Kai drained the towel as much as possible then handed it back to Sylvia.
“Do you see those mountains beyond the forest? I think it's best, to head in that direction to figure out where we are, by looking down from a high vantage point.” Kai said
“That’s fine, this doesn’t look like the same forest that we were in with Helena and the others.”
Shortly after, Kai and Sylvia headed towards the mountains still slightly wet.
The size of the trees increased into miniature skyscrapers the further they went in, making the forest seem endlessly vast. With the abundance of wood, Kai found a suitable stick laying around with ease. A stick worthy of being called a shepherds cane, reaching just over the 5’11” Kai.
“I think you should get a stick also-” Before Kai could finish his sentence in Sylvia’s hand was a dagger made out of petrified wood with sharp jagged edges. The dagger was two feet long including the hilt. With it in hand Sylvia was sharpening a large stick into a spear.
Staring at her with his mouth wide open and a face full of jealousy, Kai turned around dejectedly with his hopes to help Sylvia find a weapon crushed.
“Huh, did you say something?”
“Yeah, that's a nice weapon you got there but couldn’t you just use the dagger?”
“It's better to save it as a last resort. This dagger isn’t metal and is the only sharp object we have.” Sylvia replied brimming with self-reliance.
“Seems like you`re used to this kind of thing.”
“You could say that…” Sylvia curtly replied.
‘Ok…, Guess she won’t open up to me that easily.’ Kai thought when he decided to activate [Reality Comprehension] several times on Sylvia.
- Sylvia Faye: [Lvl:2] - Focused on making a shelter worrying about night time.
- Skill in weapon crafting has risen.
- Able to easily read your intentions and knows your hiding the truth. Lying is bad.
- More likely to survive here than you.
‘Wait, what she's already level two!? Eh?... Am I that easy to read?’
Kai stubbornly stuck to his methods and would continue to hide the truth unless forced otherwise. Unable to ask about how she rose in level, Kai guessed it must of occurred right before he met up with her, proving his first thought that she could handle things alone.
As if reading her mind Kai suggested finding shelter before nightfall.
“There must be something we can use for shelter or perhaps make.”
One step ahead of him, Sylvia laid out a canvas for the ground and aside from it a tent missing the support. Both the items were made out of high quality silk threads, spider’s silk known to be ten times stronger than Kevlar.
“Oh, nice that solves a lot. Now we just need to find sticks to hold up the tent.” Kai said as he looked around for possible supports.
“You mean, all I need to do is find support for my tent… I’m giving you the canvas, you’re on your own from there.” Sylvia stated emphasizing on the "my" part and went to fix her tent.
‘Huh, you can’t be serious.’ Kai continued staring at Sylvia with an irritated expression. Then following suite he took the folded canvas and went off to find his own shelter as animosity started growing, and his dreams of sleeping next to Sylvia crumbled.
Looking around for a place to setup camp after being shunned away. Kai spotted a large hollow tree, big enough to contain a fully sprawled out body. Instead of using the canvas for the ground, Kai set it up as a curtain held up by rocks and sticks from the inside. As for the ground he would lie on large leaves that were placed for cushioning. The distance ended up being a two minute walk at a slow pace from Sylvia’s location. Having finished setting up his shelter rather quickly Kai went to check up on Sylvia.
In view of Sylvia’s domain was a grand tent as if built by a professional. Along with her tent she had ropes made out of the same material used for the main support. The ropes were tied in between two trees giving the tent its height. Using her dagger to create wooden stakes she used them to make the tent secured along with large sticks for extra support. Like Kai, she applied the finishing touches of bedding with finer quality leaves.
‘Well, this obviously isn’t her first time camping...’ At the same time he thought that, Kai unconsciously said “Is that for sale, how much you want?”
Kai found that the comment went unheard and moved in closer to Sylvia for discussion of today’s game plan, before it turned dark.
“I’m not sure if this would relate to you since you can self heal, but I believe it’s best to search for our own food and save what we already have for emergency situations. Using the rations as a means to heal, we have to go hunting for food to curb our hunger. Now for, the decision of what to hunt. I saw some rabbits, squirrels, and rats along the way that would be easy enough I think. I’m also gonna take a guess, and cross off rats, because you didn’t like the bear piss so I doubt you’d wanna eat rat.”
Waiting for her reply, all Kai noticed were minor changes in facial expressions, which made his guess one hundred percent correct.
“We can hunt the rabbits, but it’s not as easy as you think. The squirrels would be too difficult, since they’ll eventually climb up trees.” Sylvia completely ignored the part about rats.
They stealthily wandered around for roughly five minutes, until they spotted a rabbit in the distance. Instead of verbally giving visual confirmation, Kai used several hand gestures from pointing at the rabbit to various other hand movements that made out a plan for capture. Tilting her head, Sylvia quietly said “You expect me to understand that?”
Staring at her for a moment as if she came from another world, Kai realized he also didn’t know what he was implying.
“Umm… You go distract the rabbit and lure it to me, and I’ll grab it.” Without questioning Kai’s overly unimpressive plan, Sylvia followed his directions knowing the outcome would end up in complete failure, giving her a proper chance to gain leadership of future decisions. Sylvia made her roundabout way as to not prematurely arouse the rabbit. Getting into position the signal from Kai to commence the operation was given. Kai activated [Self-Reality Alter] changing his presence into a maximum sized boulder against a tree hoping to limit the rabbit’s escape routes.
Kai watched as Sylvia corralled the rabbit as best she could to him.
‘Wow, she's actually pretty good, that thing is coming right at me. I didn’t think this plan would work. The actual method that I knew, which was somewhat plausible, was if I turned myself into food the rabbit loved to eat. That would however risk revealing my skills.’
Kai thought this as he figured out which path the rabbit would take and readied his staff, with his stance that looked like a golfer but aiming slightly higher.
‘Now, all I need to do is wait patiently for the right time to swing.’
The rabbit in its attempt to quickly flee, easily gained distance from Sylvia and the initial tension from the chase disappeared. By doing so, the rabbit eased off the speed and didn’t take evasive maneuvers. While passing a boulder the rabbit suddenly ceased all cognitive functions.
*DAAAT!*
Flying into the distance straight into a tree, the impact created a loud thump after the sound from the initial first hit.
Walking up to the deceased rabbit with an extra oomph in his steps, signified Kai’s mood to be a joyous one. Kai held up the four foot long rabbit from its hind legs as Sylvia approached.
“How’d you do that!” Puzzled beyond belief, Sylvia watched as blood dripped from the mouth of the rabbit, whose joints were completely dislocated turning it into a complete wreck.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Hmm? You saw what happened right? I killed it with my stick, while getting rid of an extra step in the cooking process and made it pre-tenderized.”
"Yea, but..." Sylvia gave a glare that meant he took it too far on the poor rabbit.
"Huh? What's the problem now... Were we suppose to have it squirm in our bellies when we ate it alive? Look, you kill the next one if that makes you happy."
They agreed on switching positions when they spotted another unsuspecting victim that entered their area. Kai moved around attempting his best at mirroring Sylvia's past movements. In doing so, Kai had a brief moment filled with ill-harbored thoughts of creating a prank. By using his skill, just to make a stone bear appear and scare the defenseless rabbit would force it into taking evasive actions. Knowing it best not to waste his precious mana pool for personal animosity or enjoyment, he ran after the rabbit leading it into the trap.
Sylvia in place popped out from hiding alerting the rabbit several meters away. As the rabbit turned to alter its course, Sylvia with her spear in hand took proper stance and activated [Unique Onslaught] a special buff type magic. In her eyes mere seconds turned into vividly slow motion of the rabbit. Sylvia with the heightened abilities of all senses threw the spear in hand. Released from her grasp the spear found its way lodged into the ground just after skewering the rabbit.
Going up to grab her spear, Sylvia also reduced a necessary step from the cooking process by making it ready-to-be grilled.
'Whoa, that was sort of scary... She's even worse than me!' Kai prodded the impaled rabbit with his stick. Before he could make a sarcastic joke the face of a girl harboring many emotions entered his sight. Sylvia filled with mixed emotions of pain, anger, and sadness looked like she wanted to cry.
"Hey! What's wrong? It has to be killed to eat, don't let it get to you..." Kai said in a soft tone as he thought she might be sad from killing a cute furry forest critter.
Not responding with her body mostly turned from Kai, a hand touched her shoulder. "Are you ok?" Kai was enamored into a one sided perspective of reasoning, ready to take back all his jokes and sarcastic replies, all to never see Sylvia's face filled with despair ever again. In what looked to be a single action Sylvia turned, at the same time launching a palm strike to Kai's chest. Kai fell down from the force of the hit and slid into a bush which cushioned his impact from receiving any fatal damage.
Kai coughed out saliva, as he held the point of contact gasping for air. Not being able to breathe for roughly ten seconds, all he could do was sit and wait until he recovered. Sitting upright as if a limp corpse, the only available option Kai had was to use [Reality Comprehension] on Sylvia.
- Sylvia Faye: [Lvl:3] - Status affected by [Unique Onslaught]. Mind is unstable best not to approach. Will return to normal state shortly.
- The usage of [Unique Onslaught] requires a stable mind. The possibility of the user losing their sense of reality and control are very likely.
- Unaccustomed to this new sensation, however unusually calm likely to adapt quickly. General situation of activating this skill lead to uncontrolled bloodlust.
Using his skill any further returned error and empty prompts, thus ending his investigations. Kai opened up his status prompt to view the full extent of damage as he left Sylvia alone to stand in place.
- HP: 35 / 70 - Caution nearing critical levels.
‘Holy..., I lost thirty HP to one strike.’ The surprise sank in rather quickly after already accepting the fact he was considered a squishy scholar and not meant to endure pain.
Kai remained seated on the bush and got comfortable by setting aside his backpack that also reduced a majority of the impact. To recover his health Kai pulled out his smushed food and began to eat, creating a scene similar to watching movies in a theater. Kai recovered a good portion of his health and was back up to 52 of 70, then thought of ways to help Sylvia. Of his many thoughts the one that stood out the most was to tell the truth allowing her to open up to him.
‘The first step of patients against counseling, requires simulating a connection through means of mirroring behaviors or talking about similar interests. However, in her case she’s apart from the norm, meaning the best option is to scare her with the truth. This would bring her to the reality of the situation and allow her to accept my help. The possibility of failure would leave her traumatized in similar future cases, but that would depend on how she thought of me.’ Kai initiated his plan before the effects of [Unique Onslaught] wore off.
“Ugh, my head hurts. What happened?” Sylvia held her head while looking for Kai expecting a bitter response.
It then hit her like flood gates bursting open, a sea of past memories swarmed in. Sylvia fell to her knees, all at once remembering what occurred her eyes stuck completely focused to the front. Kai was positioned on a bush profusely bleeding from his mouth; the proof of a shattered rib cage was apparent, by the caved in chest and time of death near instant.
On her knees no form of speech escaped her mouth, only the thought of murdering an innocent person entered her consciousness. Off to her side after moving his position, Kai watched as someone he barely knew shed tears for him.
'I may have gone too far...' Kai thought as he reached out his hand, before abruptly coming to a halt. Almost reenacting the past mistake, Kai extended his hand into her field of vision to help her up and deactivated [Self-Reality Alter].
"Maybe you’ll be a bit nicer to me now?”
In shock, Sylvia turned her sight from the empty bush and stared at Kai eventually accepting his hand. Kai lifted her off the ground and suddenly felt the first real implications of viewing Sylvia as a girl other than her beauty. Along with noticing her lightness from lifting her up off the ground, he also saw a side of Sylvia that would normally never be seen. The child like face covered in tears stayed silent suddenly aware of her appearance. Kai unsure whether or not the plan succeeded had hoped to wait until she replied before explaining everything. He knew that it would be one or the other, either she hated him and things between them got even worse or through succeeding they could finally talk without any barriers or lies.
“[Unique Onslaught] is dangerous you need to never use it in situations unless as a last resort. My class allows me to know information on anything I focus on with the addition of the skill I just showed you. We need to get back to our shelter, we don’t know how the nights are in this forest yet.”
Kai knew he would have to give the short version instead of saying he would explain everything back at camp.
“Nnn-…” Sylvia responded in an exhausted manner
Arriving back at Sylvia’s tent, Kai dragged the rabbits by their hind legs with one in each hand and set them on top of several leaves.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a grill set or fire ability would you?” Kai said as he examined Sylvia’s backpack that tripled in size to his own from the extra compartment.
Not expecting a reply Kai turned to observe the surroundings. In front of him the forest continued until only darkness could be seen. His will for starting a fire increased the moment he realized night was approaching. Kai looked back at the pile of firewood collected earlier during the day, then watched as Sylvia got up to move in the direction of a large tree.
"Hide yourself and get away."
The amount of calmness from her tone made Kai nervous to the point of wondering if Sylvia had a severe case of mood swings.
'Where's she going?'
Sylvia strolled to the nearest tree passing by Kai and disappeared from his sight.
Sensing the unnatural vibe starting to grow he activated [Reality Comprehension] in every direction he could. Behind a bush and hidden in other dark areas prompts of being watched appeared.
- Scout squad of marauders have spotted your camp. Currently unalarmed and moving in for capture. There's an arrow pointed at your leg for extra measure although confident in their tactics and hiding skills.
Off to his side another prompt arose.
- Flanking capture target, readied with net.
Kai knew it was a matter of seconds before everything turned into chaos. The choice of action he deemed correct was to slowly move in closer to the archer as he kept tabs on the location of the netter. Now several meters away from the archer, any closer he thought it too risky. With everyone in place just as planned [Self-Reality Alter] was activated on the archer. Hoping that this would work, he could think of no better plan of action since the skill only affected a single target.
Rushing past the scenery Sylvia was speeding as fast as possible out of the camp after the nonchalant warning given to Kai. After reaching a decent thirty second dash her field of vision switched back towards the camp. Sylvia circled around and hid herself within the dense forest of trees and bushes. Preparing for the run Sylvia made sure to hide the petrified dagger contained within its sheath along her backside tucked away under her shirt. On the ground near her right arm lay the makeshift spear created for hunting. Sylvia left camp having made sure to bring along weapons, leaving behind her large backpack.
The sudden swaying of leaves and blurred movements started moving in closer to her vicinity. Sylvia headed for the first signs of activity maintaining a low posture and keeping her spear close to the ground instead of waiting in stealth. The disadvantage of being surrounded was fatal after noticing more than one target. Sylvia ran full speed around a tree nearing the suspected hiding spot as the sight of an arrow flew out from within the bushes. The moment the arrow appeared it sliced past her leg leaving a minor cut. However, in the same moment Sylvia arched her body and got off a spear throw directly back from the arrow's point of origin.
Shifting out of the bushes a moment too late the spear pierced into the stomach of the marauder. The sheer size of the marauder startled Sylvia, with beast like attributes and fur. The head in the form of a wild dog typically known as Gnoll's. The hind horse-like legs pushed the marauder in one leap to the side. Before the beast realized Sylvia was on the same side with dagger in hand.
Readying for the follow up attack the beast pulled out the spear and tossed it aside across the ground. In doing so Sylvia released a set of dagger slashes at vital points, aiming at both neck and arteries. Avoiding every slash with a single step and leap back Sylvia backed off while throwing the dagger pointed at the marauders left eye. Heading for the tossed away spear not looking at the outcome of the throw an emergency prompt appeared.
- Poisoned: Further mana and health regeneration ceased. Paralysis taking effect, performance deteriorating. Cause, poisoned arrow tip.
Upon picking up the spear with no time to spare through instincts to survive [Unique Onslaught] was activated. Acting as a neutralizing agent against the poison, all of her senses were heightened and processing events faster. The first thing she noticed was the marauder's wound healing from the previous spear hit. The closing of the skin and regeneration of flesh. Then the thrown dagger on the ground from having bounced off the thick fur being blocked in mid air with an arm movement. Only to add to her troubles Sylvia finally spotted the second marauder approaching swiftly with a net.
Sylvia withheld more control than the first activation time and her only focus was a way to eliminate the first threat. At two meters distance the marauder prepared a second arrow into the bow. She aimed for the shoulder this time faster than the marauder's reload causing him to miss his shot. The spear struck deep but not enough to pierce completely through the back layer of fur. Dropping the bow the marauder tried to pull the spear out before noticing Sylvia directly in front of him. Surprised, the marauder instead reached out to grab and subdue Sylvia only to have the exact opposite happen. Avoiding the hand Sylvia stepped closing in with her back to his, while taking hold of the outstretched arm. Forcing an unbalanced weight distribution a perfect judo throw occurred. Not stopping there in continuation of her combo like move, during the fall she grabbed an arrow from the marauders quiver. On impact a solid grunt was heard from the marauder as he hit the hard forest terrain. Looking down at him grasping the arrow with both hands Sylvia mercilessly stabbed it into the left eye, the only known soft part of the marauders body.
Intense howls of pain erupted as the paralysis poison started acting quickly on the marauder's body.
Reaching for the bow in a mocked attempt to shoot an arrow at the approaching netter whose distance was still roughly fifteen meters away failed horribly by striking a tree off to the side.
Before Sylvia could reach for another arrow, an unexpected arrow was shot into her thigh from behind. Sylvia fell to the ground onto her hands and knees feeling a small pain as adrenaline surged through her veins. Followed by the deactivation of [Unique Onslaught] and the poison coursing through her bloodstream Sylvia collapsed unconscious on the ground.
"Sylvia where are you?" Kai called out while hunched forward leaning over with his hands on his legs as if trying to catch his breath from a long run.
As if signaling the marauder to open fire an arrow flew directly into his leg. Still not falling down another arrow found its way lodged into his shoulder. The arrow not being physically connected to the target and as a projectile allowed the illusion to be maintained. The illusion of Kai looking for Sylvia.
Kai stared as he saw both the illusion set in place and the reality behind what truly unfolded. Flying past the illusion the first arrow entered the calf of the netter approaching from behind. The next razor sharp arrow shot directly into the heart of the marauder and served as a fatal wound. The marauder dropped to the ground as life left him and became nothing but a corpse.
'That could of been me!' Kai's ideal of pacifism was utterly destroyed leaving his next action one with absolute full force.
Already next to the archer and positioned in baseball batting form, the time for rethinking his strategy was over. Kai swung his staff directly at the marauders head creating a loud crackling noise. A crack formed along the center of the staff but held together as to not entirely break apart.
The marauder without any warning signs accepted the blow to his head completely unaware. He released the bow from his grasp and unsheathed a small dagger attached to his waist. Having the staff hit face first, wood particles entered into the eyes and along with the force of the blow temporarily blinded him.
'You can't be serious!'
Expecting the head to fly off with brain matter in several directions the vivid imagination was nowhere near. Kai astonishingly watched as the marauder took a step back and swung his dagger veering directly on course to cutting his face. Kai raised the staff up with both arms in an attempt to avoid the instinctive slash. The dagger clashed with the staff and hammered it into his face. The staff hanged broken in half as the blade continued its course slicing the backside of his left forearm down to the bone.
Kai felt the throbbing pain from the blow to his face more than the wide gash on his arm. He dropped the broken staff and retreated realizing he carried out the wrong choice of action. Kai stumbled into a cover of bushes. He glanced back to see the pissed off marauder fully recovered and loading an arrow. Kai fearfully activated [Self-Reality Alter], knowing his illusion wouldn't stop an arrow but still his best chance of escape. The illusion was placed and he scrambled to get out of the way. To his horror the arrowhead pierced a four inch vine and continued into his upper right back. Kai felt the strong impact forcing him face flat on the ground from all fours. Kai grunted noticing the arrow had gone directly through his backpack, keeping it from penetrating far into his shoulder blade. Not able to use his left hand he pulled the backpack off with his other in one big jerk along with the arrow.
The marauder slowly approached with another drawn arrow but lowered it seeing Kai's dead body with an arrow in his chest. With his arrow and bow to the side he withdrew a dagger and started to make his way through the bush to confirm the kill.
Kai in desperation pulled the arrow through the backpack and waited next to the illusion, ready to stab the marauder if he noticed the illusion to be fake.
A frightening howl halted the marauder in his tracks while automatically sheathing his dagger and sprinting towards the cry of pain.
Kai needed immediate medical attention and sought to bandage his left arm. He opened the first aid kit overflowing with frustration as it was necessary to use his hands to open the two latches. Inside the kit, a roll of bandages made out of the same material as the canvas, tent, and backpack was found. As he tied off his forearm an emergency prompt emerged indicating his slow death.
- HP: 18 / 70 - Poison in effect, prevents hp and mana regeneration. Losing 1 HP every minute.
- Mana: 16 / 100 - Currently being sapped from poison. -2 mana per minute, once fully depleted paralysis will take effect.
Kai ignored the prompt and chose his top priority to flee the area, away from the beastly marauders. The only known possible safe haven was his little tree shelter. The distance and location being somewhat opposite of the howling was all he could afford to reach. Kai fastened his backpack on tightly enough to soak up the blood dripping from his back. All to avoid leaving behind a blood trail and headed to his shelter.
On the painful walk a million questions plunged into deep chaos within his mind. Ranging from who and why the marauders attacked. The reason for the howling of pain and if Sylvia was okay.
In his shelter, Kai dropped his backpack in front of him as he sat down. Hastily looking for food and after finding a ration, started to eat. A prompt came up just as he expected but with a startling revelation.
- Poison interference: Health and Mana points cannot regenerate.
"No way!" Kai said out loud baffled at the minor complication of poison that would cause his imminent death.
'There must be something in here!'
Kai frantically searched the contents of the backpack after pouring everything out. Kai continued his frantic movements of shuffling items around to find his miracle cure. Kai cursed at himself having not noticed the antidote inside the first aid kit earlier. There was a biodegradable antidote vial at the bottom of the first aid kit. Rushing down his throat, Kai almost vomited the horrible concoction.
- Antidote ineffective against unknown poison. Increased heart rate has accelerated the spread of poison. Roughly thirty seconds until paralysis.
Continuous prompts every minute created a countdown until the paralysis came into effect and eventually a single prompt took over. Kai took the seal in hand accepting his defeat with a matter of seconds left.
'Might as well look rich while I die. It's all this stupid seal's fault, everything started because of it!' Kai laid frozen, grasping the seal, forsaking his fate as his thoughts wandered to Sylvia.
'What happened to her? I'm sure they attacked her when she ran out. Will she be back in the lab when I wake up? What if they captured her and didn't kill her, no one else knows what happened to us? Someone needs to save her!'
Dimming into darkness, Kai's final thoughts revolved around Sylvia.