ShadowFang watched as a large Honey Badger, with pitch-black fur, and eyes redder than a cinnamon candy, jumped at her. She had heard the rustling just a second before the lunge, and repositioned her body to roll out of the way.
Unfortunately for the Archer in her little group, he was the next in the line of attack, and wasn't fast enough to move out of the way. As the badger latched onto his back, it started ripping into his leather armor, teeth and claws lashing out violently.
Red and black steam was leaking off the badger's back, and ShadowFang could feel this wasn't a weak enemy. She did what she had read online during her recon session about New Eden, and focused on the animal, thinking hard about seeing its information.
A small window appeared in front of her eyes, and she smiled.
*Honey Badger (Corrupted)*
Level: 13
Grade: Special
HP: 2,500
MP: 180
The high health number was no joke. She was still level two, and her damage could never take down these monsters on her own. Counting in the ten damage her daggers gave her, she could do a maximum of twenty-five damage with her attacks.
Unless she suddenly developed a skill, as she had seen on the internet, her chances of taking down the enemies were close to nil. She needed the group of four to stay alive for now.
She rapidly went into action.
Lunging back forward, she reached the Badger and Hunter in a couple of steps. Hidden Arrow had already fallen to his stomach, panicking as he was getting torn to shreds on his back.
The Priest boy was casting heal after heal, trying to keep him alive, but the Sorcerer couldn't fire spells, the risk of friendly fire being too high. Blazing Heart was in a similar situation and hesitated to strike.
"Stop healing him, we can't help him! Just resurrect him after he dies!" Blazing Heart shouted.
But before the priest could obey, ShadowFang screamed a counter-order.
"Don't stop healing him! If he dies, you won't get the time to resurrect him! Blazing, turn around! There are two more coming your way. Balthazaar! On your left, two more!"
ShadowFang jumped on the Badger's back, plunging her daggers into the animal's short throat repetitively. The speed of her strikes, and their precision, were not something your everyday person could do.
This betrayed her experience and Blazing Heart, who was already facing the badgers at his front, suddenly felt like they had been played.
The priest kept healing Hidden Arrow, trying to keep him alive, while damage numbers rolled before ShadowFang's eyes.
*49!*
*49!*
*98!!*
…
She liked her damage, as small as it was, but this wasn't enough. She brought both her knives to the front, crossing them over the Badger's throat, before pressing them as hard as she could, and pulling them back.
*490!!*
A notification flashed before her eyes.
*Skill Learned*
*Your experience has transpired into your actions, and you have learned a skill. Skill Learned; Throat Slash. Congratulations, player ShadowFang!*
As she was reading it, the Badger started bucking, throwing her off its back, and it turned around towards her.
The Hunter hurriedly flipped over, crawling backward, his face a mask of utter terror. He thought he was going to die, and the piss staining his pants was a testament to that.
But seeing the look on ShadowFang's face, which resembled more a look of ecstasy, than one of fear, made his stomach drop all the way down.
'She's a maniac!'
He wanted to flee with all his might, but his party leader shouted at him.
"Hidden Arrow! Get up and help us, you buffoon!"
Blazing was his best friend, and he had helped him through thick and thin, so he would never back away from him.
Grabbing his bow from the ground, he rapidly turned to help their Sorcerer, who was having trouble casting even a single spell, since he had to move all the time, to not get killed. He started shooting out arrows.
Meanwhile, ShadowFang was watching the Badger with joy in her heart.
'I can finally break free again!'
Although the large cut she had done to the animal was already closing up, a bleeding effect had still taken a few ticks of health off of its bar. But the regen it was having was bad news.
She needed to apply higher damage, with more lasting effects.
'I'll just bleed him dry, then!'
Her smile widened, making her look like a madwoman, blood still splashed across her face.
She lunged back forward; the Badger did the same. But before the collision, ShadowFang jerked sideways, altering her course, as the Badger jumped forward, missing her entirely.
But ShadowFang didn't suffer the same fate.
Slashing and stabbing at the animal's side, she left him with four deep cuts before it passed her position. All four attacks had dealt regular damage, not hitting any weak points.
But that had not been Shadow's goal. She grinned, another notification in front of her eyes.
*Skill Learned*
*Your precision, stemming from years of training, is shown in your attack. Skill Learned; Bleeding Strikes. Congratulations, player ShadowFang!*
ShadowFang looked at the monster's health bar, and just under it, an icon with a little four on it was flashing. After a couple of seconds, the number dropped to three.
'So his healing takes away the bleeding effect., huh? I guess I'll just have to cut it up some more until it can't regenerate fast enough!'
Lunging back forward, her daggers at her side, ShadowFang was getting into a groove she hadn't felt in decades.
'This is fun!'
The combat lasted a few more minutes, with their priest wasting all his mana time and time again, restoring it through potions, and burning money like crazy. When it ended, the only party member that was still unscathed, by means the four boys couldn't understand, was ShadowFang.
They could see the monsters were faster than her, but by some unnatural means, she kept dodging their attacks, like she knew where to be. If they knew any better, they would have thought she was seeing into the future.
The four boys were close to death, their health pools being practically entirely empty. The priest was almost out of mana, and he could barely cast two more healing spells.
ShadowFang looked at her status screen. She had already gone up to level 6.
With her five free points, she boosted her agility, since it affected her speed and damage. She thought about putting at least one point into constitution, but left it for later.
Looking at the health bars of each of her party members, a devious grin flashed across her face.
But before anything could happen, Chronos snapped out of the visual, reentering his body.
"What an experience. That woman was frightening," he muttered to himself.
But his curiosity wasn't satiated.
He reached out to another thread, sliding his hand into it, as his vision swam.
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