Pack Tactics

Beth raced through the trees, weaving her way deeper into the woods as she easily jumped from tree to tree. It was different from running down the disused alleys of the city’s half-dead industrial area. There she had to be subtle with the use of her abilities. Here, away from mundane eyes, she could freely flex her talents to maneuver, letting her rush up and down the towering trees.

The fact that she was intruding and that the owners of the Barrier wanted her to leave didn’t really bother her. ‘Outrunning them will be easy,’ she thought as she took hold of an upward growing branch, the mana in her hand making the rough bark feel as smooth as polished metal, and she easily altered course with it as a pivot. She flew through the air for a moment, easily grabbed another branch and resumed her tree running.

“That should keep them off my trail,” she said. “Really, they should just do their own thing and let me do my own. I ain’t screwing up whatever they were up to. It's just a Barrier.”

An itch burned on her right wrist and she pushed down a wave of guilt and frustration to revel in her run. Adrenaline drowned out her negative feelings and she kept running and jumping, looking for another of those tavaren things to test herself against.

A few minutes later, she stopped as she came to the edge of a clearing, pausing to take a breath. As she rested, a rustling caught her attention; a tavaren walked out of the thick brush below. Beth smirked as she withdrew her bladed disks and slipped a finger into the looped string attached. Carefully, she walked down the trunk. Her slow pace kept her target unaware though her descent strained her abdominal muscles as she fought gravity’s pull.

Stopping around two meters above the forest floor, Beth drew her arm back and snapped her weapon towards the unsuspecting creature. The bladed weapon soared through the air and slammed into the beast’s back, its rotation cutting into the tavaren’s back.

The lean badger-like creature let out a piercing cry of pain and Beth reeled back to build up another attack. The wounded beast, however, was far from crippled and sprung up, claws easily gripping the tree as it scrambled towards her.

A surge of panic-driven adrenaline fueled Beth’s jump away from the approaching tavaren and into the clearing, where she landed on the somewhat even ground in a roll. She came out of the roll as hisses sounded around her. From out of the underbrush, two more tavaren emerged into the clearing to her right while another came from her left. Then a growl from directly behind her caused her to look back with wide eyes.

A tavaren closer in size to a small bear ambled into the clearing. It let out a series of growls and its smaller companions began to move on its orders, closing in on her. Fear overtaking confidence, Beth lashed out with her weapon, hoping her wild swing would deter the tavaren and give her the opening to retreat and replan.

A sudden jerk nearly caused her to topple backwards. Wide eyes looked back to see the large tavaren had grasped the weapon’s string in its strong jowl, the circular blades dangling slightly below its clamped jaws.

“Fuck,” Beth cursed. She sent her mana through the string, reducing its friction to near zero before she tried to pull free. The string easily slipped between the tavaren’s clenched fangs, but the blades failed to inflict any real damage even as they whipped against the beast’s face.

Unable to retrieve her weapon, Beth frantically wrenched her finger free from its string as the lesser tavaren stalked closer, her head snapping back and forth to keep them all in view. Then one pounced, setting off a full **** from the pack.

Beth lashed out with a kick, squarely hitting the nearest beast before she darted towards the closest tree. She jumped, hand extended to grab a low hanging branch. Easily caught, she began to haul herself when several tavaren sprang after her. She twisted out of the way of one of them, the second knocked back by her heel. The third, however, caught her leg with its claws and fangs, tearing through the faded denim and into the taut flesh below.

Beth let out a pained cry as she flailed her caught limb, desperately trying to knock off her passenger. A smack against the tree inflicted more damage to her leg but caused the stubborn beast to release its hold.

Panting, Beth pulled herself further up, her blood slowly damping her ruined jeans. She winced as she stood atop a branch, watching as the tavaren circled her tree. Her eyes flicked to the large one as it slowly stalked closer, her weapon dropped behind it.

‘Well, this isn’t good,’ she thought, mind whirling as she tried to think up an out. ‘Fuck, those three were right.’ Her eyes involuntarily drifted to her right wrist and her irritation drifted to her sister.

She shoved those thoughts away. ‘Get your head in the game, Beth! You can’t yell at Lynn if you die here.’

With a grimace on her face, Beth jumped towards another tree, doing her best to ignore the throbbing pain in her leg. She landed inelegantly, the pain lancing up her leg nearly causing her to lose her balance. Her need to regain her footing let the pack swarm towards her, and she jumped again, wanting to put as much distance as she could between her and her pursuers.

‘I’m in over my head,’ she reluctantly admitted, her thoughts helping to keep her mind off the pain as she continued her escape. ‘If I can lead these guys back to the owners, they should be able to handle them. It’s their Barrier after all.’

She jumped again, orienting herself back towards where she had entered, hoping her unwilling hosts were still there. She landed on her bad leg and flinched, breaking her focus. Her adhesion magic faltered and she slipped. Her fingers brushed against the limb in an attempt to save herself, but even her magic couldn’t help her hold on and she tucked into a ball as she fell.

She hit the uneven ground, letting out a gasping cry as the impact drove the air from her lungs. Fighting the pain, she struggled to her feet, the scampering sound of the tavaren pack closing in.

‘Great,’ she thought as she was surrounded by the hunters. Wincing, she slipped into what she hoped was an acceptable fighting stance.

“If I can’t run,” she defiantly blurted out, her words accompanied by harsh breaths, “then I’ll just have to fight my way out!”

Despite the façade of bravado, dread gripped her core as the pack slowly advanced. Still, fear-fueled adrenaline and pure stubbornness let her push her emotions and pain to the side as the first two tavaren lunged at her, one ahead and one in her blind spot in a pincer maneuver.

John pushed his way through the underbrush, straining his ears and eyes for any sign of their wayward guest. He paused, slipping his goggles over his eyes to engage their telescoping feature, hoping to snag a glimpse of his quarry through the distant canopy.

“Damn it,” he lightly cursed as his examination came up empty. He pushed the goggles up to his forehead and continued his trek, his pace quick. Horrible thoughts invaded his mind and he shook his head to dispel them.

“Stop with the negative thinking,” he chided himself, rolling the Fire Crystal in his hand like a worry stone. “She’s a higher level than you. Even if she doesn’t have fighting experience, she can probably outrun them if things get dicey.”

His voiced thoughts did little to calm his nerves and he couldn’t help but recall the stalemate he and the girls had borne witness to. From that example and the blurb Observe gave her, he could only envision that Beth would keep fighting even when it was obvious victory was unobtainable. If she ran into something at level six, or even a pack of lower-levelled ones, John could see her being overtaken.

Despite Vivian’s belief that a four level gap could keep Beth safe, John had seen enough newbies flailing and failing against lower level bosses; their inexperience and arrogance leveling the playing field. And Beth sadly displayed those traits in spades.

A series of growls caught his attention and John slipped his goggles over his eyes once more to scan in the direction they came from. His gut lurched when he saw Beth, her posture swaying as she squared off against something he could not see thanks to some undergrowth obscuring anything below Beth’s waist. He willed the goggles back to normal vision and rushed towards the battle, Senka manifesting in his hand.

John burst through the undergrowth to see two tavaren lunge at Beth. He didn’t hesitate and lifted his cupped left hand towards the beast attacking from Beth’s rear to fire off a Blaze Shard.

28 DMG

The crystallized fire slammed into the lean creature’s shoulder, the impact throwing off its leaping attack and driving it closer to its pack. Beth hadn’t been idle and had lashed out with a sloppy punch at the tavaren she could see. Luckily, she struck the beast along its side, avoiding its claws and fangs as she knocked it back.

John’s emergence and their successful counter caused the pack to back up slightly, the wounded ones hauled back by their packmates. The one John had shot let out a whimper as the shard pulsed with light and inflicted another two points of damage before suffering another point as its rescuer took the protrusion in its jaws and yanked it out, tossing it away.

“Great timing,” Beth said in a winded voice. “Could have been a bit faster though.”

“You’re the one who ran off into a monster-infested forest,” John countered, quickly casting Observe on the tavaren. The small ones ranged from level three to five, none displaying any new info or loot. The large one, however, was level six.

“Yeah, yeah,” Beth dismissed his recrimination. “I’m an idiot for running off like that and got chewed up for it. I get enough flak from my sister. Don’t need to get any more of it.”

‘Maybe you do,’ John thought, but instead asked, “Can you run?”

“Not really,” she replied after brief hesitation. “Leg’s not really the worst bit of damage. Falling messed me up more.”

John glanced down and saw her blood-stained pant leg. “Can you fight?”

“Unless you can wipe all these guys out with one super move, I think I’ll have too,” Beth answered in a deadpan voice. “Gonna have to dock some points from your hero score for making the damsel fight.”

Despite the situation and his irritation with her, John couldn’t help smirk at her quip. That smile grew when he saw where the Blaze Shard had landed: close to the center of the pack. The tavaren had pulled back after John’s entrance, grouping themselves close as they assessed him.

Most importantly, the hunt leader stood at the center, right over the piece of crystalized magic.

John quickly began to convert his mana through the Fire Crystal, twelve mana transformed into eight fire mana that sent a warmth running through his body. He readied that mana and eight of his own then turned his head towards Beth.

“You might want to crouch down,” he cautioned. “And cover your ears. This is going to be loud.”

John took a step forward and pivoted so his back was to the pack and he was between them and Beth, his head ducked as much below the collar of his coat. Then, he poured the sixteen point mix into the crystal. The Evocation triggered and the cast Blaze Shard blew up with a brilliant flash and a dull roar.

42 DMG
42 DMG
42 DMG
42 DMG
42 DMG

17(2) EXP Gained

Bits of debris pelted John’s back, the coat’s defensive properties preventing any real damage. He turned around to see a small smoldering crater, the four surviving tavaren writhing in pain, large splotches of fur burned away, leaving reddened, blistered skin and a horrible smell.

“Kinda hoped that would have wiped them all out,” John sighed, switching out Senka for his greatsword. Before he could stride over to eliminate the cripled beasts, Beth punched him in the arm.

“A little more warning would have been nice, asshole,” she shouted as her non-punching hand cupped her left ear. “Don’t like getting my ears blasted.”

“These guys are pretty smart,” John said with a shrug. “If they thought we were up to something, they might have scattered. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Beth didn’t look convinced by his logic and John fought back a sigh as he walked over to the wounded tavaren. The small ones were barely moving and John ignored them as he zeroed in on the highest leveled one. Despite standing right atop the explosion, it was still standing, its burned belly bared.

“Looks like you're pretty sturdy,” John said as the hunt leader tried to attack him. Its lunge was sluggish and John easily evaded the sweeping claw, hefting his blade high. “Sorry, but it looks like this is your last hunt.”

He brought down his blade hard against its head with a sickening crack.

35 DMG
55(6) EXP Gained.

The tavaren thumped to the ground before fading away, leaving behind a nicely folded piece of tavaren hide. John ignored that for the moment and turned his attention to the remaining three tavaren and tightened his grip.

A few swift strikes and they too faded away.