"Now that you mention it..."

The response that the healer had given was actually far more reasonable a plan than the one Deneb had planned to execute. While the danger of the situation had long since registered by now, the idea that they could simply go and track the monster hadn't actually crossed her mind. If anything, the plan would've been to lure the enemy somewhere different in order to bring it somewhere else with more favorable terrain and fight it then.

Of course, the inherent risk in such an approach, coupled with the possibility of death (since they had no idea how 'death' affected them) meant that it was foolish at best and suicidal at work. So long as the enemy never made direct contact with them, of course, they could get away with simply stalking the target and making sure it didn't get too close to town.

"Yeah, let's do that, then. We'll track it and relay its type and position to the team back in town," she replied, taking a moment to look around for any trees to use as vantage points. Given that they were in an open plain, though, that idea was soon abandoned, and the ninja resorted to leaping into the air repeatedly to look over the area. It looked absolutely silly from a distance, but given that there were only two people present, that didn't matter as much.

After the third leap, an abnormally large creature managed to catch Deneb's eye as it began to walk through the grass. Given the nearly white color of its fur, its identity was more or less a given. Once she had landed, Deneb brushed herself off and turned back to Viri.

"I think I've found our target, though it's a fair deal larger than usual. Silver Wolf, somewhere off that way," she said, motioning off towards her right before thinking for a moment. "Actually, I'm going to see if the team back at town can't send us some reinforcements. One person should make this a lot more bearable if we're forced to take it on."

With that, Deneb began to walk towards their target, typing on some sort of keyboard with a message addressed to the dragonman who had brought the others to work on the town.

To: Indiana Jones
Field boss spotted: Silver Wolf. If you can, send a tank or something over to our position. We're going to be tracking this thing until we have backup or until we've confirmed it to not be heading towards the town. Update on how things are on your end.

--Deneb

The ninja had hesitated at the end of the message, having almost put the name of her main character in the note before catching her mistake.

"In any case, let's go. They'll contact us when they do, I guess."

@Anza@DocRock

@ERode@OliveYou@Sync

"Oh, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."

Elyan let his curse trail off as he watched his spear toss go completely awry and hit a very small player/NPC in the leg, sending them to the ground. Usually he would have reacted almost instantly, but the irritation at his lack of throwing skill and beginning to wonder what to say to them allowed another player/NPC to rush in blow the wolf away.

Well, he wouldn't be able to save face by beating the snot out of said wolf with his bare hands. Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward, keeping his hands at his side to look as non-threatening as possible, also not realizing that he was moving in the weirdly graceful way Wardancers did in this game. Taking a small vial out of his pocket, he held it out to the bleeding player/NPC on the ground. He hoped it was a healing potion, he usually kept a few of them around, even though he rarely got hit. Not for the first time, he briefly wondered how the potion would taste, or if it even healed at all...

Oh, right, the reason he was doing this.

"...i would really like my spear back, please." he said, trying to sound friendly.

All of a sudden, Viri was beset by an intense fit of coughing. One that coincided, start to finish, with Deneb's attempts to see across the plain by bouncing up and down like some kind of ninja rabbit.

Yes, the healer knew, this was serious business and that was a perfectly viable tactic to increase one's range of vision. It was just... A bouncing ninja... Pffffffffft! She couldn't quite hold the laughter in.

She quickly sobered up once Deneb finally landed, though, thanks in part to the announcement that their enemy was already in sight. In anything, we were lucky Deneb spotted it just now... If we'd wandered blindly a little further, we might have accidentally let it catch sight of us. Judging from Deneb's tone, though, the creature hadn't noticed them spying on it yet.

"Did you see which way it was going?" she asked, while the ninja tapped out a message for the others in town. Maybe it was just the aura of being near the boss, but she couldn't shake off this sense of unease that permeated the air—

Wait.

The air...

It was small, but obvious now that she looked for it. Her hair was moving, just slightly, long silver strands swaying on a gentle breeze. There's a wind.

"Hold on!" She piped up as the ninja moved to leader her one. "Deneb, you said it was a wolf, right? So logically, even if it couldn't see its prey, it could find it by scent..."

Was it just her imagination, or was that fearful sensation getting stronger?

"... and if it was over that way, then... We're upwind of it." She swallowed. "If it doesn't already know we're here, it will soon."

@PKMNB0Y

Was it supposed to hurt? Was it supposed to not hurt? Curled up on the ground, Ewan clutched his leg, his mind telling him one thing while his body told him another thing. This was still a game, right? He saw his HP bar getting chunked. But how much of this was a game when a giant spear was literally sticking to his leg? Wait, didn’t matter did it.

The sweet embrace of death came for him in the form of wolf-fangs, after all.

Thankfully (or unthankfully, considering the meaningless struggle of further existence), the person that had ran past him moments ago had suddenly regained their balls and launched a furious assault! Blue and silver, red and dark brown, it all mixed together in Ewan’s tear-blinded eyes as the Dancer became a Hero, chasing off the wolf right as an edgy midget arrived at the scene as well to perform a fire blast and then moments later, that wuxia-looking dude strutted over (was that a passive, or was he just flamboyant as fuck?) asking for his spear back.

Uh.

Huh?

For a moment, Ewan forgot about the pain he should be feeling. Instead, sensing a shift in the power dynamics between ‘giant scary wild animal’ and ‘dumbass adventurers who had more power than they knew what to do with’, the fair youth’s mind more or less short-circuited. “Uh, I, guess?” Ewan managed, awkwardly lifting up his leg so Wardancer dude would have a better angle for yanking the spear out. It exposed his cute gold-embellished shorts and slender legs as well, a detail that was usually hidden by his long, red cloak, so that was a plus. “And, well…you know? Wilderness? Running? Monsters?”

How did this happen?

“I don’t know, so…yeah, no.”

With a forced smile of gratitude (wait, why did he have to be grateful when it was their fault to begin with?), Ewan took the potion from the guy that walked like he was a model and handed it over to the dagger-lady instead. “Here you go. Yup.”

With four mid-level players gathered in one spot, and wounds already sustained on its person, the wolf turned and ran.

Well, that was that.
@Vulkan@OliveYou@Sync

His humming stopped as a message came in. It took a hot minute, but after some mucking around, Indy was able to pull up the message from the field team leader, and glanced it over quickly. What he read made him wince. That wasn't good. He kept walking or moving, or whatever, being able to multitask for the moment. His response that soon came gave no sign of his own internal turmoil.

To: Deneb
Unless Kai can send one of his NPCs who count as Tanks, I'm afraid I've got no one. We have access to mines and plenty of wild animal farming. The three of us are at his castle, and I'm heading down to the mine with one of the guild members. Once I've gotten a lock on our resource situation there, I'll let you know. Keep me posted, I might be able to build something to help us keep monsters at bay, or target bosses from afar. Still only an idea.

--Indiana Jones

With the message sent, he sighed. The only thing they possibly had that could even come close to being useful here would be artillery. Or a golem, but the first, he didn't know what they had. The latter were limited by distance factors. At least instant messaging like this made it possible to stay up to date at all times on the overall situation. Something that made him feel a bit better. The situation was sinking in more and more, that they were trapped in an alien world, the rules weren't the same, they couldn't go home, and they didn't know what else was in this world with them. Hopefully that one crazy player who had been kicked out of his guild for her antics wouldn't be in this world, he did not need that woman after him...or the others. And that only brought up more questions, like...what if one of them died? Okay, keep it together Indy, they need you to not have a melt down.

//Not my best, but consider this being set whenever during the moments after the departure from the room.
@PKMNB0Y

After sending the message, Deneb quietly brushed herself off and stretched her legs. Jumping so high so many times in a row was obviously abnormal, but to not receive any harm form doing so left more questions than it answered. While she wasn't going to question the logistics behind being able to effectively fall the equivalent of a few stories in height repeatedly and come out unscathed, it still bugged her. Physics were weird here.

Viri's comment snapped the ninja out of her own mental tangent, though, and a chill immediately ran down her spine as the sound of animals moving towards then immediately caused Deneb to glance in the direction of the wolf.

"We're upwind? Oh, this is going to be miserable," she cursed, glancing around the rest of the area in a quick attempt to make note of the actual terrain. With a distinct lack of cover or any ways to funnel the incoming enemies, there only seemed to be one option.

"Time to run. If we get flanked and surrounded, we're almost certainly going to die, and I don't want to test any theories with our necks on the line," she said, pulling out a 'Return to Town' scroll... Only to remember that the presence of field bosses negated the usage thereof entirely.

With a frown, the ninja put it away and, taking the healer by the arm, began to run back towards town. If worst came to worst, they could force combat in the hilly terrain closer to town and and use that to their advantage... But, well, that was under the assumption that they could make it back in the first place.

@Anza

As soon as Deneb pulled out the Return scroll, Viri let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, right! We can just teleport awa—"

Except before she could even finish the sentence, the ninja put the scroll away, and yanked her along in a mad dash back towards town. The poor healer could only yelp in alarm and confusion, and try not to trip over her own legs as she was pulled forward by the smaller and nimbler Deneb.

Why didn't she just use the scroll? Based on what she'd seen of her before, Viri didn't think Deneb would be the type to take pointless risks just for the thrill of it. There must be some other factor, some facet of gameplay that she herself didn't know or remember. She might have asked for an explanation, but given the circumstances that could probably wait for another time...

Right now, they needed to focus on escaping. And Viri, her character being somewhat larger and less agile, wasn't helping. Gritting her teeth, she swung her staff with her free hand, waving it arbitrarily through the air.

"Conj—" The word didn't quite make it out. She was already breathless from the running, and her own panic wasn't helping. "Conjure—" She waved the staff again, to no avail. Damn it! How the heck is casting supposed to work? She squeezed her eyes shut in frustration. Come on, come on! Conjure Spirit! Conjure Spirit Conjure Spirit Conjure Spirit!

And then a burst of emerald light flashed through her eyelids, accompanied by a ghostly hum, and she opened her eyes to see it floating at the tip of her staff. A shadowy orb, horned and grinning, surrounded by a greenish glow that crackled and flickered like fire.

"Yes!" She cheered with delight, then pointed her staff forwards at Deneb. "Um... go!"

Somehow, the spirit seemed to understand. It flew forwards from the tip of her staff, hovering over the ninja's shoulder. As it slid into position, Deneb herself began to glow, that same light green aura outlining her form from head to toe.

Conjure Spirit: Speed UP! Assuming the spell worked like it did in the game, Deneb's own movement speed would be boosted for as long as the spirit remained attached to her.

"Let's see them try to catch us now!"

@PKMNB0Y

@Bone Father@DocRock

KAITO

As his two new companions set off to take care of their own tasks, Kai turned his gaze back to his desk, a particularly foul expression on his face. For the next minute or so, he continued to glare at the piece of furniture as if it were the devil himself. However, he eventually sighed and trudged over to take a seat, pulling a pile of blank sheets of paper. He mentally thanked god for the existence of the logistics skill, otherwise the task ahead of him would have been significantly longer and more mind numbing.

And so he began his arduous task, creating a small poster that he would have posted on the many, many noticeboards scattered throughout the fortress. On this poster were the time and location of a speech he would be giving in regards to the future of the guild, and while he would save the details for the speech itself, he stressed the importance that every member of the guild attend. Also that it was mandatory to do so, just in case someone decided to be lazy or that they were just 'too cool for school'... And then he started copying it. Thankfully, a feature of the logistics skill allowed him to do this in a kind of autopilot mode, so while he couldn't really do anything else while he wrote, he didn't have to put any thought into it and could focus on other things, and it would only take a fraction of the time.

So with the expansive size of the fortress, it would only take... oh, six hours... maybe seven?

God this was gonna suck.

It was after somewhere around the fifty-seventh poster (nohewasntcounting) that he came up with a devilishly good idea, a roguish grin growing over his face as he chuckled to himself. With a little more effort than he'd expected to need, Kai broke the autoscribing his hands had been locked into, and instead used them to summon six phantasmal soldiers.

"Ok guys, time to get down to business!" He said to the phantoms. "I need you all to start copying down these posters. Once you're done, deliver one to each of the forts noticeboards. This is extremely important, so I need you to take as much care as physically possible."

As one, the phantom suits of armour saluted and began to write. He was a little nervous about whether they'd actually reach the same level of quality as him, but a quick check showed that they were thankfully capable of copying the poster right down to his handwriting. Even if they'd work at about a quarter of his own speed.

Still, the point was that he had freed himself of his awful paperwork prison, and was ready to move on to whatever he wanted!

After a moment of trying and failing to come up with something funner to do, Kai sighed, shuffled back to his seat, and began working on his upcoming speech.

---

ASTRA

As Astra lead Indiana to Edenkyte's mine, she noticed that he seemed to be fidgeting about and making odd noises and grunts for seemingly no reason. Normally, she likely wouldn't have cared, but they corridors they were travelling through were beginning to get more and more populated, and while she supposed he did look somewhat monstrous, draconic humanoids such as him were decidedly rare within the fortress, and the way he was acting was beginning to draw the attention of the other inhabitants.

"If possible, I would suggest you attempt to cease your odd behaviour." She said to the dragonborn, continuing to stare forwards as she spoke. "The soldiers will not attack you while I am accompanying you, but showing excessive agitation around them may arouse their suspicion."

She took another turn, leading Indiana down a large staircase. As they descended, the walls began to appear rougher and rougher, until it was clear that it was now the original, unaltered stone beneath the mountain. All around them were orcs, half-orcs, goblins, drow, and all manner of races generally considered monstrous or evil. There were even a few duergar! And while there had been similarly large numbers of these races in the upper levels of the fortress, the armour of the ones working down here seemed significantly lower in quality, if they even wore armour at all! Many of them merely wore tunics and the like.

Astra continued to lead Indy through a series of rough-hewn corridors, until they eventually reached another, far cleaner looking cavern. This one, unlike much of what they had passed on the lower levels, had clearly had a significant level of work put into it, and looked more like a room one might have seen in the higher levels than the lower ones. And, of course, it was filled with various kinds of forges and workbenches.

"This is the workshop." Astra explained, as if it wasn't completely obvious. "You will likely spend a majority of your time in here. The probability that we lack certain equipment you may need is low, but you may inform Master Danongorf if you require something we do not have."

And then she was off again, but thankfully, it was not a long walk, and they soon reached a great pit in the earth. Extending downwards almost further than the eye could see, the sides of the pit were lined with scaffolding and elevators, as members of all the races the pair had passed before stood on the platforms digging into the sides. As they approached, Astra stepped on to one of the elevators, waited for Indy to make it on with her, and then pulled a lever to send the elevator slowly down into the depths of the earth.

"This is the mine. As of recently, Edenkyte's miners have documented an unusually high variety of ores for a single location, many of which have magical properties. Judging from the surrounding environment, I have determined there is a ninety three percent chance that the presence of these magical ores are linked to the underground forest Sir Leidos and Lady Shinon have been sent to. You may ask me any questions you may have during our descent."

---

LEIDOS

"A pleasure to meet you, Lady Shinon." Leidos said, giving the huntress a shallow bow. "If you would, please follow me. The forest isn't far from here."

Much like Astra, Leidos turned to lead Shinon through the many halls and corridors of the fortress. However, where as she and Indiana had descended into the bowels of the citadel, Leidos seemed to lead the archer higher and higher. Outside the windows, one could see that they were now quite a bit higher above ground level than they had been just ten minutes ago.

And yet the snow-capped peaks of the mountain still loomed over them. In fact, it seemed like it was looming even more now, as it became clear that the hall they were walking down was leading towards the mountain itself. After only a few minutes, they reached what appeared to be a small gatehouse. A pair of orcs stood guard at the gate, hands gripped tightly around their halberds as they stared wearily at Shinon. However, a nod from Leidos prompted them to action, and they opened the gate to reveal stark white snow.

Leidos gestured to Shinon to continue following him, and he led her down a cave that was only a short distance from the gate. They continued down this way for a little while longer, the only light coming from a number of glowing crystals planted into the tunnels walls, before they eventually reached another gatehouse. Unlike the other though, this one was far more intimidating, and clearly more effort had gone into making this a defendable location than with the previous. Even the guards, of which there were many more, looked more intimidating, and one especially large orc approached the pair and bowed.

"Captain Leidos, have you come to continue your scouting mission in the forest?"

"I have." Leidos replied, before gesturing towards Shinon. "This is Lady Shinon, a guest of Lord Danongorf. She has offered her skills as a huntress to our scouting efforts, so treat her as you would an officer, understood?"

"Yes Captain." The guard said simply, before motioning to another guard on a platform above them.

As the other guard responded, the gate fell to reveal it was actually a massive, stone drawbridge. And behind it...

Well, behind it was a cavern filled with giant bio luminescent mushrooms, that could only be described as 'scarily enormous'. When Kai had first seen it back when all this had just been a game, he had remarked to the other guild members that it could easily be its own region, and maybe it was even intended to be! It was like it spread all the way beneath the entire mountain range, possibly even further, and it seemed to have a number of different levels, extending deep into the earth.

"So, welcome to the Forest, Lady Shinnon." Leidos said, not quite able to keep the child-like wonder out of his voice as he stared out across the enormous cavern. "I'll be honest, I'm usually not the best at scouting, but the few scouting parties that have returned from deeper in have brought back reports that lead me to believe it is a task for officers, or at the very least those on the level of an officer. Our job for the moment is to try to establish a base of operations deeper into the forest. If we can achieve this, our soldiers can then get to work on occupying the area, and hopefully make it safe enough for civilian settlement later down the line."

@Rabidporcupine



Oh, that was right, he wasn't one of the guild's population, and to one unaware of the whole...messaging system, it would look pretty weird. Indiana didn't speak for a moment, but he did compose himself, slipping his clawed hands into the pockets of his traveling jacket, before finally responding to what Astra said. "The hunting party ran into a Silver Wolf, odds are they're currently getting mauled, handling it, or running for their lives. They sent me a message, that's what the funny actions were. Sorry."

Unless Astra remarked further on what he had said regarding the whole message system, Indy kept silent till the workshop was reached. He did, however, take in the sights prior, offering polite nods to those he passed. He had to admit, this place was already a lot livelier than he had expected, and with such a large workforce...anything was possible. That said, once at the workshop, he'd begun examining it, finding even a few things that he, as a lower level Artificer compared to the one that was currently missing, hadn't yet unlocked to work with. It excited him, shown by a few remarks under his breath that indicated intense joy, realizing just what they could do. Unfortunately, he didn't get much time, realizing Astra was leaving him behind. This prompted him to hurry after, a light grin on his dragonic face, thinking of all that they could do. Why, the thought of building a magical airship came to mind...they had the resources probably, it would just require figuring out how to put it all together. He hurried onto the elevator platform, feeling it creak just a tad under his weight, before it steadied. He looked around again, marveling at what he saw.

"I suppose I do have a fair number of questions. Regarding the ores, do you know if the prior Artificer had done any work with them? Could any be harnessed as a fuel source?" He was glad that as a dragonkin, he had better eyesight than say, a human based model. Still, he wished he'd brought along the goggles of night vision, or a potion for it. Note to self: Make more goggles, they'll come in handy later. "Also, do we have any gunpowder in storage? Or boom sticks I can remove the powder from? Need it for an idea." That was another idea that he felt in his mind, the thought of trying to make a rudimentary portable cannon. They were around the tech level already...factor in magic, then China having invented gunpowder long ago...Granted, he had no idea if Astra knew what he meant by gunpowder. So much to do, so much to see. "Also...any chance we know if there's not say, a giant rock monster or demon boss whose lair is being dug into?" That was another thing to worry about, a lot of magical ore...it could be possible a boss slept nearby, which concerned him more than what the crew on the surface with the wolf were in the middle of. They at least could run, or possibly get help. If a cave in happened...him and Astra and anyone else, short of a miracle or good timing, were finished. That made him shudder involuntarily...and made him think of Meg. Hopefully she was doing much better, right?



Meg whistled to herself just a tad as she pocketed the second half of the payment for the completed item, waving good bye as she turned away from the actor's understudy who had been waiting, a spring in a step. The gold would be a good step closer to paying for more of Indy's various researches, and perhaps even enough to improve their living quarters. And if there was enough left over...she could send the extra cash home to her family, or even pay for transporting one of her sisters up to the city. Indiana wouldn't mind a second big sister, she was sure of it! Or perhaps a little sister...

Come to think of it, where was Indy? She checked, and well, he wasn't in the guild, based on what she'd seen. She pulled out the Sending Stone he'd given her incase they were a distance apart, and tested its locate function. After a few moments...she put it to her ear, and got...static. Checking the stone again showed that... "Out of range? What...I hope he's okay." She was worried, that wasn't normal. It only happened if he was near a boss, too far away, inside another guild base, or...deep underground. Hopefully it was fine. Meg thought about it for a long moment, and sighed to herself, the elf walking down the corridors, past the quest board for the guild, down another corridor, and into her quarters she shared with Indy. She'd at least do something while she waited for him to come back, and she'd try calling again in an hour. Hopefully he hadn't forgotten the stone somewhere, that was another possible issue. Sitting down on her own bed, she pulled out her harp, and began to practice with it quietly, occasionally having to retune the strings. It wasn't exciting but...it beat being worried, right?

The effect of Viri's spell was immediate on the ninja, and she began to pick up speed and run further away from the oncoming threat. A quick glance behind the pair would make it obvious, though, that despite their speed the wolf pack was still coming hot on their heels. A fight was inevitable at this point, yet, but at least they could get to an ideal location for the fight before getting surrounded.

"Viri, play it same. We're going to be flanked from all sides once we get into position, so drop as many barriers and buffs as you can in the five seconds we have once we arrive. There's not going to be much time to prepare, but if all goes well, I might be able to thin their numbers and debuff them enough so that we can make a clean break from this place. Unless something goes miserably wrong, we're not going to be fighting them head-on. Am I clear?"

Without waiting for a response, Deneb checked her grip on Viri's arm before bounding up a hill and sliding down the other side, throwing caltrops and oil all over the ground as the animals chasing them grew closer.

"Okay, here we go, I guess..." she sighed, drawing the knife at her side and adopting a battle stance as a few wolves—the vanguard, it seemed—began to run over the hill and over the traps that had been hastily prepared a few moments prior. Most lost their footing and tumbled into whatever else had been lying around, writhing in pain as the field boss and the rest of the pack arrived.

"If you've got any debuffs to help me, though, feel free to use them. I don't think either of us want to be eaten alive, so pull no punches."

@Anza

"Unless something goes miserably wrong, we're not going to be fighting them head-on. Am I clear?"

"I... I think so?!" Viri honestly wasn't sure she'd caught all that, but then there wasn't going to be time to review, was there? Why did all this have to start happening so fast? I'm not good with quick decisions like this! When she'd arrived in this alternate world, she'd been able to suppress her panic and focus on moving forward based on logic and consideration. Now, though, there was no time to think. Her heart was racing a mile a minute, her teeth chattering from fear and impact both, and all her tramped-down panic was coming rushing back. This is all a dream, right? This has to be a bad dream! As Deneb pulled her roughly up one final hill, she squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers clutching the ninja's arm with desperate strength. WakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupWAKEUP—

And then they hit the ground, and she didn't wake up.

Five seconds.

With Deneb now taking on a combat stance, Viri scrambled behind her, cowering in the ninja's shadow. Her eyes were wide and rimmed with tears, her fluffy ears folding back against the side of her head as the first of the beasts crested the mound before them.

Four.

She wasn't waking up. There was no easy way out, no way to blink and reappear safe in bed as the morning sun leaked through the windows. There was only her, and a magical stick, and the lithe figure of a young woman standing fearlessly in front of her, knife bared against the coming onslaught.

A young woman counting on Viri to back her up.

Three.

Fear crumbled and drained from her mind like sand falling through splayed fingers, replaced by icy calm. Multiple attackers, mounting a frontal assault from above. Commanded by 'field boss,' likely more dangerous than the others. Traps laid in front, goal is to maximize our advantage to prepare for a fighting retreat. She'd cast a spell just before, so she knew how this went. Knew what her character could do, how Viridian Daeva was meant to operate in situations like this.

Two.

Her staff began to glow, and she raised it high. Self buff: Multi-cast. Her eyes, now sharp as daggers, stared out across her battlefield and marked out her target locations.

One.

She brought her staff down, slamming its lower end into the grassy earth hard enough to punch straight through the topsoil.

Zero!

Barriers burst into existence in front of the wolves, panes of what looked like green-tinted glass suddenly blocking their path. Positioned so that they interlocked, forming two walls that extended diagonally forwards, with a small gap between them leading to Deneb. Not a barricade, but a funnel.

The first wolves, already slipping over the ninja's traps, tumbled down the hill and struck the barriers, sliding against them as they were funneled into a single chokepoint. There, furry bodies crashed together, tangling in each other's legs and writhing in pain and confusion, some even scratching and biting at each other as they struggled to break free. The next wave coming over the hill were unable to slow down in time to do keep themselves from running into that same funnel, unable to keep themselves from slipping up on Deneb's oil and then sliding down into that same trap, more bodies added to the chaos.

The next wave, though, had already smelled the blood and fear in the air, and were already slowing when they crested the hilltop. They hesitated, seeing the funnel up ahead and the fate of those who had charged so blindly into its jaws. Animals or not, they weren't stupid. Already they were spreading out, moving to try and surround their targets rather than run straight at them.

Their prey, however, was already deploying countermeasures.

Ripping her staff out of the ground, Viri dismissed the walls of barriers forming the funnel— they'd have disappeared on their own after a few seconds, but making them vanish early refunded a little bit of mana, and she needed every drop she could get right now. Stepping backwards and keeping well behind Deneb, the cleric began spamming her barrier spell, green panes appearing sporadically in front of the moving wolves.

Not vertical panes, this time, but horizontal ones.

Orientation had always been an option, though in Emerald Odyssey she'd only every used horizontal barriers to protect a group from aerial attacks raining down from above. In this case, there was no need for air cover, so she placed them in front of the flanking beasts, edge-on. Running into a wall would have been painful enough, but running into was was effectively a stationary floating guillotine was a lot worse. Even if the barriers didn't have sharp enough edges to actually to much damage to the wolves, there were still howls and the unexpected impacts yielded bloody snouts, the mobs crashing straight into thin obstacles that were almost invisible at their eye-level.

There were only so many she could cast, and they weren't doing much other than slowing some of the wolves down. That was the point, though. As beasts saw their pack-members intercepted in painful fashion, they slowed their own movements, wary of running into one of the cleric's shields. What had been a relentless assault that threatened to surround them was now looking more like a creeping threat, still imminent but no longer immediate.

When a white-furred monstrosity finally came into view, Viri tossed a spirit its way, and then paused, catching her breath. Conjure Spirit... Speed DOWN. That ought to make it a little easier to kite. Her mana was already down to less than half, though, and for all her aggressive tactics, she didn't seem to have crippled or killed any of the enemies.

But then, healers like her had never been meant to inflict much damage. They had others to do that job for them.

Show me your claws, Deneb.

@PKMNB0Y

Deneb couldn't help but pause in surprise as the healer at her side began to act far outside the realm of what she had expected. Given how she had been acting just a few moments prior, the ninja was expecting nothing more than haphazard defenses and a small array of enhancements, not... Well, this.

"Hm. With that, I think I might be having second thoughts," she said under her breath, the grip on her weapon tightening before she dove into the fray. The wolves that hadn't moved to flank from the start of the combat were already somewhat immobilized, which made slitting their throats as the ninja moved past a simple task. One after another, the shining steel flashed, and with each motion another creature lay dead. Of course, the actual threat remained in front of them, and that wouldn't end as simply as this first half of the fight had.

"Eliminate the chaff, and deal with the boss last. Adds being gone relieves pressure from allies, and this boss doesn't call for reinforcements..." she muttered under her breath, diving to and fro across the hill to follow up on as many of the wolves that had been struck by the horizontal barriers as she could. Of course, some had made it through the gaps, wounded as they were, but with the main threat slowly making its way forward there was no room to deal with them.

In essence, that would have to be left to the healer; stalling was an inevitability until she could force the boss back... Unless, of course, Viri could kill them on her own.

A few of the wolves that hadn't pressed ahead with the rest—the bodyguards, as it were—growled at the ninja as she approached. With a deep breath, Deneb pulled out a few spherical objects and threw them at her targets before diving forward.

Said orbs were, of course, a smokescreen for her to weave in and out of the fight. A poison smoke might have worked better for the occasion, debilitating her enemies as she moved to strike them down, but that would also put her at risk if the healer wasn't available for immediate aid. Instead, Deneb took the opportunity to begin to strike in the midst of the smoke covering the area, stabbing at the obviously-bulkier wolves and rolling away before they could retaliate. It wasn't as if her strategy was perfect, of course; during the first few strikes, the target of her attacks had managed to claw at her arms and legs, leaving bleeding gashes where they met her body. The smell of blood would make her easier to track, of course, but dealing with these protective wolves meant that their boss would be left unguarded.

It was far easier to strike at a target as large as that without any sort of distractions drawing her focus away, after all.

@Anza

Deneb was again showing her skill as a damage-dealer, dropping beasts left and right and quickly closing in on the boss. There was just one problem.

What about me?

With the ninja going on the offensive, there was no one left to protect Viri. And in spite of all their efforts so far, there were still wolves closing in on the healer, albeit more cautiously than before.

Ahh... This isn't good... As a back-line support she could fight effectively, but her character wasn't built for surviving on her own! Already Viri's strategic mindset was beginning to crack, the first signs of fear visible in her widening eyes. She could surround herself in barriers, but what then? They could only take so many impacts, and eventually the beasts would just break through. And so far as she could remember, she had no offensive options besides her basic attack...

...but the wolves don't know that, do they?

Canines were fairly smart, and often capable of learning, as demonstrated by how the wolves were now advancing more slowly to avoid injuring themselves on her barriers. But she doubted they'd be intelligent enough to read stats and attributes, even if they had the ability. And in a game world, a target that looks weak isn't necessarily so.

She quavered. She trembled. And then she gripped her staff and charged straight at the nearest wolf.

"YAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The beast paused, hesitating, then actually took a step back as Viri made a wild swing at its snout. Another beast tried to close in from her flank, only to be stopped short as a green barrier flashed into existence in front of it.

Play aggressive. Make them think you're more dangerous than you really are. With a weapon meant for casting magic she had little chance of actually beating anything to death, but she could still use it to keep them cautious and out of formation, while blocking off their movements if they tried to flank or surround her. She turned, finding a third target and dashing towards it with a battle cry that she hoped was more intimidating than adorable.

A minute, maybe two. She could hold them off for that long, before her stamina and mana started to run out.

Hopefully the ninja wouldn't take too long...

@PKMNB0Y