Chapter 4: The Blue Moon Dance

The Wolf's resounding howl echoes through the forest—it's the signal that the hunt has begun. The sun magically transforms into a blue moon, bathing the Wolf in a mystical aura. Alice immediately realizes that the predator takes a more aggressive stance when bathed in the light of the blue moon.

[Lazuli Moon]

[Description: Creates an illusion that transforms the sky into a night of a blue moon, a rare event that awakens the primal potential of all predators bathed by it, turning them into ruthless beasts.]

The player does not let her guard down, staring steadfastly at her canine opponent, assuming a defensive stance, aiming to learn his fighting style before attempting any attack.

The boss slowly approaches his prey, growling furiously—reminding himself of all the Gray Wolves that the players have exterminated so far—the player notices that he is observing her left shoulder, which was wounded by her previous attack.

Alice takes slow steps back, preparing for a possible advance from the creature and… The Wolf disappears from the player's sight. Remembering the boss's previous action, she immediately turns to the left finding the predator running in her direction.

By reflex, she raises the blade of the sword in front of her, hopeful that she is quick enough to perform a [Perfect Block]. But she is surprised by the absolute nothing, the creature disappeared again.

"What skill is this? Teleport? Invisibility?" Alice murmurs in a tone of surprise.

She maintains her defensive stance, her eyes frantically scanning the surroundings for any sign of movement from the Wolf. Until a sound in the lake water catches her attention, it seemed like a calm and precise movement.

With a quick movement, Alice spins, making a precise cut in the direction of the sound. However, once again, her attack hits absolutely nothing. The Wolf seems to have disappeared once again, leaving her confused and frustrated.

Suddenly, a powerful force hits her from the back, violently knocking her down into the shallow lake. She feels the sharp pain of the Wolf's bite on her right arm—specifically the one holding the sword, but amidst the pain, she saw an opportunity.

"Unequip! Equip!" her sword disappears, but thanks to her sequence of commands, it reappears—this time, in her left hand. Taking advantage of the predator's moment of vulnerability, she throws her arm back, making the sword pierce the boss's eye.

[HP: 15/50]

The Wolf screams in pain, letting her go and again disappearing from the player's reach. She gets up and sees the creature at the end of the lake washing the blood from his wound—looking at her with more hatred than ever.

He howls at the blue moon, the white stripes on his body glow more intensely and suddenly, another howl is heard. And another. And another. And another!

[Hunt Season]

[Description: Its user is capable of summoning and controlling a pack of Gray Wolves to assist in combat, however, the intelligence of the summoned creatures is considerably reduced.]

Alice observes 5 gray wolves emerging in the darkness of the forest, she screams in a mixed tone of challenge and sarcasm "What happened?! Can't handle a fair fight?" In a blink of an eye, they surround the swordsman, forming a circle around her, with their fangs on display in a clear sign of aggression.

In a quick aggressive movement, one of the wolves advanced towards her, jumping in a fierce attack—the same attack that the player had already memorized. Instinctively, Alice ducked, allowing the wolf to pass over her. With calculated precision, she spun her body at the exact moment, taking advantage of the opening left by the wolf in his attack.

The blade of her sword cut the predator's belly with lethal precision. A moan of agony escaped from its sharp teeth, while it toppled on the water ground, defeated by Alice's accurate strike.

[Experience: 44/50]

"Easy peasy!" shouts the player in a mocking tone.

Suddenly, Alice feels a powerful impact on her back, is thrown to the other side of the river. Even dazed by the sudden impact, she gathers her strength and quickly gets up and sticks her sword in the lake ground, using it as a support point to decrease the speed of her impulse. The shock is absorbed by the blade, allowing her to recover more quickly.

[HP: 06/50]

While she composes herself, Alice observes the four remaining wolves and the Boss, all even more infuriated by the defeat of their companion. She gets frustrated seeing her HP low until memories of her days in Arcadia pass through her head, clearly remembering a very useful system that would probably be present in the sequel.

A cunning smile appears on the player's lips, as a plan begins to form in her mind. She advances with determination, despite the throbbing pain in her body. The Boss growls fiercely, ordering his subordinates to advance on the player.

One of the wolves, again, jumps towards Alice in a furious attack. With reflexes as sharp as the blade of her sword, Alice reacts quickly, moving with millimeter precision. She spins her body at the exact moment, allowing the wolf to pass her without causing damage. With an accurate strike, the blade of her sword decapitates the predator in mid-air.

[Experience: 49/50]

"Are you kidding me?!" Alice grumbles frustrated.

The other wolves retreat, perhaps intimidated by the player's prowess or by the loss of another one of their companions. But the leader of the wolves shows no signs of retreating, who keeps advancing on the player, activating his skill [Silver Fang].

In an act of desperation and cunning, she throws her sword towards one of the remaining wolves. Thanks to her great strength, the sword manages to reach him, the hit is accurate, and the wolf falls lifeless, hit squarely in the head by the improvised projectile.

[Experience: 02/75]

A golden aura transcends her body—symbolizing the level ascension—but what makes Alice smile to her ears is that just like in the first game, when a player levels up their HP, Stamina and Mana are restored to their maximum value. Thus, Alice not only fully recovered her life bar but also erased all the damage she had received so far.

Alice smiles malevolently, intimidating the predators "Now the hunter is me. And you are my prey!" With her body restored, she quickly opens the status menu, and puts all the 5 points she received in Speed.

[Alice LvL. 2]

[HP: 50/50]

[Stamina: 50/50]

[Mana: 50/50]

[Class: Swordswoman]

[Strength: 6]

[Defense: 1]

[Stamina: 1]

[Speed: 6]

[Intelligence: 1]

[Magic: 1]

[Luck: 1]

The Boss—who was still approaching the player—disappears and resurfaces behind her, jumping to bite her head with his teeth as lethal as blades. But surprisingly, Alice spins putting her arm in front of the attack "GG Ez."

[Perfect Block]

[Stamina: 35/50]

The Wolf is thrown backward, spitting blood and pieces of its teeth, the tip of its snout destroyed—drastically impairing its sense of smell.

By investing points in Speed, Alice not only increased her body's speed but also her perception. This allowed her to keep up with the Wolf's movement during its "disappearance," which was actually one of the hundreds of abilities she possessed in Arcadia.

[Flash Step]

[Description: Upon jumping, the user's speed is amplified by 50 times during the time in the air until touching the ground, giving ordinary spectators the illusion of teleportation. An excellent skill to ambush enemies.]

Alice wears a sarcastic smile. "Took me a while to notice, but obviously, I couldn't forget one of my favorite skills. I just didn't expect it to be in the paws of such a weak boss." With its leader injured, the remaining 3 wolves advance furiously behind the player.

With an excited smile, Alice easily dodges the attacks of the three remaining wolves, skillfully gliding over the water of the lake. Her movements are fluid and precise, as if she were dancing between the attacks. She advances towards her sword embedded in the predator's corpse.

Upon retrieving her weapon, Alice prepares for the final confrontation. The wolves try to attack her furiously, but she is one step ahead of them. With impressive agility, she evades their predictable blows. Her movements are so fast that the predators can barely keep up with her.

During her wave of attacks, 2 wolves notice the head of one of their comrades flying over their strikes—without even having time to process what happened, the two receive cuts that split their heads in half. Alice swings her sword, splattering the wolves' blood into the lake.

[Experience: 11/75]

"It's just you and me now," she arrogantly points her sword at the Boss and mockingly says, "Or do you want to call more of your cousins and help me reach level 3?"

In fury, the Wolf howls at the Blue Moon, turning it into a red moon, the atmosphere around the wolf becoming even more sinister, its magic lines that once emanated white light now shining in a scarlet red. Its single eye radiates a disturbing murderous intent as it prepares to completely destroy that damned human.

"A variation of the Lazuli Moon?!" Alice murmurs in surprise. She holds her sword in a defensive position, her muscles tense and ready for the final battle.

With a furious growl, the Wolf leaps forward, cutting through the air with its speed. But thanks to her enhanced perception—instead of the predator disappearing—she sees a gray blur moving rapidly to her right.

Focusing her strength on her legs, the player advances towards the boss with her sword—attacking it after its advance—cutting through the air in a deadly arc. But to her surprise, the creature grabs the blade with its mouth and easily snaps it with a bite.

"Okay... I should have at least gotten a better weapon..."

Taking advantage of Alice's vulnerability, the Wolf uses its [Flash Step] point-blank on her—not giving her time to use [Perfect Block], throwing her out of the lake, and making her hit a tree.

[HP: 35/50]

While groaning in pain, Alice grumbles, "Urgh! If he didn't have this skill, I would have defeated him 5 minutes ago... Wait...!" her eyes light up with a daring plan in mind, Alice firmly grasps the broken blade, preparing for the final confrontation with the wolf.

Aiming to end the fight once and for all, the boss advances on Alice while she's down. It moves with several consecutive [Flash Steps], reaching her in mere seconds. But that's exactly what the player wanted.

She moves with surprising agility. With a quick and precise movement, she directs the broken blade towards the wolf's hind leg, aiming for the vulnerable joint. With a precise strike combined with the wolf's speed, the blade cuts deeply through the wolf's skin and muscles, hitting the joint with force. The wolf lets out a sharp cry of pain as its hind leg is maimed by the blow.

The player stands up, watching the boss struggling with immense pain, barely able to stand. She approaches it, firmly holding her sword, as the beast tries to flee into the forest with [Flash Step], resulting in a few meters' advance—before the Wolf collapses due to lack of balance.

Seeing her opponent approaching, the wolf growls furiously, its expression filled with anger and despair. It tries to rise, but something it sees makes it stop. The Boss observes the bodies of its fallen comrades, a sight that turns its hateful expression into one of sadness and disappointment—he failed, he had a power superior to Alice's, and yet he couldn't protect those who followed him.

Alice runs up to the predator, holding her sword firmly—unaware of the Scarlet Moon disappearing and giving way to the sun—and then, before delivering the final blow, the player in a friendly tone says, "This was fun! Thank you!"

She thrusts the broken tip of the sword into the boss's neck, and with great effort pulls the hilt, opening a fatal wound. The creature falls to the grassy ground without showing any reaction other than a small tear falling from its face.

"That was weird. Why did he stop? Oh well..."

['Blue Moon Hunter Wolf' was defeated!]

[Experience: 86/150]

[Achievement #009 unlocked: Let me solo it!]

[Description: Defeat 1 boss alone.]

Upon seeing the messages, Alice gasps in surprise. "Wow! So many rewards! Wait, do these Daggers do 50 damage?! Oh my god! Since when did I get so lucky?" She tries to equip her new weapons in the menu, but to her dismay, she receives only one message.

[You are unable to wield weapons outside of your class.]

"Oh..." she kicks the grass angrily. "GOD DAMMIT!"

Her little fury is interrupted by the sound of a branch breaking, her instincts pointing to the presence of another being approaching. She assumes her combat stance, more confident than ever that her skills are capable of eliminating any threat that is to come.

...

From the darkness of the forest, the Slime from before arrives crawling—finding Alice, who is delighted with its presence. "Oh my god! You followed me?! I knew you loved me! Come here!" Alice squats with her arms open to receive the Slime, which passes right by her and goes to the boss's corpse.

"Of course..." Alice murmurs in a disappointed and sad tone.

Until her stomach growls, she laughs a little embarrassed. "Speaking of food, I don't remember the last time I ate something..." Alice opens the menu looking for the Log Out option. "I'll just have a quick dinner, and then I'll come back. Did my mom make lasagna today?"

After a few seconds in the menu, her smiling expression changes to a slightly confused one. "Ummm... Where's the Log Out?"