Night 2
The third night—or for everyone else, the second night. Waves of monsters were encroaching on them. It wasn't a sensation he received from his Magic Sensitivity, it was merely intuition. Kazi considered his options. If he wanted to, he could have finished the main objective by himself. Due to the nature of the monsters and their attraction to higher levels of mana. With his near infinite amount, he was like a beacon for all the surrounding monsters.
'But Kibiwott specifically asked me if he could fight. I want to respect his wishes as best as I can.'
"Brother, want a drink?" Remmy offered an elixir to him. "It boosts your agility and deftness by roughly twenty points."
In learning of the monsters' attraction to mana, the ten players elected switch rosters around. Since Kazi explained his mana-based fighting style, he was paired up with Remmy who was a French archer that rarely employed skills and relied on critical hits. It was a unique method of fighting.
"I'm okay." Kazi smiled and watched as Remmy downed the drink down, then drank another. "What's the other one? More deftness?"
"Yep," Remmy wiped his mouth. "The higher the deftness, the better I feel I can do crits."
"Any habits you have?"
"Habits?"
"So that I can coordinate better. When do you use skills, for example? At the start, middle, or near the end? Do you keep track of your mana constantly or not?"
"I only use skills when I'm cornered," Remmy said, "and it is always my strongest move, Double Flaming Arrow. It's the final move in the fire branch. Gonna be a bit dangerous in the woodlands. Don't want it to spread into the village."
The night was growing darker. Kazi and Remmy continued talking and discussing battle strategies. Eight Yumboes were not assigned to him and were dispersed evenly between the other three. Kazi explained in advance that he used magical spells on top of swordspells. With the Yumboes, they would effectively be dragging all attention to them.
"I hope Pauline will be alright Kibiwott," Remmy said.
"Strict guy?"
"Very. He's obsessed with making it into the top twenty. It does suck that he hasn't been able to unlock the Intermediate Class." Remmy sighed. "He's in a small guild that's really expecting a lot from him. He's been training like crazy, spending night after night at gates to practice and learn an Intermediate sword skill."
"That difficult, huh?"
"Shit's not easy. Even I'm stuck at Amateur Archery." Remmy tested the string of his monobloc bow. "You?"
"Oh, you know, just chilling." He purposely did not mention his own class. "Going for XP instead of skills with the Amateur Player Class."
Remmy inserted an arrow. His posture was slightly back. "A two percent increase cannot be that useful."
"It builds up, believe me. Also…" Kazi faced the woodlands, left eye peering into the future. "They're here. Stone birds, one eleven o'clock and two twelve o'clock." Kazi hadn't yet summoned his absurd mana, that was why he suspected there weren't many incoming.
Twang!
The first shot went off. Miss. The lone stone partridge at the left dodged it. "Go," Remmy said. Kazi didn't waste time and charged. Deciding to not use Mastered Flow of Mana, he focused purely on his natural stats and closed the distance between himself and the two incoming stone birds at twelve o'clock.
"Super Spark Strike!" The world lit up from the blue lightning, his scimitar smashing them apart like they were sand constructs.
[ Receive:
15,300 XP ]
[ Receive:
15,300 XP ]
As for the remaining bird…
Twang! Twang! Twang!
The third shot finally interrupted its trajectory. It crashed into the ground, not quite destroyed. Its endurance was high, after all. Remmy ran forward, stopped, aimed, and shot again. The bird was struck again, a crack forming on its shell. Quickly, he got the third and final arrow from his quiver and shattered the stone partridge into three pieces.
Kazi jogged back, a hand raised. Grinning, Remmy high-fived him.
"Nice job, brother!"
"You too! I'm sure you'll make it to the Chosen Bows."
"No way, I've seen the men at the smaller tournaments, they wouldn't have missed like me."
"Don't be so..." Kazi eyed the forest again. "They're here again."
"That fast? I guess you weren't lying when you said you use a lot of mana." Remmy tracked back while stringing back his bow for the next shot. "Who are they?"
Kazi squinted. The blips of mana were like nothing like the partridges and the Booas. "Could this be…?"
One by one, from the top of the woodlands, they dropped. Apes with fur and red eyes and long black hair draped down from their head. Eight of them total, their levels all in the late twenties. Kazi could very easily kill them.
He didn't. He signaled Remmy to stop. "I mentioned them before, remember? The apes? We can talk to them."
"You sure?"
"You're here, aren't you? I'll be fine."
"Understood. I'll put my trust in ya, brother." Remmy lowered his bow, still tense but trusting. At a moment's notice, he could strike them with an arrow.
Slowly, hands raised, Kazi walked up to the apes. The leader of the Fating'ho stood equal with Kazi. He was buffer and stronger, his level at a staggering Level 32. Kazi was surprised he wasn't receiving the Mini Boss notice. Kazi had worked at zoos before.
'If they're like other apes, then they don't ask questions. Curious in captivity and cautious in the wild. Which will you be?'
The leader of the Fating'ho's red eyes locked onto Kazi's, sizing him up with a primal intelligence that belied his brutish appearance. Neither smiling or showing teeth, his eyes softened slowly, calmly, hoping that the leader would recognize this as a sign of goodwill. To Kazi's surprise, the Fating'ho leader responded, raising his own hands and making gestures that seemed to mimic a form of sign language. It was crude and basic, but it was clear that the apes possessed some level of communication beyond mere grunts and growls.
Which...was odd.
'Sign language…? In the wild? Must be human influence...or is this the difference between them and normal apes?'
"We were attacked," Kazi signed. "The Booas threatened the village, so we came to defend it. Why are the Fating'ho here?"
The ape's red eyes flickered with intelligence beneath the veneer of primal instinct and the leading Fating'ho responded, "We follow the scent of blood." The Fating'ho's signs were surprisingly smooth. "Booas hunt. We hunt Booas."
"But this is our fight. You should go."
"We hunt Booas," the leader signed once more. His red eyes, while glowing, were opening and closing sleepily. Kazi figured they must be diurnal like most apes. "We fight with you."
'As much as back-up would be nice, I don't want to incite confusion. Communicating non-verbally is easier said than done. The Yumboes themselves seem to have a negative perception of the Fating'ho too, thinking of them as dumb, dangerous predators.'
Kazi shook his head. "No, this is our battle. You should leave. We'll handle it." Because they could do this. They could win. They didn't have to fight the Fating'ho or have them join. It was unnecessary. A waste of XP—
Twang!
A gasp of pain echoed. The leader stumbled forward, a feathered shaft protruding from the back of his head, and dropped to the ground. Critical hit. The seven Fating'ho stared down at their fallen leader.
Betrayal. Bewilderment. A misunderstanding.
All towards the humans. All toward Kazi and Remmy. Especially Remmy who had his bow up. In their minds, there was no doubt – they believed that the humans had orchestrated this attack.