//------------------------------// // Humble Beginnings (2/2) // Story: Equestria Legends Online: Brothers // by 4428Gamer //------------------------------// Like a sack of bricks, we tumbled out of the brush and into a clearing. Over the past several minutes we were running for our virtual lives with our health and resources teetering on empty. Despite being horses built for running, we only had the stamina of two nerds running laps in gym class. I struggled to keep my balance as Joey simply didn't try. thud About five feet away from me, Joey feigned collapsing onto the ground. He was breathing heavily just as bad as I was and through the breathing, he was trying to say something. But all that came out was Joey's tongue lolling onto the grass. "Couldn't agree more," I spoke through breathes. "That could...Not have gone...Better!" Through my rasping breath, my sarcasm still fired like silver bullets. When we went through Everfree Forest we saw plenty of players all trying to fight the most common monster. The Timberwolf. From what I saw, whenever there were a lot of players in one place, the game spawned more enemies to fight. So, of course, all the MMO experts were hunting down Timberwolf nests and wrecking house. Once the nest was cleared, the small army of players tracked down the next one. As we watched a few defeated players burst into puffs of blue code, we decided to try going alone. We traveled deeper into the forest to look around for supplies. The side quest from the vendor needed Timberwolf Lumber mostly but there were other supplies that didn't require fighting. So we started by getting those and filling in our maps of the forest. A few hours, and a small hoard of supplies, later and we decided to start trying to hunt some wolves. When we were out looking for a place to fight without getting in someone's way, we eventually came across a small pack. I don't know how we pulled it off, but somehow three Timberwolves didn't see, hear, or smell any sign of us. Instead, they went around to trees, ripping the bark off and eating it. Weird but not unreasonable. I guess they had to replace the wood on themselves someway or another. Still, they were distracted. We had the element of surprise and they were the first enemies of the game. It should have been an easy fight, right? Just run in, take one out immediately, and have it be a 2v2 fight. With the experience we earned from collecting stuff that would get us both to level 2. There was only one problem. It wasn't a 2v2 fight. And it wasn't the 2v3 fight that I thought was the worst case scenario. It was 1v4. Me against everything else. When we left Ponyville the end of Joey's wand 'staff,' as he called it, glowed with a faint blue aura. The game probably released a restriction on Joey's weapon like turning the safety off. When Joey saw this he tested it out. Every time Joey made a flicking motion, the wand would fire a small, light-blue pulse of magic. The rate of which it fired was like an average pistol, which meant that it was probably faster than a bow albeit weaker too. Our surprise attack was simple; I had tonfa which made me the go-to DPS. This meant that I could easily draw in the aggro while Joey fired from a distance. Even Joey, who had no prior MMO experience before today, completely understood the plan. However, these fool-proof plans almost never account for the worst. Sadly, Joey could not aim. Each time Joey held up the 'staff' with his hoof, he'd start shaking to keep his balance on three legs. Even when he had a shot so clear a glass of water would be offended, he'd fire off magic blasts at everything except the wolves. Including me, I recalled. Long story short, we barely managed to kill two Timberwolves before having to run away. My health was flashing red and Joey apparently had only so many magical blasts before he had to regain his magic. We booked it for who knows how long, aggroing every Timberwolf along the way. And thus ends the frustrating story that has led us to this moment. From what I could tell we managed to get away from all of them and not a moment too soon. Joey was struck by a few stray claws and had his health bar read 49/79. The color looked something between green and yellow. Then there was my health. 19/75. The darker orange color that partially filled the bar made me grimace. From what I saw from the enemy farmers from before, players slowly gained a couple of hit points little by little until you were back to full health. Except, it only went up whenever you weren't close to an enemy. 20/75. From seeing everyone's hit points in the town, everyone started with 75 HP. Except for Earth Ponies who had a clean 100 HP at level one. Of course, with Timberwolves able to do somewhere around 10 damage per claw, 75 or 100 HP starts to feel low when you fight off a pack of them. Still, we survived. And even if we didn't beat all three of the wolves, Joey still managed a level up. Apparently, there was a bonus amount of EXP whenever you dealt the finishing blow which Joey got for both the wolves we beat. I would've been ticked off about that if it wasn’t for the fact that it was safer that Joey got leveled up quicker. This was still his first MMO, after all. "Alex?" "Yeah?" I looked away from my health bar. "...Sorry," Joey said as he tried forcing himself from breathing so deeply. "I didn't...mean to hit you." "..." A small grin started to grow on my face. "Joey?" "Yeah?" Joey's chest rose and fell without halted rhythm. "Keep breathing," I informed him. "Holding your breath isn't gonna do ya...any favors." Joey's lungs answered for him, forcing him to breathe rather than talk. For the next minute, I sat in silence, watching both our hit points rise. By the time Joey was up and speaking our HP bars read 37/75 and 66/79. "So," I spoke up. "You good?" Joey hummed and nodded with a smile. "Yeah. Sorry I wasn't good before." "Oh come on." I rolled my eyes. "It was our first actual fight without other players around. It makes sense that we didn't get it our first try." "I know, but," Joey persisted, still staring at the ground. "I could've tried reading the magic book or something." "Come on Joe, magic books aren't just gonna..." For a second my brained seemed to reboot itself. "Magic book?" "Yeah." Joey glanced away. "The game gives unicorns magic books. I saw some others reading them." "..." "..." I felt my eyelid twitch. "Where do you have it?" The forgiving look on my face turned a placid neutral line. To answer me, Joey flicked his wrist down and summoned his menu. A few button presses later and a small deep purple book formed on the ground beneath him. And, as if unsure I saw it, Joey closed the menu and proceeded to hold it up. "...How long have you had that?" "The whole time," He answered. “...” “...” “...” "...” “...” “...” “...” "...” "Joey?" "Yes?" "Whyyyyyyyy?" I said in a strained breath. "You said that no one ever reads instruction books." His answer was simple. Innocent even. As though nothing in the world could harm his line of thought. If it wasn't for the fact that his innocence and blind trust in me was the reason that I almost got killed by him, I would have lost it. Instead, I slid onto my haunches in defeat. "Joey?" "Yes?" "Read it." "You got it." And so he did. "Ugh..." My hoof sharply connected with my face for a second time today. And just like before with the NPC, it hurt. Immensely. "OW...!" I recoiled in pain and carefully nursed the sore spot on my face. Only, as I did I glanced over at my health bar and felt even worse. The facehoof had dealt 2 HP. I huffed. Thankfully the entire event went unnoticed as Joey was flipping a page in his book. He seemed deep in thought apparently. Well at least I don't have to worry about him holding that stunt against me, I thought. As I had some time to myself I decided to check through my inventory real quick. Disappointingly enough, I didn't have any 'magic books' like Joey did. So instead, I went to the 'Tutorial' tab in the menu and was rewarded with an incredibly long list of tips and subjects with a search bar at the top. Already figuring out the song and dance, I clicked the search bar and typed 'Flying' on the projected keyboard that appeared. Funnily enough, only two results came up. Pegasi Flying Flying Airships I felt my brain shatter on the second line. AIRSHIPS? It took a good ten seconds for me to staple my jaw back to my head before hesitantly clicking the 'Pegasi Flying' button. Flying in this game was one thing, flying in this game on what could become my own private pirate ship was a life goal. The Pegasi Flying tutorial didn't have much. It did its best to explain that moving the wings were a lot like moving your arms but I already figured that out earlier. Despite that my front legs were what replaced my arms, my wings were what felt like arms. Aside from the explanation, the tutorial basically told the player you had to figure it out yourself. Which seemed fair. Odd as it was, magic seemed like it wouldn't vary from person to person as much as flying would. Magic seemed like a mental exercise but flying was something physical. I dismissed the menu and looked to my left wing as I unfurled it. As the tutorial said, it felt like my left arm. As did the right wing. And over the next few seconds of me rotating them back and forth, I crossed them in front of my body as though crossing my arms. It was so weird how natural they felt. Even when I let my wings go lax, they just folded back along my sides lazily. When I moved to bring my wings outward as though making a T-pose, they unfolded flat in either direction and made me seem much bigger than I really was. I glanced at the sky above me. Even when there was a thick canopy surrounding our small clearing, I could still spot the sunset's orange and violet colors streaking across the sky, peeking through the leaves. The idea of a video game sky box didn't cross my mind. Instead, I looked as the thin clouds seemed to skid across the vibrant colors and imagined what it would look like to stare down from them. Would there be a breeze up there? How strong would that breeze be? How far could I see? How do I describe that view to my friends? "How do I get up there?" I heard my voice mutter. I looked back towards the ground and checked my footing—or maybe it's called it 'hoofing.' When I was sure that I wasn't just gonna fly sideways or something I rose up both wings as high as I could get them. When they got as high as they could go it was as though I were stretching my arms after waking up for the morning. “Alright,” I let out a breath of fresh air and smirked. “Here we go.” Not wasting any time, I pulled both wings down as fast as I co—”WOOOOOAAAHHH!” Before I could register what the hell just happened, I was twenty feet up in the air. The ground had gone down under me so fast it was as if being on the receiving end of a Roadrunner cartoon. As I reached the peak of my 'jump' I felt myself start to fall right back down like a sack of bricks. Desperate, I threw both my wings up and back down just as quickly as before, now sending me another fifteen feet up. Before I realized that I could flap my wings without using all possible strength, I had to be a good hundred feet in the air. Although the clouds were still much higher. Thankfully, I was too high up for Joey to hear me freaking the hell out and make fun of me. Unfortunately, I was also too high up for Joey to hear me freaking the hell out to help me. So instead, I did the most terrifying thing I could think of. Rather than flap my wings like a madman to keep going up, I snapped my wings tight along my body and proceeded to dive bomb toward the ground like a skydiver. The sudden G-force made me question whether the tears forming from my eyes were from the wind in my face or the fact that I suddenly remembered that I had never gone skydiving. Regardless of the answer, when I decided to flap my wings again. All at once I felt my body lurch downward as it went against the gravity. Like a drop tower you found in amusement parks or carnivals. I flapped my wings again and now I found myself about twenty feet off the ground. I only stayed up for so long. When I started to bring my wings up again I could instantly feel the strain from every muscle. My wings were entirely numb out of nowhere and I found myself unable to flap them fast enough. So instead, I fell down. boom With something resembling a three-point landing, I slammed into the ground. That numb feeling in my wings stayed there and even as I tried to fold them back I could feel that numbness seizing through them uncomfortably. On top of numb wings, I was nearly out of breath after holding it for so long. Flying Rank Up: Rank 2! Ranks? I let myself sit down as I tried to work the numbness out of my wing with my hoof. What's a rank supposed to mean? The small notification was just above my HP bar. Nothing else happened along with it though. Instead, I watched it fade. The game works off of players getting levels from experience, I reasoned. But the forums never talked about ranks. There was crafting for weapons and proficiencies for fighting styles and powers, but ranks? When the prompt was gone it didn't change anything. What did ranking up do? Was it a scoring system or a level system? I didn't feel any better at flying. I still felt terrible at it, really. After trying to figure it out I rolled my shoulders and unfurled my wings again. They were still sore from the frantic take off but that didn't mean that they were unusable. So instead, rather than go straight vertical I went for a different approach. Once my wings were perpendicular to the rest of me I broke out into a run toward the other end of the clearing, lightly flapping my wings as I went. Sure enough, by the third flap, I was off the ground and gliding the rest of the way across the clearing and keeping my wings completely straight. "It...It's working..." A grin spread across my face. "Hey Joey, are you see. Ing. This..." "Bum bum buda-da-da bum bum bunna! Bum bum buda-da-da bum bum bunna! Bum bum, nuh-nuh, bum bum, nuh-nuh~!" My little brother "Light Chill" was in the middle of the clearing, humming to himself as he threw four books high into the air in a juggling pattern with his magic. Right as each one started to come down, a light blue aura would catch it and practically trampoline it back into the sky about twenty feet into the air. The words "Telepathy Rank Up: Rank 2!" showed up near his HP bar. "...Huh," I hummed. Looking ahead of me I noticed that the edge of the clearing was closing in quickly. So as I got closer, I tried leaning to the left and watched as my direction changed effortlessly. With my left wing only a couple feet above the ground, I banked left and was now flying parallel to the forest. Although the achievement felt much less gratifying as Joey kept repeating his song. After about another minute of flying laps around the clearing, I skidding to a halt as though I were an airplane, only now with a very botched attempt of "Flight of the Bumblebees" being 'sung' behind me. "Bun-n-n-n-n-n-n-na-na-na-na, Bunna dun-dun-dun-dunna nada done, done do—" As Joey began headbanging into a completely different number, he turned around and found me sitting there, trying not to laugh at his classical, heavy metal performance. Joey's horn stopped glowing and all the books tumbled to the ground one at a time. He took a moment to glance at them before slowing turning back to me with a quiet look on his face. "Uhhhh," he hummed. "I, um. I was doin' magic." Huh, I smiled. His cheeks are turning red. Didn't know that was a feature. "I saw. Had a whole one-man-band thing going on." "Y-Yeah." He slowly reached for the closest book and scooped it up in his hoof. "So, uh...Did you figure out how to fly yet?" I bit the inside of my cheek and watched as Joey started to levitate the other three books above him. "Not really," I answered. You know, like a liar. "Haven't tried yet. I thought it'd be a better idea if I didn't fly in a forest filled with pointy branches," Actually, I should've thought that from minute one. With how low my HP was, I'm surprised I didn't get smacked by a tree and hit 0 HP right then and there. r.st.e "Well, you should try it!" Joey stacked all the books beside him before hopping around. "Maybe we can find Rainbow Dash in the game and you can race her!" "Or, we can find Trixie and let the two of you show off." That was Joey's favorite character. And the only one I really knew of out of second-hand. As Joey started to laugh, my smile grew wider. "Seriously, that was amazing! How'd you do all that?!" "Well, the book just said to look at something and think about where you want it to be. So I thought that I wanted the book up and it went up! And when I stopped thinking about it, I let go of the books and started throwing them really high in the air! So I started juggling 'em!" The fact that Joey didn't overthink the magic too much probably helped. If anything, him not overthinking things probably give him an edge. rustle "Wait," I pulled my attention to the side. "Joey? Where'd yo—" "Light Chill." "...Right, Light Chill. Where'd you get those other three books?" "Oh, these?" Joey's attention went to the pile of books as well. "Well, while we were looking for stuff for the store pony, I kept finding tutorial books on the ground. I thought they would be good but I think they're the same as my book." "Probably from other players," I thought aloud. "After they figured out their magic, they probably ditched 'em." "Why though?" Joey asked. "The game said they were each worth seven bits." Yeah, but the game had its own virtual economy, I thought to myself. Economics was going a bit far for Joey. Still, it was a given that if every unicorn had this book then there would be a surplus of them. Seven bits may be the average but all the players probably killed the worth already. "Seven bits still aren't worth selling it back. Not when you get money off of monsters anyway." At that note, I glanced up at our respective health bars again. Joey's HP was thankfully filled up at 79/79 which I was glad for. Meanwhile my HP was now 69/75. Not full, but at least it was back into the green. So by the time we went out looking for another fight, we'd more or less be back to where we started. Wow. That sounded more depressing than I thought it would. ...rustle...rustle... "Speaking of selling stuff." Joey tapped his hoof to the pile of books and they faded into code as they went into his inventory. "What's left on that list for the store pony?" “Right.” Swinging down my hoof I opened the menu and looked around. Before you clicked on any tabs, the date, time, and your stats were what showed up first. “Well, it’s 6:25 now, so we still have some time. But I don’t think we’re gonna need it.” Moving through the inventory quickly, I took out the list. It automatically, or “magically” as Joey said, checked each item off whenever we got it. Most of the stuff was easy collectibles like Stone, Shedded Scales, and Wilted Poison Joke Petals (I ignored the question of why since it was just a stupid fetch quest). We wanted those first before we fought things. Then the Timberwolves had the last two items we needed. Timberwolf Leaves and Timberwolf Lumber. The two Timberwolves we fought only dropped the lumber, and since Joey finished them off, he had most of it. So I assumed that the leaves were harder to obtain. “Looks like we only need one more thing and we're done.” I smiled at him. Rustle… “Okay, great! Then we can give the stuff to the pony and sign out for dinner!” Joey concluded, earning a look of determination. “What's the last thing?!” He leaned down as if looking ready to start running. “Only two—” Tkkkkk “Huh?” I blinked. It was faint but I was sure I heard the sound of something snapping. “What is it, Blitz?” Light Chill looked at me confusedly. To him, he probably thought I was looking above him. We were closer to the side of the clearing rather than the middle. So I doubt it was my imagination. But then again, we had been messing around in this area for like five minutes, what would've made anything... ...When I went up in the air. I wasn't thinking about it at the time but going 100 feet into the air and flailing my wings like a madman had to be a beacon for anything that had good hearing or eyesight for anything in a 50-yard radius. "What are you looking at?" Joey turned around and looked in the direction of the brush. And while I wasn't sure where it was, I could hear the foliage shifting and the light growl of something. Joey didn't see any of these signs. Instead, he started approaching the treeline to get a better view. All without even reaching for his wand. That's when the creature made itself known. From the shadows, looming a good head and shoulders above Joey were these two dimly lit lights peering from the shadows. They seemed masked by a thin veil of some sort but the lively green aura leaking from the dark was hard to miss. As Joey got one step too close, I saw the dim light turn thin and then vanish. Like blinking. And then it snarled. "Joey!" As Joey blinked a Timberwolf lunged from the bushes and was on a direct course for the little unicorn with its claws freshly brandished. In an instant, the Timberwolf had raked its claws across Joey's spine. What would've been blood was replaced by blue code as it flicked off Joey's back and faded away. Joey was knocked away and rolled several feet from a Timberwolf larger than the three that we had attacked earlier. Well, larger than two of them. The third of those three were the same size as it. In fact, it shared a lot if not all of the same features as the one before it. Even the same amount of HP. 54/54. It followed us?! I glanced at Joey and saw his HP bar above him. 65/79. Thirteen points from a single claw attack. And from personal experience, its bite was stronger. I glanced up at my own HP out of habit. 69/75. That's what it was after I stopped flying. How long had it watched us? The wolf didn't move to lunge at Joey again. Instead, it began to circle him slowly as it gave another vicious snarl. It toyed with him. Waiting to see if Joey had any kind of tricks. At no point did it think to look at me either. Since Joey was a 'higher level' and had been the ones to finish off the other Timberwolves earlier, Joey was the bigger threat. If I had to guess, it probably thought that if it could take on Joey than I would be even easier. With a flap of my wings, I flung myself at the Timberwolf faster than it could turn its head. Before it could register what happened, I clocked the wolf with one of my tonfas and watched as the number 54 vanished and left me watching the bar roll down by a tenth. I wasn't done. With my second tonfa, I drove it forward as though I were punching with it. The result was its HP bar falling again as it quickly ducked back into the shadows of the trees and the rustling of bushes became frantic. I let the Timberwolf hide and looked to my brother. "Joey, are you okay?" "Y-ye-yeah," Joey grunted as he stood up to his feet. "I'm fine, but...Where'd he go?" My attention went back to the forest and any shifting bushes. Despite real wolves being stealthy these things were pretty easy to hear coming. Seeing them was the problem. About ten seconds of Joey and I standing side-by-side, looking everywhere, I heard snapping twigs and a deep growl. When I spotted the glowing eyes once again, I nodded. "I see it!" "There!" Both of us shouted in unison. Pointing in opposite directions. Two of them?! My health was still 69 and Joey's was 65. I can't keep both of them off Joey. We're flanked. As though to prove that fact, the one Joey spotted quickly rushed out first and readied itself to pounce at Joey. By the time I turned around, the wolf was closing in and Joey was screaming as his horn lit up. Wait, horn? While within striking distance, the Timberwolf's claw swung where Joey's face was, only catching some hair. In return, Joey grabbed the one book he left out with his magic and smacked it into its branchy maw, driving it to the ground with the sound of branches snapping. The wolf's health went from displaying a full 46 to the number vanishing and dropping the bar by a sliver. Joey then began to smack the wolf repeatedly with the book to only small amounts of damage. After the third smack to the face, the book shattered into code and the Timberwolf had an opening. With one of its back claws, he kicked out Joey's legs and sent him to the ground beside the wolf. I brought down a tonfa and missed as the Timberwolf rolled away and leapt back. Meanwhile, Joey scuttled back to his hooves and started opening his menu. "Joey, what are you doing?" I didn't tear my gaze off the Timberwolf. I didn't leave it an opening. Joey ignored me and made quick work of his menu, making the other three books fall out beside him. With a twitch of his head, another book was floating beside him. With a second growl, Joey finally spotted the glowing green aura from within the shadows. The bigger Timberwolf was watching our fight unfold. Before Joey could throw the book at him, I smacked it out of the air and watched it flop onto the ground. "Wha—Alex?!" "Don't use the books!" I tensed up when the Timberwolf in front of us started to lower its head to pounce again. "Well, what am I supposed to do?!" "You have a wand! and magic!" I shouted exasperatedly. As the Timberwolf barked I feinted towards him and made him flinch back. "Use them!" "W-wand?" Joey looked down at the wand stowed on his foreleg. "Oh yeah!" "RARRFF!" I twisted back to the fight just fast enough to block the wolf's first claw but not the second. Instead, the second claw wrenched across my face and nearly threw me off my hooves. Through the floating code dashing across my eyes, I could see that my HP dwindled further. "Flick and..." I saw Joey sharply nod his head and immediately heard the whistle of a magical blast behind me. Moments later, the big Timberwolf hiding in the trees yelped in pain. "Good shot!" I threw off the Timberwolf's first claw and brought an uppercut directly to its jaw and followed with another blow to the temple. "Can you keep him distracted?!" "Uh...distra—" "Good enough!" Taking a chance, I brought up both tonfa in front of my face like a boxer putting up his gloves and moved. Using my wings for momentum, I slammed into the Timberwolf's muzzle and forced him back several feet. In retaliation, the wolf dug its claw into the dirt to anchor itself and then proceeded to bite down on the tonfa. In the process of almost unhinging its jaw, some of its teeth sank into my leg. As my health bar dipped further into the yellow, the wolf shook violently as if to rip my front leg off. With each shake, I saw my health drip away point by point. When my HP finally dipped past half, I gave up my grip and watched the wolf toss the tonfa away from us before looking back to me. My forelegs were riddled with blue holes as I pulled out my buckler. The next several seconds were spent with the wolf lunging at me and me either ducking away or catching a claw with the shield. Every couple of swipes at me were responded with me swinging back with an occasional tonfa strike. By the fifth hit against him, he was nearing the red and I was now at 32/75. Maybe I should've taken a sword after all. I scolded myself for the dumb exotic weapons and ducked away from the next swing, now able to see Joey's fight. He was fairing better than I was. The wolf was trying to stay hidden in the brush or take cover from Joey's blind onslaught of magic blasts. There weren't any more yelps of pain from him, but the wolf hadn't quite pounced yet. It was waiting for an opening. The wolf I was dealing with was now between me and Joey. I didn't know how well this thing's AI was, but the closer it got to Joey the more sure I was that it was about to turn around and make a swing for him. Joey had his back turned to it. He wasn't at risk of falling to 0 HP from this dumb wolf. Even if it dug both claws and teeth into Joey it would do maybe 40 damage to his 68. The real problem was the lurking wolf in the brush. If Joey was getting mauled by one, the second would finish him off. The wolf pounced for me again. Only this time, after I deflected his claw it retreated a few steps. It was so close to Joey it was stepping on his books. "Come on, mutt!" I goaded. As it growled, I tossed my other tonfa at its face and pulled out the warclub. "I know chihuahuas worse than you!" Almost like it was intent on proving me wrong, the wolf pounced for me once again. But rather than dodge the attack I brought up my front leg, the one with the shield on it, and jammed it down the wolf's throat. "Ow, Ow, OW. OW! OW!" Through the blue code that flew out from my arm, I watched my HP sink again. 29 27 23 The shield helped to keep most of its teeth from cutting my leg but the thrashing around kept making it worse. So, whether by panic or anger, I brought up the warclub and started smashing it into the side of the Timberwolf's head again and again with each hit taking out a tenth. My health kept falling. 20 17 15 When the wolf's HP was a few points from zero, it tried pulling back. 11 The only problem was that now its teeth were stuck and I had twisted the buckler in its mouth. I wasn't letting go. 8 The pain got worse as I screamed, bringing the warclub down on it one last time. The wolf tried bringing up a leg to block but it did nothing. Instead, the warclub crashed through it and struck the wolf in the temple, turning both skull and leg into blue code before the rest of it followed. In a grunt, my leg was now free from the jagged teeth and I looked it over. All over were thin lines of blue that code pouring out. My entire leg was numb. I looked at my HP bar. 5/75. That was a dumb idea. "Alex!" Joey, hearing my Timberwolf breaking into code, turned away from the Timberwolf still in the bush and ran behind me. "I can't hit hiiiii—what happened to your arm?!" I slowly brought my leg down only to realize that the pain had already vanished. Right. A game, I reminded myself. They wouldn't have real pain inside a game. Ahead of us, the Timberwolf found the closest spot from the treeline to us. By this point we were in the middle of the clearing and Joey got at least gotten two good hits in on the bigger Timberwolf. Not to mention the Timberwolf saw what it believed was the weaker of the two of us, me, take down the other wolf single-handedly. "You gonna be okay?" Joey asked, firing another blast of magic towards the glowing eyes. The eyes simply shifted to the side as the blast passed by. "Yeah. It's already fading." Even as I said that the blue cuts sealed back up and now the numbness in my leg was entirely gone. "I don't think I can play meat shield anymore." Slowly, the Timberwolf began to step out from the treeline. Without the foliage to block its health bar, I saw that it was somewhere around two thirds full. That was still more than enough to rush at us, take me out, and then maul Joey. As it took a few more steps at us, I stepped to the right and slowly picked up a tonfa. Since this Timberwolf was bigger, hitting it with a warclub might not have been the best idea. Using my speed was a smarter plan. "Joey," I put the buckler away and had the tonfa on one leg and the warclub in the other. "When I say now, I want you to wait until the wolf finishes moving to the side and then fire at it. Okay?" "Uh. Okay," He said slowly, not looking away from the wolf. "Why's the wolf gonna move sideways?" "Don't worry about that." I walked past Joey slowly and started moving closer to the second tonfa. It was too far away for me to walk to it. If I strayed too far from Joey the Timberwolf would lunge. "Just keep watching the wolf. You'll see when it moves. Just blast it while he's moving to the side. Okay?" The Timberwolf took another step closer to us. Its patience was waning. "Okay." Joey nodded. "When?" "Right..." I stopped walking and turned to the wolf, warclub raised high in my foreleg. "Now." I threw my warclub straight for the Timberwolf's head and made a run for the second tonfa. I couldn't see what happened next. Instead, I listened as the Timberwolf let out a growl and heard the lack of a warclub hitting something. Then, as I told him to, I heard the pulse blast from Joey's wand. As I was diving for the tonfa I heard two more distinct sounds. Wood cracking, a wolf's yelp, and the sound of magic impacting something. Scooping the tonfa in my now free hoof, I quickly turned to charge right back into the fight. However, when I got my wings ready the only thing I saw was— Level Up! Lv. 1 → Lv. 2 "...Wha..." Shaking myself from the confusion, I leaned away from the text box and looked on toward Joey and the Timberwolf. Or rather, Joey and a bunch of code fluttering away. "It. It's gone!" Joey cheered. "Alex, it worked! I killed the wolf!" "You-you did?" I started to glance around the clearing. That's not right. How's it already dead? The only damage it took before was me hitting it twice. And, level 2 or no, Joey's magic still wasn't stronger than two strikes. And there was no critical hit chance in the game. That's what the beta testers said on forums at least. Enemies Defeated 2 Timberwolves Team Rewards Bits Obtained: 6 (1) Timberwolf Lumber (2) Timberwolf Leaves 50 XP Your Share Bits Obtained: 2 (1) Timberwolf Lumber 22 XP Quest Update: Shop Up Some Wood All materials have been collected! Return to Oaken Handle to turn in the supplies. When we were running away from the big Timberwolf earlier, I remember a similar pop up with the rewards on it from the two wolves we did manage to kill. I guess Joey did it, I admitted. Maybe Joey being level 2 was strong enough? Or maybe Joey hit it more than two times? Are there intsa-kill tricks? "Woohoo!" Joey cheered with a small hop. "Mission done!" Through all of my thoughts I watched Joey bound across the clearing like a fool. He let his wand just sit nearby on the ground as he just kept bouncing around. "This game is so cool!" He continued shouting. "Do you think I'll get to shoot anything else from my staff when I get more levels?!" I let myself smile a little. "Wh-Who knows. You might just get the power of lasers or something." Joey gasped. "Magic lasers..." He ran back over to his wand and picked it up in his magic, waving it all over the place like crazy. "We need to fight more wolves. Right now! I want my lasers!" To demonstrate, Joey started making laser sounds as he fired regular pulse blasts at the trees around us. Some of them made their mark and other just sailed off for who knew how long. A good twelve or so 'lasers' from his 'staff' later and Joey's magic depleted. Joey paused to stare at his wand before boredly sheathing it and walking back over to me. As he did, I saw his gaze shift above me where my health bar floated. Right now it read 32/87. My max was a little higher than Joey's now. Probably due to me taking more damage than he did at level 1. However, as he stared up at my health and then looked over his, which was already back to a full 82/82, he seemed to calm down a little; almost as though he was a little upset. "So, um, what should we do now?" "Well." Turning to my HUD in the corner I saw that the clock had read 6:29. "We should probably log out for a little bit. No doubt Dad's chomping at the bit to hear about how everything's been. And if there's no 'Breaking News' then Mom should be home already too. I bet she'll want to hear all about Joey the Wolf Slayer." "That's Light Chill the Wolf Slayer, thank you!" Despite the 'anger' in his voice, Joey was smiling with glee. "And I think you're right. I'm getting kind of hungry anyways." I already knew that the hunger was part of the game but Joey had a point. Our real selves were probably hungry too. Especially since I didn't even eat anything before going into the Nervegear. "Yeah, let's go home for now." Joey started to open his menu. "Besides, Dad said that he wanted to play the game too. He wanted to see how real everything wa— In a column of light, Joey was gone. "Wha. What?" I straightened up and started looking around. "Joey? Joey?!" I ran over to where he was standing and tried reaching around with my hoof. Nothing. "Joey!" I turned around and started looking in every direction before throwing my wings down to go skyward. But as I got about ten feet off the ground— Another column of light appeared and I was swallowed whole.