The calm, calculating eyes of a timberwolf bored down with leering hunger. The creature, defined by its snout of pure white wood, paced a wide circle around its quarry. Its mouth hung agape and dripped with sap as its heavy paws padded silently along the grass.
Following its wide arc, the beast passed behind the ivory trunk of one of the many trees. Moments passed, and it did not emerge from the other side. It had vanished without a trace.
The prey stood fast. Succulent. Delicious. Tempting.
Second after agonizing second passed in utter quiet... until the inevitable attack came. With barely a moment's warning, the branches rustled from above, in the opposite direction. From their boughs, the timberwolf sprung, descending in an instant and sinking its splintered, gnarled teeth into the exposed prey. Without any mercy it ripped into its meal, sending streams of viscous, bright red fluid in all directions.
It wasn't long before the beast had consumed its prey whole, leaving no trace behind but a deep red stain on the grass. Nothing remained, until with a loud belch, a pie tin when skipping across the ground. Finally the timberwolf licked its syrup stained chops before loosing another contented belch.
The afterglow of a delicious treat was soon interrupted as three shadows leaped overhead. They fell upon the beast with a cry of "Bonzai!", and in a flash of steel, battle erupted.
Apple Bloom, leading the charge, struck first with a large circular spinner on her fetlock, much like a saw blade. It shot forward and dug into the side of the wolf, leaving a jagged line of red in its wooden hide.
The wolf howled in pain and turned its glowing, ethereal eyes on the little filly. It lunged forward to snap at her, only to be struck again across the face with her hoof and spinner.
"«Beast!»" she shouted mid-strike.
The moment the blow connected, a projection of a lion's head, accompanied by a roar, shot out from her weapon and struck the wolf hard. The force of the amplified blow sent it tumbling back, right into range of Scootaloo.
Blades cut into the earth as the pegasus skated around in a wide arc, propelled by the thrumming of her tiny wings. Casts gleamed on her back hooves and the blades flared with golden light, illuminating the excited grin on her face.
She kicked out, lifting upward and cutting deep into the exposed back of the airborne monster, eliciting another pained yelp. "«Tiger Blade»!" she shouted, reaching the top of her lift and bringing her other blade down in a deadly arc.
Bark and wood creaked under the force of the blade, sending the wolf crashing to the ground with a yelp. All the while, Sweetie Belle had landed farther back, watching and waiting for her chance. In her hoof she held a black metal staff that ended in a microphone. Her job was to watch and act carefully. She liked it that way.
Effective though they were, the two attacks had barely managed to take off a tenth of the Timberwolf's health. It began to push itself back up on its paws, turning its vengeful gaze to Apple Bloom, just as he was supposed to.
Apple Bloom's spinner weapon was a tank role, so the damage it dealt was minimal. However, as a Valiant type, it specialized in drawing a monster's focus on it and minimizing damage with special defensive skills. It wasn't as specialized as a large shield in raw defensive power, but it was speedier to compliment the armor she wore. It was a heavy type comprised of an equal balance of thin metal plating and sturdy, reinforced leather. Unlike the full plate armor most defensive tanks had, this armor didn't have as many penalties to speed.
Scootaloo, on the other hoof, was practically the opposite. The skates on her back hooves were a control role, focusing on battlefield control. Since they were a Dancer type, they specialized in skills that dealt moderate damage while also manipulating her position on the battlefield. They also made it easy for her to zip around with the thrust of her tiny wings, even without the use of skills. With her skates, the whole world was her personal ice rink. The light type armor she wore, a sturdy leather jerkin, with matching bracers and greaves, allowed her a full range of movement for her high mobility weapon.
Sweetie Belle watched carefully as the timberwolf targeted Apple Bloom, stalking forward. Now was her turn.
Her weapon was a long metal pole with a microphone on the end like a rounded box. This weapon also belonged to the control role, and was a Booster type. As such, her specialty was skills that assisted her allies, enabling them to do their job better. This role kept her out of the thick of the fighting, which was good, since the frilly, soft lilac robe she wore wasn’t very strong on defense.
Lifting the microphone just in front of her lips, she focused and gently spoke the words, "«Rhythmic Future»."
Glowing a pale blue, a low, pure tone rang out from the microphone. Her voice echoed into the sound and turned it to a steady beat, causing the glow to pulse in and out. She aimed her microphone at the timberwolf, let the skill reach its peak, and released a dull sonic wave at the creature. The wave of bright, rippled air washed over its rough hide ineffectually, only spreading a brief glow.
The wolf stopped mid-stride as the skill hit it, and turned its glowing yellow eyes to Sweetie Belle. She couldn't take it on in a fight, she knew that. Thankfully, she didn't have to.
Before it even had a chance to step in her direction, Apple Bloom thrust her spinner forward. The weapon rotated at high speed and lit with red light that shot out in a ghostly trail of translucent energy.
"«Screaming Line»!" she shouted.
The attack also merely washed over the wolf, but that was the point. This was how the system that the humans called 'aggro' worked. Sweetie Belle's «Rhythmic Future» wasn't a damage dealing technique, but the sound and effect it placed on the target drew its attention. To counter this, Apple Bloom had followed with «Screaming Line», an attack that also did no damage, but completely drew the aggro off of Sweetie Belle. Now it was time for the real fight to begin.
Its focus now locked on Apple Bloom, the timberwolf struck. Its gnarled claws flashed a sickly green and it leaped forward. It swung its paws in a flurry, but despite its efforts to strike its prey, Apple Bloom swerved, ducked, and dodged every last attack.
This was the effect of «Rhythmic Future», a technique that infiltrated the body of the victim. When the afflicted tried to attack, then its target would see a before-image of every move it made, allowing them to dodge effortlessly. The effect lasted for three minutes, which would be more than enough time for them to finish this. The drawback was that it could only be used again six minutes after it was cast, twice the duration of its effect.
Sweetie Bell had to admit, she was really impressed with Apple Bloom right now. Even with the advantage of seeing every strike ahead of time, it wasn't easy to dodge them like she was. She even had the sense to use her spinner to block certain blows to make evading the next easier. With instincts like that, it was hard to believe that she'd only just started fighting today.
Just watching wasn't going to help anything, though. It was time to hit hard while the beast's focus was on Apple Bloom.
"Hit it from above!" Sweetie Bell ordered, knowing Scootaloo knew just what to do. At the same time she concentrated as hard as she could, mustering up power in her horn.
The pegasus filly grinned wide and glided across the dirt and grass, her skates cutting into the earth. Right when she knew she was in range, she thrummed her wings as hard as she could and shifted herself forward on her skates.
"«Shave»."
Barely a flicker of light was visible before she vanished, reappearing in free-fall above the timberwolf.
Sweetie Bell had practiced this combination dozens of times already, and moved on reflex. She spoke the words "«Resonance Beat»" into her microphone, causing another melodic tone to start building up. It reached its apex quickly, and she released it onto herself, letting the music and magic flow over her. In the next instant, she aimed for the timberwolf and released the spell building in her horn, shouting, "«Fireball»!"
Just as the name implied, twin fireballs shot out from her horn, arcing to either side before turning in towards the wolf and striking it full on the side. It wasn't over though, as magic surged through Sweetie Belle and in less than a second the same spell shot from her horn. The second duet of fireballs struck the wolf once more and kicked up a cloud of smoke and dust around it.
This was the power of «Resonance Beat», which allowed the next magic spell used by the target to be recast instantly.
Next was Scootaloo, descending from above. With a shift of her back hooves, her Casts began to change. The skates grew until they merged into one large blade protruding from the bottom of a large board, much like a surfboard, that manifested under her back hooves. The blade ran all the way from front to back, arching farther out closer to the back like a razor sharp dorsal fin.
Flames wreathed the blade beneath, and with a graceful flip, Scootaloo brought the weapon down like a meteor. She fell into the cloud of smoke surrounding the beast, and another wave of heat and dust was kicked up as the blow connected.
"«Burning Havoc»!"
The fittingly named bladeboard was Scootaloo's Ravager type weapon. Belonging to the damage, or DPS, role. Ravager weapons focused on huge, raw damage. From powerful physical attacks to strikes amplified by elemental forces like flame and lightning, they were the heavy hitting weapons, and balanced out their dynamic as a team.
So far Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had only gotten comfortable with one of the three weapons available to them. That limited their options, but they still could accomplish a lot with what they had. Apple Bloom could keep an enemy's attention and keep herself alive as the party's tank. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo could set the stage to their advantage with their control type microphone and skates.
That left the damage role and healing. Sweetie Belle had set her class to Sorceress, the offensive magic role, and Scootaloo had learned how to use her bladeboard to up their damage. For healing, all three of them had a bunch of crystals and potions to help with that. They had all of their bases covered.
"Think it's nearly down?" Sweetie Belle asked as Scootaloo flipped out of the plume and into place beside her. She noted that the pegasus had already shifted back to her skates.
"It has to be hurting, but it isn't down yet," Scootaloo sighed. "If it gets a howl off, we'll be in big trouble."
Right. This weird, white nosed type of timberwolf was definitely strong, but between the three of them they could handle it easy. The real problem would come if it managed to call more of its white-nosed pack. They'd have to run like bats out of Hades to avoid a painful death and respawning at the beginning of the dungeon.
They'd already experienced that unpleasantness three times today by recklessly rushing in, but this ambush strategy had improved their odds.
A new green light shone from within the dust cloud, the tail of the wolf standing straight up like a beacon, and suddenly Apple Bloom made a mad dash for her companions. That was worrisome, especially since Apple Bloom was the member of their party that had set the Analyst class. An essential part of any team, an Analyst's abilities allowed it to read information on players, monsters, and items in far greater depth than normal.
"AoE! Get behind me!" she shouted, skidding to a halt in front of them.
No sooner did the words leave her mouth, than Sweetie Belle saw the danger. Hundreds, no, thousands of transparent red lines lasered out from the green light in the smoke. The bright lines fanned out in all directions, forming a dome of effect that utterly eclipsed them. An 'Area of Effect' attack.
This was the forewarning of her «Rhythmic Future», and it showed with unmistakable certainty that the timberwolf's attack was utterly unavoidable. A certain hit. There wasn't enough space between the lines to dodge until several yards further back, and easily a hundred or more of the lines would hit each of them at this range.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo moved behind their new friend without question. They trusted she knew what she was doing.
"«Counter Rotation»!" Apple Bloom shouted, acting quickly. She lifted her spinner up in front of her and ran it at top speed. The weapon whirred loudly, glowing white, and suddenly the light expanded outward, creating a huge spinning barrier in front of her.
Moments later, thousands of razor-thin wood splinters shot outward, piercing through the veil of smoke and dust. Thanks to Apple Bloom's quick action, everyone headed their way merely stopped dead against her barrier. It wasn't without cost though, as her health, already nicked down to seventy five percent, suddenly plummeted into the red zone, under twenty five percent.
Sweetie Belle pulled a long crystal from her inventory. She only briefly examined the runes decorating it to make sure it was the correct one and pointed it at Apple Bloom, calling, "«Healing Radiance»."
A soft green glow shined out from from the crystal, the runes most of all. The light spread over Apple Bloom, and steadily filling her HP up to right around ninety percent.
Crystals were one of the most useful supporting items to have, especially for a unicorn. They were capable of storing a spell based on the runes inscribed on them, and held multiple charges per stone. There was an upside, which also served as a downside for using crystals.
For healing crystals, instead of a set amount of points being recovered, the strength of the spell was dependant on the stats of the user, just like it would be if a unicorn was casting the spell themselves. The same applied for damage of offensive spells in crystals. The SPI, or spirit, stat determined the strength of healing and the duration of beneficial effects; buffs. Inversely, INT, or intelligence, affected the power of attack magic and the strength and duration of debilitating effects; debuffs.
These were the highest stats for most unicorns, so they were obviously most powerful when used by them. The fact that they required no MP to use added to their utility, so while earth ponies and pegasi couldn't get the most out of them, it was still good to have a no-cost spell tucked away for an emergency. On the other hoof, while a potion was cheaper with a guaranteed healing value, it took a longer time for the full recovery to take effect.
Right then, in the middle of battle, the safest bet had been the crystal. Rarity probably would have done the same, careful mare that she was, always measuring twice and cutting once. Not that she’d ever be caught dead in a battle. Sweetie Belle knew that with friends like hers, she needed to be that sort of careful thinker.
"Thanks for the heal," Apple Bloom said with a grimace as the pain ebbed. Her hp restored, she let her defense fall and peered into the dissipating smoke.
"We should be thanking you," Scootaloo disagreed with a chuckle. "There's no way we could have survived that if you'd only been using «Rhythmic Future's» predictions. Your Analyst class and quick thinking saved our flanks."
Apple Bloom silently accepted the praise and said, "We've almost got it now. Here comes the hard part."
She was right. The lower the hp gauge, the tougher an enemy got. The red zone was where the desperation attacks came, like that needle shot it just used. When the smoke cleared there was nothing there. The wolf had disappeared, just like when it had attacked the pie, and they couldn't spy twig or leaf of it as they scanned the area. Good thing they were ready for this too. It had taken a scary and painful experience, and a respawn at the beginning of the dungeon, but they knew what to expect now.
They moved into formation, with Sweetie Belle at the back and the other two in front of her. They knew how it would strike, and they were ready for it.
What they weren't ready for was the wait. Seconds passed by, stretching well into a minute. Still no attack came.
"Did it run away?" Sweetie Belle wondered aloud.
Scootaloo shook her head, her eyes darting back and forth. "It's out there. It's moving around a lot, though. At my level, I can only find it for a second before it slips away again," she said.
With her class set to Hunter, Scootaloo's words were undoubtable. A hunter's detection skills were another near necessity on the battlefield. Being able to find monsters as well as being the ideal countermeasure against stealth players and ambush attacks. Their night vision was also enhanced beyond other players, making the night as clear as day to them. With a high enough level, a hunter could track down anyone or anything.
Unfortunately, since this was a rank three dungeon, and since Scootaloo had only just broken into rank one as a hunter, this was the best she could manage.
It didn't take long for Sweetie Belle to realize why the enemy was waiting to strike. "It's waiting for «Rhythmic Future» to wear off!" she told her friends. "That makes it tricky, and we have to counter as hard as we can, since it's bound to regenerate a chunk of its HP while it waits too."
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom nodded in understanding, and kept watching for the inevitable attack.
As expected, the attack came well after the music's effect had worn off. The only warning was the slightest shaking of leaves behind them. Sweetie Belle immediately spun herself around and leapt back as Apple Bloom stepped in to take her place.
"«Counter Rotation»!" she shouted again, calling out the huge spinning barrier which halted beast's claws and fangs. The price she paid was a mere fifth of her health, and the force of the blow rang out powerfully in the air.
It was simple to predict that Sweetie Belle would be the one targeted. She had dealt the most damage with her doublecast fire spell, so the aggro had fallen on her. From that it had been a simple matter of limiting the enemy's options. They left their backs exposed, with Sweetie Belle behind her friends to present a clear target. Clever as the rank three monster was, it still fell for the bait and attacked exactly how they had wanted it to. Its fate was sealed now.
With a grunt, Apple Bloom pushed the timberwolf back and nearly knocked it off of its paws.
"«Shave»!"
Scootaloo appeared behind the wolf, several feet away, and shifted back to her bladeboard.
That was Sweetie's queue, and she raised her microphone up for her part. "«Critical Crescendo»!" she shouted, and a glowing red dome of sound pulsed out and washed over the three fillies. The power condensed down over their Casts and left a menacing glow as it took hold.
Apple Bloom charged first, bringing the barrier from her spinner to bear. The timberwolf swiped a claw, only to be blocked once more. This time, however, Apple Bloom followed up with a new technique. Once the blow chipped away another tiny sliver of her health, the spinner immediately began rotating in the opposite direction, and the barrier condensed down into a crimson energy saw.
"«Counter Rotation; Reversi»!"
She lunged forward, cutting right across the timberwolf's ivory muzzle. She kept moving, slicing a line along the side of its face and down the length of its body. «Counter Rotation» was a move that reduced and absorbed the damage dealt to the user, converting it into power. That power was then unleashed with «Counter Rotation; Reversi», which could deal as much as thirty percent of Apple Bloom's HP in damage. The only thing was that while it could defend against ranged attacks, it could only activate Reversi when blocking a melee strike.
As expected, the damage was tremendous. With the boost from «Critical Crescendo» the attack sent the wolf's HP, which had recovered over halfway, all the way back into the red zone.
Stumbling back from the blow, a dull yellow glow began to spread over the creature's body, and it braced itself against the ground with its head lowered. This caught Apple Bloom's attention and she shouted, "Scootaloo! Finish it!"
With a hard push off of the ground, Scootaloo flipped into the air and swept her board around in a wide arc in front of her. As the blade cut its swath below, it formed a wide sickle of air pressure along its path.
"«Tempest Kickflip»!"
The timberwolf lifted its head, just barely managing to let off a howl for a split second before the sickle of razor winds cut through it from tail to head. It traveled back down the path of Apple Bloom's attack from the other direction, and silenced the howl to nothing more than a pained yelp as its HP dropped down to zero. For a second the beast's body hung there, nearly frozen in time as the two halves of its body started to come apart, and in the next it burst into thousands of glowing shards.
"Woo! We did it!" Scootaloo cheered. With a thrum of her wings she lifted up and gave a showy flourish on her board.
They sure had. Even now, it still surprised Sweetie Belle how strong they were even though they were just little fillies. Granted, her power was in support, but before ESO started she never would have been capable of the kind of magic she could use now. Heck, before all of this, she couldn't even manage a decent telekinesis spell.
Not just her, even Scootaloo was on a whole other level. Granted, she still wasn't able to fly with her tiny wings, but her already impressive skills on a scooter were now downright incredible with how she used her skates and bladeboard. Apple Bloom's strength and endurance were nothing to scoff at either. The three of them were a great team.
All of them were so much more now than they had been, and there was still so much room to grow too. It was actually exciting! Sure, it was also dangerous and painful, but it was strangely addictive. Every time a level went up, for Casts, weapon skill, or class, they got more abilities to work with. The more they fought and practiced, the better they got at using those abilities. The more they fought together, the easier it became to work as a unit with barely a word.
Scootaloo had understood this excitement almost instantly. Sweetie Belle, on the other hoof, had taken a bit longer to come around, but she couldn't deny how much fun she was having now.
The only worry she had now was what their families were going to think. There was no keeping this secret anymore.
The fillies all slumped down together on the grass with weary sighs. The dungeon was really giving them a run for their bits. More than any of them had expected.
"So that there was fifth one, right?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Yeah," Sweetie Belle nodded. "That's the fifth Whitenose Timberwolf that we've beaten."
"Those suckers are a lot tougher than the normal breeds," Scootaloo groaned as she stretched her forehooves over her head. "That's rank three for you, though. If just one enemy takes that much work to beat, then we definitely wouldn't stand a chance against the raid boss."
"Ya think?" Apple Bloom said, rolling her eyes and smiling. "If'n this dungeon lets twelve players in per alliance, then there's no way just the three of us can beat it."
It was true, they had no hope of clearing the dungeon on their own. Still, they had decided to press forward no matter what, and they weren't about to turn tail and run.
"I still can't believe we fell for their little trick," Sweetie Belle grumbled, kicking a pebble. "They never intended to keep our secret."
Scootaloo crossed her forehooves over her chest and nodded, "I completely forgot that a quest item is bound to the one that grabs it. They might not have told on us if we got the Weiss Venom, but we would have had no choice but to turn it in to Rarity."
Apple Bloom tapped a hoof on the ground and shook her head. "None of that matters now," she said. "They're gonna go get Agil, and we've got to be as far into the dungeon as we can get afore he gets here with help."
"They did look really sorry too," Sweetie Belle pointed out.
Scootaloo shrugged, casting an irritated look around them. "Well, I can't believe we had to give those bullies our only two teleport crystals," she grumbled. "How could they be stupid enough to leave town without their own?"
All that the other two could do was offer a shrug.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had each given up the crystals they had bought before they left, and Sweetie Belle had leveled her Sorceress class enough to unlock a basic home teleport spell. Fortunately it had been an easy rank zero spell to obtain, but it was supposed to be able to transport more players as the class leveled up. Unfortunately, self-teleportation was her limit right now.
There was no way the three of them were going to split up, and they had no way of knowing if there were extra Nightmare forces waiting outside the dungeon if they turned back. The only thing they did know was that there were enemy soldiers in the dungeon with them, but the girls had been able to avoid them.
The quiet moment was interrupted by a rustling in the bushes. Right on time. The fillies turned to see a large, hairy, white tarantula leap out of foliage and scurry over to the spot that the timberwolf had been defeated. It leaned down and picked up the last traces that remained of the wooden foe, the ivory sticks that had made up its nose. Gathering them all in its mandibles, the arachnid turned its unblinking, many-eyed stare back on them for only a moment before letting out a menacing hiss and leaping back into the underbrush.
"A big centipede, giant moth, two groups of ants, and now a tarantula," Apple Bloom said, listing off every kind of insect they'd seen. "Why do ya'll reckon these bugs are takin' the pieces of white wood? Hay, for that matter, why don't the white wood explode with the rest of the timberwolf?"
"No clue," Scootaloo shrugged. "Some dungeons just have weird little gimmicks like that. We can't stop it from happening either, since the pieces of wood won't go in our inventory, and a new bug comes if we kill one."
"Hehe, yeah, sorry about freaking out and roasting that first centipede," Sweetie Belle apologized with a violent shudder. "I can't stand bugs."
"I ain't no fan of 'em either. Don't worry about it," Apple Bloom assured her. "What we need to worry 'bout now is going deeper in. If we are close to the boss by the time the grown-ups arrive, then they'll have to take us to fight it! Even if the secret is out, what better way to prove we can handle ourselves than helpin' to clear this here dungeon?"
Nodding to each other, the fillies pushed themselves back to their hooves and looking deeper into the dungeon.
"So is it all clear?" Sweetie Belle asked, looking to Scootaloo.
The pegasus scanned the area around them, her eyes glowing from the activation of tracking skills. The light faded as she pointing a hoof off to their right. "I think there are Nightmare forces off that way, but they seem to be moving deeper in instead of our way," she informed them. "I couldn't see any timberwolves in my detection range, but there are a lot of insect monsters all over this place. I'll tag them for Apple Bloom."
Hunter skills really were impressive. Being able to sense so much hiding in the dense forest around them. And with the ability to mark anything they could sense clearly, they could reveal those discoveries to their teammates. This worked especially well with an Analyst. Apple Bloom began scanning as dozens of icons started to pop up in the distance around them.
"All the bugs I'm seeing are rank one," she said as her own eyes began glowing.
"That's up one rank from the ones near the start of the dungeon," Scootaloo noted.
Apple Bloom only nodded before continuing, "They're all docile in nature, and will not attack unless they're struck first. They're all weak, though, even for their rank. There's no benefit in attacking them."
"That's all you can see for now?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Another nod, and the glow in Apple Bloom's eyes faded. "Yeah, since their rank is above my Analyst level, I can't get a read on their weaknesses, drops, or special attacks they can use. I don't think there's that much to see anyway, even if my level was high enough."
"Alright then," Scootaloo said, taking the lead as they headed deeper in. "This dungeon seems to revolve around those Whitenose Timberwolves, so we need to take down as many of them as we can."
Sweetie Belle felt a slight tingling on the back of her neck. She looked around cautiously as she followed Scootaloo and asked, "Speaking of the wolves; you don't think that howl the last one did managed to call any others, do you?"
"Always gotta worry, don't ya Sweets?" Scootaloo said with a sigh, scanning around again as they walked.
Honestly, somepony had to. Sweetie Belle knew that Scootaloo wasn't the cautious type. She was the gung-ho type.
"Better safe than sorry, Scoots," Apple Bloom agreed, bringing a swell of pride to Sweetie Belle's chest.
Scootaloo stopped abruptly, her ears standing on end.
"Oh n--!"
A loud bang cut her off. A yelp followed after, and the sound of dirt and rock scraping came from right behind the three fillies.
They turned back to see a large timberwolf, twice as big as any of the others they'd fought. Though instead of standing over them at its full height, it was now slumped against the side of a tree, its whole body crackling with golden arcs of electricity. Another bang followed soon after, and the fillies immediately leaped back behind cover for their own safety. Following the sound, a dense mass of icy magic struck the wolf full in the side, spreading a light frost over every wooden piece of its body.
"A-an Alpha Whitenose?" Apple Bloom gasped. "It almost ambushed us?"
"Who attacked it?" Sweetie Belle asked cautiously, looking the way the shot came from. "Is it an enemy?"
"I don't think so," Scootaloo said. "Look at our party's HP bars."
A quick peek in the upper left corner of her vision revealed to Sweetie Belle that three more HP bars had appeared under theirs in the display. However, the names of these new additions were pixelated and unreadable. That had to mean allied players were nearby and the parties were being merged!
The girls watched as the timberwolf tried to push itself sluggishly upright. The lightning running up and down its body the frost coating it were slowing it down significantly. It only just managed to get up on its paws before another shot, this one a fire element, struck it hard and set its mossy twigs aflame.
Three rapid shots rang out, and bright white bolts of light were the next to pelt the monster's side. With its health chipped down to near half, shock and chill effects began to wear off, leaving just the flames licking at its body. The beast snarled and bared its fangs, facing the unseen attacker. Its feral posturing was cut off midway as a bright, narrow, violet beam pierced right through its head.
Just like that, it was over. An stronger, elite version of a monster that had given the three fillies a tough time was defeated in a mere seven successive shots. Never even having a chance to counterattack, it burst into shining shards and was gone.
Stepping out from behind cover, Sweetie Belle and her friends looked down the way the shots had come. Dense brush and wide tree trunks blocked the view from their angle, but they soon heard the sound of hoofsteps, with an accompanying mixture of snapping twigs, scuffing dirt, and two pained shouts.
"Ow! Ow! The frills! Easy on the frills!" one of the voices whimpered.
"Spike?" Sweetie Belle said, one eyebrow shooting up.
"Hey! Ow! You trying to rip my ear off?" the second voice protested.
"Kai?" Scootaloo said, her own eyebrow rising.
Finally their savior came into view, stepping out from around a nearby tree. An unmistakable lavender cloak fluttered along the body of the identically colored mare, and the look in her eyes was one of profound irritation as she turned a withering eye on the fillies.
"C-commander Twilight," the girls stuttered in unison as the three pixelated names on the new HP bars came into focus. Every last bit of excitement they had wilted away under her stare, and they all turned their eyes to their hooves.
Right behind her, being yanked along by the violet aura of her magic, were the previously identified Spike and Kai, who both nursed aching ears. Each were clad in simple sets of light plate armor that offered no salvation from the persistent yanking of their ears. They looked apologetically from behind her, but remained silent as Twilight marched them forward.
"Do you five have any idea how much trouble you're in?"