30 Fire And Chrome

The party hid under the bushes afraid to make any sound. Every now and then Leo would raise his head to peek from between the bushes and go back to report.

"None of them made a move until now. Just what are they waiting for? We've been sitting here for 15 minutes already and they still haven't even gotten close to each other yet."

"Yeah, I'm with Leo on this one," DepressedRyan added. "In the first place, what are we even sitting here waiting for?"

"I mean, since we got to see such a rare sight, I thought that it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to be the third dog. But from the looks of it, this is going to take all night. It's a shame that we miss out on the loot of that firefox. Guess we have no choice."

With these concluding words from Shesmu, the party stood up and walked in a crouch, so as to not be seen by the two monster armies. They took a long detour around the battlefield before finally reaching safety.

Really, this forest is full of surprises. To think that a rare variant such as firefox existed here. If I had a firefox pet, even without me doing anything, I would still be one of the strongest in this game, or at least this country until level 40.

Shesmu was deep in thoughts when suddenly remembered something. Wait, if I remember right, didn't that guy tame his firefox in the Forest of Beginning. In the first place, firefoxes are very rare. At the very least, there shouldn't be more than one Forest of Beginning hosting them. So, it had to have had something to do with that big guy over there. Thinking these words, Shesmu looked back at the battlefield in the distance. Maybe it was its child?

War cries emanated from the distance, howls, and roars permeated the air. Shesmu slowed down his steps to a halt and turned to look at the direction of the war. Well, no matter what happens there, it's all going to reset once the live game goes up. Once that happens, I'll go and get my share of the pie. Sorry about that, Shaman.

"Hey Shesmu, we need to up the pace, else we'll be even later than we already are," Leo reminded.

"Yeah, let's get going."

Shesmu then looked at the tower in the distance illuminated by the moonlight and glimpsed at his minimap. They were about two kilometers away from their destination, and the way was filled with danger.

Clashing metal and anguished wails orchestrated a requiem of death. Goblins, fully clad in metal armor, clashed swords with the paws of their foes. Foxes lunged at goblins and bite their throats off.

Blood painted the battlefield red and the gore decorated it. In the midst of this Armageddon, the goblin general was howling out orders.

"First Battalion, go to the right! Second Battalion, to the left! Third Battalion, retreat!"

The General was one of the few goblins that could speak the human language. However, even though the other goblins couldn't speak it, they were able to understand. Such was the blessing of Aida to creatures with relatively high intelligence.

The Goblin General stood proudly, with a red helmet covering his face, and black and red plate armor protecting his body. The metal shined in the middle of the night, showing that his set of equipment was new. It was specifically made for him, one of the ten generals of the goblin clan.

The casualties of the war were even on both sides, and this bugged the General a lot. His grunt facial expression showed his worry and impatience. He kept tapping the ground with his right foot, waiting for something.

"General Chrome, the trap is ready."

A goblin soldier came in and stood on one knee before reporting to the Goblin General.

Chrome, once he heard this news stopped tapping the ground with his foot. His worried expression turned immediately into an excited one.

"Good," Chrome responded. His smile turned into a malevolent grin before he continued, "With this, that Fox King is dead."

While the battle between the two armies was raging, Shesmu and his party were making their way to the tower.

Wolf

Hp: 700/700

"Ryan, take care of the wolves at the left. Leo, the right. I will take care of the middle one then rotate."

The duo nodded, accepting Shesmu's orders. The party spread out, each of them heading towards his target.

Leo was the first to reach the pack of wolves, making him their biggest focus. However, before the whole pack could aggro to him, DepressedRyan came from the side and stabbed two wolves successfully, stopping them dead in their track.

With perfect synchronization, the wolves have been divided between the members of the party. DepressedRyan took hold of the monsters on the left, evasion tanking them using his superior reflexes and high agility. Leo kept hold of the aggro of the wolves at the right by attacking them and blocking their strikes using his new swords, damping their damage.

DepressedRyan is one thing, but Leo really became better after all the fights he has been a part of. As expected, you only become better through a trial of fire and blood.

Shesmu unsheathed his sword from his back and looked at the wolf in front of him. It was confused on who to attack between Leo and DepressedRyan. Well, let's test out the power of this Cambione Blade. With these thoughts, Shesmu raised his weapon and performed an Empowered Slash Cancel.

450

1418

Overkill was an understatement. With the passive of the Cambione Blade, Demon Ki, Shesmu's Empowered Slash was enhanced further. The poor wolf had his head decapitated with one strike. At this point, he suspected that even if the elite version of these wolves were to come out, Shesmu would be able to one-shot it using just his Empowered Slash Cancel technique.

After dealing with his target, Shesmu turned to look left. DepressedRyan was able to effortlessly handle his opponents. He would slip in a stab, and before the wolf would even raise his paw, DepressedRyan would dodge the attack. He is predicting the attacks of the wolf. No, with how effortlessly he does it, it's not even a conscious process. His eyes see the miniscule twitches of the monsters' muscles and his body automatically decides the best course of action. He is… a monster.

In earlier fights, DepressedRyan has only shown his assassination skills. He would go in only when a kill was 100% certain, and he would go out like a shadow as if he was never there before. With that playstyle, Shesmu couldn't give a full judgment. However, now he knew for sure that DepressedRyan's skills were close to the apex of Ashes of Gods. A least in terms of battle sense.

Deciding that DepressedRyan wouldn't need his help any time soon, Shesmu decided to focus on Leo. While the latter was holding his ground against his enemies, countering with a slash or two of his own after an intense barrage of hits, his health was still being chipped at little by little. He was already down a quarter of his HP.

Shesmu looked at the situation and decided that it was as good of a time as any to test his other skill that came with the Cambione Blade: Demon's Slash. Shesmu activated his skill and raised his sword. Energy flowed from inside his stomach to the blade of his sword. The blade took a dark shade and glinted under the moonlight.

Shesmu slashed at the air and a black crescent was formed, heading directly towards the two wolves Leo was facing.

1350

1350

The black crescent of energy went through the two monsters and split them in half. Blood and gore littered the ground and painted Leo's face red. The latter just cleaned off his face with minimum disgust.

"Thanks for the help, you saved me there."

"No need for thanks, let's help Ryan."

As if they practiced this scene multiple times, both Leo and Shesmu used Dash at the same time. In synchronization, each of them appeared behind one of the wolf DepressedRyan was fighting. With one slash to the neck, both monsters were decapitated.