Chapter 109 [Bonus ] 109: The First Ring II

There was a chill in the air as Cole and his new teammates left the glade. They had taken a different and unexplored direction this time, relying on the directions given by the resource compass. He led them, and while he wasn't exactly comfortable having people walk behind him, he had to 'lead' after all.

They moved silently, and it was an extremely awkward affair as no one was willing to make any sort of small talk. Fortunately for them they did not have to go far, just moving under fifteen minutes into the forest before they came up on the first stone resource. It was a white boulder roughly the size of an SUV.

"frankly speaking I never though it as this close. Xerxes watch my flank. Thunderbolt-Jack if you can get a little vantage point and watch over the area I would really appreciate it. I'll try and see how much of this resource we an harvest before things begin to get a little weird." Cole said as Xerxes99 squeezed his face in annoyance as he said.

"aren't you jinxing us by saying such a thing?" Cole shrugged, he understood the superstition behind it all, but ultimately they had nothing else to do but to prepare for the worst.

He pulled out the pick from his inventory and swung it over the boulder. There was a loud ting sound that resounded across the entire forest. Cole paused, a bit worried about their position as he was a bit worried about being caught off guard, but in the end there wasn't much of a choice to be had. If they wanted to advance, this was required.

It took him thirty whole minute to finish harvesting the resource, and pretty much just like the trees, the boulder had given him a hundred units of stone. The efficiency was extremely low and seeing as there was not abundance of stone around this might have been on purpose. And honestly Cole felt that it might be a lot harder to get stone in the future after all you couldn't really rely on finding g a boulder in the middle of a forest.

"Finding these boulders and harvesting them can take pretty much too much time. I'm suspecting the nests that we have to clear out resource tiles or buildings. Giving how scarce stone seems to be and with how hard it to harvest, what are the odds that the nest we have to take care of is a mine for stone?" Cole asked as he stretched, having worked up a sweat mining for stone.

"It seems viable, but so far Titan rising Online has not really followed what most would call a conventional method, so id suggest we keep an open mind about it and just try to explore and see where it goes." Thunderbolt-Jack said, giving Cole a really surprising yet viable source of insight. Cole nodded his head in agreement, just in time for a massive half transparent bear to come surging out of the darkness of the trees.

Cole was the person closest to the bear, he only had enough time to react, and he could make that time much longer if he used [Spectral Rover] however in that moment he also noticed that the moment the bear attacked, Chitterlings that had been hiding and had somehow escaped his detection had popped out literally out of thin air and were going straight for his two teammates, and unlike him, they were not ready.

[Spectral Rover]

Cole turned around and moved as quickly as he could. Then he placed both hands on their shoulders and used [Shadow Dance]. In that moment Cole felt as if his body was being torn apart into a million pieces at the same time. The drain on his energy was unlike anything he had ever felt before as his ears popped so hard, he was sure his eardrums had ruptured.

They popped out and fell to the ground shaking and vomiting as all three felt as if their insides had been turned into their outsides. Cole had pushed the skill way past its current  ability. Traveling through shadows with two people was not something the skill was capable of, heck it wasn't yet capable of traveling with any one other than the skill user.

But now he had dragged two others along for the ride almost frying his brain in the process. But there was no time to ponder on the intricacies of his recent fuck up, they needed their wits about them, but once again just because you wish for something doesn't mean that's how it's going to be.

They were not able to recover on time as the best resumed it's charge, hurrying towards them in an attempt to bulldoze them into the ground. Cole was barely able to raise his sword up as the bear smashed into him. Xerxes and Thunderbolt-Jack both jumped to the opposite sides barely able to get out of the way.

Cole was carried on backwards until his back smashed against a tree, hard enough that there was a loud crack. But whether that crack had come from the tree of from his back Cole wasn't exactly sure. The bottom line was that he was pinned against the tree by a bear that was already dead.

For some reason the bear was so heavy, it felt like a mountain had been placed on top of him. But beyond that Cole could not even move any of his limbs. His two partners joined the fray, having things be a bit easier for them now that the bear had been taken out of the equation.

"Hey you guys should come get me out from under this thing." Cole asked as he realized after a few seconds more that the bear had no intention of moving or dissolving and leaving loot behind like every other….. something was wrong.

*Roooaaaarrrrrr!*

Three other bears burst out of the foliage, much bigger than the one that had just been killed. Cole widened his eyes in shock, they would never be able to deal with those bears, especially now that he was pinned under another the bear with the weight of a mountain.

Xerxes99 dodged a swipe from a bear, and flipped over another one's rush. He landed besides Cole, took on look at him, gave him a small smirk and ran last him. Leaving Cole behind to be bait so that he could escape, knowing fully well that Cole would definitely be coming back for him.

Thunderbolt-Jack was able to take care of one of the bears, but he had scarcely finished that when another near had swiped him on the face, slashing through his flesh and bone as he was blasted backwards from the force of the blow. But he was still alive, so there was still hope, hope that Cole used to look at him as he scrambled up to his feet just two meters away from Cole.

Thunderbolt-Jack looked up at Cole with a partially ruined face. "I'm sorry." He whispered as his body flashed with lightning crossing the distance as he took of in the same direction as Xerxes99, leaving Cole behind to look at his retreating back in total and abject shock.

"FUCK!"

Cole was angry, he was absolutely pissed. He had finally decided to be a team player and now this was what he gets for it. Of course the reality of it all was that he was already incapacitated. His sword hag gone through the brain of this bear and it had left Divyat pinned to a tree with his spine shattered.

Even if he could heal, the damage was extensive enough that he no longer had access to his skills. He needed to rely on someone and get none of them even tried to help him. They left him behind to fend for himself… they left him behind to die. Of course Cole knew that they were facing odds that they just could not deal with.

He on the other hand would have perhaps been able to deal with the bears, if he had access to his movements and maybe his guns. But he was stuck here and they left him behind to save their own asses. An act that perhaps he would also be guilty of making if he was in their shoes… but damn it doesn't feel right to have it done to you.

A shadow appeared over his body as Cole looked up to see one of the two remaining bears standing up tall as it raised a paw into the air. The shadow of his body was even more pronounced at this point as the bear's hand came crashing down, bringing with it a promise of death.

"Oh fuck me-"

*Bang!*