Open - The Beginnings of Something New

“Terrasphere?” Kyle said aloud, looking at the file that had been linked to the email. Isn’t that the VRMMORPG that had been making its way around the darkweb or something? Thinking about it for a moment, he grabbed his headset, put it on and let the interface wash over his vision. Opening his email again, he opened the link and ran a quick scan of the file, checking for any malware or questionable coding. After a couple minutes, it turned up clean. “Huh.” Seeing that it didn't appear to be a hack, Kyle decided to download it and see what it was. The sender didn't seem to be anyone he knew, or even a person really since it seemed to come from a third-party source.


The game had been a controversial topic on gaming forums and with the VRSA. Virtual Reality has been a major milestone for technological advances and instantly rushed forth due to the games that were released alongside it. To immerse yourself in another world, truly immerse yourself, was something people had wanted for years. Sitting at your desk, clicking away at you computer was great and all but the ability to interact with the world yourself was on a whole different level. It wasn't long, however, before regulations were enforced, reducing the immersion of the games. That’s when Terrasphere had appeared. A game that wasn't regulated by the VRSA. Of course, it wasn't long before they finally outlawed the game.


The download was eighty percent complete as Kyle continued to look on at the email. It was short and concise, but seemed to say so much more to him. Was this what he’d been looking for? His escape from a reality he only felt anger and sadness in? He hoped it was. Even if it was only for a short while, he wanted to be somewhere else that didn't bring back painful memories.


As the downloaded completed, he was greeted by a loading screen. Welcome to Terrasphere Online. His senses went dark as the game loaded and drew him into the load-out character creation. Before him sat what appeared to be a mannequin, waiting for him to apply the settings he wanted. Instantly, he went to work. He applied his white hair and red eyes to the mannequin. Taking the height, he shrunk it down by a couple inches to give himself a smaller stature. It’d help him hide in smaller places by a little. That, and he would stick out as much with his normal six foot height.


After he finished his character, a keyboard appeared as the game prompted him to give his character a name. Thinking about it for a moment he typed in ‘Vargas Miland’. Upon hitting [OK] the area flashed white around him and he found himself in the woods. Looking at himself, he checked his avatar, noting that everything was as he’d set it and even felt natural for him. He even noted that he could feel the breeze against his skin. Not sensing the breeze across the avatar’s skin. He felt it. Like he was in this world. This was it. This is what he’d been looking for.

 

Madison only needed a fistful of gold, but this was ridiculous.

"You have to have something a little better than that lying around," she snapped, teeth bared and eyes aflame.

The man behind the counter rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Look, ma'am, that's all we have. We've had an influx of people looking to help curtail some of the wildlife issues we seem to be having lately. Those jobs have been assigned, and bodies sent out to see them through."

A fire ignited in Madison's eyes. "But slimes are all you have left on your stupid to-do list?"

She had enough of the gooey little fecks. All cute and shet, always trying to wrap themselves around her ankles, nibbling away at or skipping right over to digesting her stockings or whatever the hell it is that little balls of color-coded crap do to "attack" people.

Jaunt through a cave? Slimes. Walk too close to a pile of rocks? Slimes. Poke around in a trash can? Slimes. Look at a rustling bush the wrong way? Slimes. Your teammate looking a bit green in the gills? Nope, he's actually three slimes stacked on top of each other and wearing a long coat almost made entirely of belts.

Red ones, blue ones, green ones, yellow ones, purple ones, brown ones, clear ones--her novice's gear was practically stained technicolor from the goddamn things. She almost looked like she actually belonged in this anime-as-hell game world.

Madison clawed at her face in frustration, her sapphire eyes rolling in their sockets hard enough to snap an ocular nerve. "You must have something a little more difficult for me to kill! You're a guild office! In--" she was about to say in the starting area, but she quickly caught herself. "--in Brisshal! How can you possibly run out of these things?"

The poor guy looked like he was fully expecting the ol' "I'd like to speak to your manager" treatment in a minute.

"I'm sorry, we just don't have any jobs lined up that would be better suited to your abilities."

"No wolves?"

"No--"

"Boars? Bears? Any bears for me to wrestle?"

"--Ma'am--"

"What about any dire variants of them?"

"Oh for the love of--"

Madison's fists came down on the counter with enough force to rattle the official's inkwell. Knuckles white under her gloves, she resisted every urge to hoist this nerd by his lapels and suplex him through the nearest table. She'd probably end up doing it anyway, the way her day was going.

"You can't be telling me that green-as-goose-poop adventurers snapped up all the dire jobs, you incompetent boob!"

He winced as a fleck of spittle splashed against his cheek. Nevertheless, the witch wasn't the worst he's dealt with this day. "Ma'am, I repeat, we are out of higher-level jobs. Slime-slaying is all we have right now. They breed like rabbits, and they're everywhere lately. It's all we get call to exterminate!"

Frustrated as all get-out, she sighed and let go of the scruffy guild member and let him fall back into his chair. "Fine," she grunted, at last relenting to the necessity of lowering her standards for the last bit of gold she needed for a new outfit.

Snatching the job details up in a gloved hand, she turned on her heels and left the guild office without so much as an apology or a farewell.

 

Kyle, now known as Vargas in this world, made his way through the underbrush. It seemed that either the server glitched or it randomly spawned him where he currently was. Where that was, he had yet to find out. Unless he missed the tutorial, he was going to need to find another player or find an NPC that could help explain things. Vargas looked around, searching for any signs of a paved path so that he could either find a road or a town. However, the foliage made it hard to see much of anything. Rather, he saw only bushes as he pushed his way through the brush.


“Of course, a game that's been outlawed and is kept on the down-low isn't going to have an FAQ for me to look at so….I’m screwed.” Vargas sighed as rubbed his temple, trying to think of what to do. As his fingers touched his head though, he was suddenly assaulted by information.


Maithe Woodlands - Local forest, filled with docile creatures and contains the peaceful village of Honeyhome. Due to the traffic of players who have ventured upon the town, it has become a hotbed for businesses catering specifically towards players.


Looking around surprised, Vargas tried to figure out what was happening. Although, it didn't seem to help as info flooded him as his eyes shifted over everything. “How do I turn this damn thing off?” he asked aloud, putting his fingers to his head again, seeing as that's when it started. Upon contact, the flood of information finally stopped. With a heavy sigh, Vargas let himself relax now that he wasn't being bombarded with the properties of the trees, bushes and various wildlife.


It wasn't all bad though, now he knew where to find Honeyhome village. With that knowledge in mind, he made his way in the direction he believed to be the busy village. He didn't know how long it'd take to get there, but at least he had the general direction to head. If he didn't reach the village, he should reach a road sometime along the way.

 

Tetsunosuke checked the torsion springs of a battle contraption that he was making, making sure they were pre-stretched enough. He wanted to make sure his next mission against the wolves that were continuously targetting the newcomers would be successful with this.

It was a number of days since he started to delve into this world known as Terrasphere. He created his account to have the race of faerin, and so at first he had too much difficulty in traversing and buying things in this village known as Honeyhome. But, as he was progressing into the game, he had gained a number of options to help him do just about everything despite his height. Although much of those could be attributed to his Tinkering skill that had always enabled him to move around in the marketplace and buy without much craning on the stalls, there should be others that he had gained on the way or as a result of him being experienced in some older VRMMOs.

He just smiled as a woman was shouting at the guild officer in the guild office where he was staying for a couple of hours now to prepare for the mission that he was going to face. This area was where beginner adventurers go for some easy-rank missions to complete to gain some extra money with which to update their gear. Having received his mission quite early, Tetsunosuke was gearing up for it so that he would get everything from the mission without much difficulty. As he was hearing the conversation between the woman and the officer, he remembered he had the same frustration back when he did not have much knowledge of the workings of the guild. He had always ended up killing slimes, which, although was quite an effort and the payout was good, was becoming more repetitive in each passing day. And so he made it a point to be patient and wait it out in the guild office until some guild employee would barge in and do a report on something. In that case, something much more worthwhile than killing slimes would pop up, in the case of today, the population of wolves started to reach a point where the newcomers could be attacked by them. When he inquired the guild employee about what missions were available, that recent report about the wolves was in quite a high priority, and so he had accepted the mission to slay 20 wolves within the Maithe Woodlands where the newcomers spawn. And so he checked the workings of his contraption with which to upgrade his striking force, before setting out to the woodlands.

As he was looking for the wolves to kill, he met a person on the way. By the looks of it, he was a complete newcomer to this place, and knowing that there are wolves on the loose right now, he should make it a point to inform this person so that he would be ready for any sneak attack from the wolves, and it could be dangerous as wolves tend to stick in packs. He really hoped that the contraption should work, so in between his skill with the tantou and his magic, there should not be any problems.

He then said to the person, "Welcome to Terrasphere. By the way, you must be ready for battle anytime soon. This seemed to be a season of wolves, and within this season they sometimes attack newcomers that were just spawning here."

 

By the time she made it out of town, she'd run out of curse words to mutter to herself. Madison made a quick mental note to look up a few regional slang words to use in her travels.

With fire in her step and a face twisted in a scowl, she continued down the road towards the small cave where the job said that the slimes were lurking. She nearly walked over the two adventurers loitering on the path.

Paying them no mind, she brushed past and continued on her way until she heard the word wolves. The witch glanced over her shoulder, and recognized one of the two--he (Madison wasn't entirely certain on that, it was so hard to tell with the childlike faerin) was one of the others at the guild hall when she grabbed her task, sitting at a table and tinkering with a little device.

What the hell, did this shrimp collect one of the harder missions before I got there? Madison's fists clenched, her knuckles turning white beneath the thin fabric of her gloves. They don't look like they'd get two steps into the woods before tripping over a root and breaking their scrawny neck. In fact, neither does that other person they're with--

Just then, she had an idea. A simple one, at that; walk over, assume they're fresh off the boat, introduce herself as someone who can show them the ropes, and lead them on a merry chase through the woods to skin a few doggos and leave them in the dust to collect the reward that was rightfully fecking hers.

Spinning on her heels, she forced her face into something that resembled a smile.

"Why, hello there," she said with a wave. "Couldn't help overhearing just now that you were talking about wolves. Perhaps you'd like a hand defending yourselves in case you're ambushed by a pack of them?"

The witch shot the faerin an unreadable look. "I'm assuming that the guild assigned you the task of wiping a few out, am I correct?"

 

Vargas stumbled his way through bushes, making his way to Honeyhome. Snagging his foot against a root, he nearly found himself sprawled on the ground as he came across another player. He greeted him, welcoming Vargas to the game and warned him about some wolves in the area. Thinking back on it, he did recall something about wolves when he was being flooded with information earlier.

“Thanks for the warning.” With that said, he was about to continue on, but then another player decided to show up. She seemed to think that they were working together or something. Though, it was possible to think that seeing as he was void of what would be considered good gear….or even gear at all. He realized the game had only given him some basic clothing but nothing else. If the male player was right, he would've been easy pickings if any mobs had decided to turn him into puppy chow.

Right. So I guess I need to go purchase some gear from the village then. Looking back at the female player, she seemed to now have her focus on the fae at the moment. Deciding it was best to break himself off from the conversation, as it had nothing to do with him, he began to make his way to Honeyhome once again.

“Thanks again for the advise. I'll keep an eye out and try not to get killed.”

 

As Tetsunosuke finished to warn the newcomer about the possible attack of wolves from nowhere, he then saw a familiar face coming towards their direction. Surprise, surprise, it was this woman from before who acted disrespectfully towards the guild officers who were just doing their job in assigning missions that were being available. Just seeing the woman right now made his eyes reel upwards just like that old meme with a quite famous superhero actor. This is sure going to be a problem. She just heard him talk about wolves, and now she was coming to them. Given her disrespect towards the guild officers for not getting the killing mission she wanted, he could not help but feel suspicious about this woman. Don't tell me she was planning to steal the mission that I had gained from painstakingly studying the attitude of the guild employees, that was his thought. Although he was never averse to sharing missions and loot, he would be quite furious if he had his rightful work stolen away from him. And so when then woman came to their direction, he eyed her intently, waiting with bated breath on what she was planning.

And damn it, she approached them with a smile, and it seemed the smile did not fit the face at all! Tetsunosuke slightly narrowed his eyes with a huge amount of suspicion when he saw the smile, so narrow that no one could see the difference, with a slight frown that matches the narrowing. What the hell was this woman thinking?! He could really see that the woman was trying to approach them with apparently a better demeanor than what he had seen at the guild office, but this being forced gave it all away that this woman would try to do something awful... like stealing missions. Now damn it. His mother told him to be good with strangers, which he had always did, but now he had to stray from this norm.

With a cool demeanor that resembled the protagonist from a famous anime that had a demon butler, he faced the woman, and then said, "To be fair to you, I do not need a helping hand that much in this. Most probably I only needed a distraction for when I would be attacked by a pack of wolves. This for me is quite an easy task, as wolves were not that powerful alone, in packs a little bit more dangerous. In between attacks and regenerations I could do twenty without expending energy that much. But... another hand could make everything quicker." As she mentioned about the mission he got from the guild, he then said, "As quite expected from the woman who bad-mouths the guild officer to get the mission she wants, no? But anyway I'm not averse to splitting rewards, so I'll offer you something. You could help with my wolves, I'll help you with your slimes. Split rewards. Deal?"

As the newcomer thanked him for the warning, Tetsunosuke just said, "No problem. I was about to hunt the wolves anyway..." He reeled his tongue when he saw a wolf charging towards their direction. He quickly drew the tantou from its sheath, and then charged at the wolf almost head on. Gripping the tantou in a reverse grip, he swung at the wolf. It did not much damage on the wolf but it was enough to stop the wolf from charging, which enabled Tetsunosuke to do a follow-up slash on the legs of the wolf to incapacitate it. Being unable to move, the wolf could only watch as it was decapitated on the third swing of the tantou. Sheathing the tantou again, Tetsunosuke just said, "The path is dangerous. Maybe just allow me to accompany you until you reach the village?

 

Madison kept her mouth shut and her head tilted back at that magical snobbish angle as the light-haired boy talked to her in a tone that would've gotten teeth spilled on the floor if it dribbled out his mouth in real life.

Who the hell did this kid think he was, talking to someone who offered to assist him like that? Even she wasn't so backhanded and rude to the party that assembled outside the beginner's cave.

The witch watched on as a wolf approached them, investigating the long-winded disturbance. It had been alone, which was awfully curious to her, and it made the foolish mistake of attacking.

Tetsunosuke unsheathed his weapon and went to work.

Madison noted that it took him three strikes to kill the thing. Her tongue traced the front of her teeth as she considered his skill--which she found entirely lacking.

Three strikes? Three!? When this poor soul meandered into the woods and found himself surrounded by an entire pack of the things, he'd find himself spamming the respawn button in minutes.

She was half of a mind to let that happen. Feck 'im, let him learn the hard way.

But she thought of something better.

Whipping out her deck of cards, she gave them a quick shuffle. Drawing two out of the deck, they floated in the air before her in a spread, softly glowing purple as she divined what path she should take.

"Chariot overlapping the Wheel," she muttered as she snatched them up and slid them back in the deck. "Story of my life, right there."

It looked like to get any sort of excitement with her critter killing today, she'd have to suck it up and take up the faerin on his offer, no matter how much of a smarmy ass he was about it. She'd put him in his place, make him appreciate her offer to help just a little bit more. As tempting as just simply accepting his offer to complete both jobs and split the rewards was; a damn lesson had to be taught here first.

Madison approached Tetsunosuke and drew three more cards. Magic coursed through them as she muttered something unintelligible under her breath, their violet flames dancing in the breeze as she prepared to cast the spell.

With a mental command, the magic dissipated in the air, and she was overcome with a sudden sense of dread. Her head pounded and her vision blurred for a brief moment. She brought a gloved hand up to the side of her face, hiding a wince and a whimper as the light faded from the cards.

The witch, whether in a moment of genius or complete stupidity remained to be seen, decided to hex herself. A little something to make her temporarily... unlucky. More likely to come across packs of nasty beasts that lurked in the shadows and brush of the nearby forest. Packs big enough that they'd tear this poor bastard to bloody shreds if he had gone it alone. Packs big enough that she could handle, with her magical abilities.

"I've given your offer a bit of thought," she began, her fingers gently rubbing her temples as they throbbed from the lingering magics of the hex. "Evenly splitting the rewards after doing both jobs is a fair deal for both of us."

She motioned towards the pile of blood and fur nearby, unable to resist the chance to be snide to someone who deserved it. "And if that's how you handle one wolf, I figure you might appreciate the help when we come across four, five, maybe six of 'em."

Madison waved the trio of cards in her right hand in front of the faerin. "I've done a reading. They're gathering nearby, a bunch of them. Probably planning on attacking the town at sundown. If we get started now, maybe we'll leave enough scraps for the city guard to finish off, yeah?"

 

The sound of growling, magic and blades could be heard behind Vargas as he continued on. It seemed the pack of wolves had found the two so he doubted there’d be much to worry about for himself. Either way, he needed to focus on getting a weapon for one thing and an explanation on how to do what he could do. If there’d been a player’s guide, this would've all been made easier, though that pack probably would've found him instead if he'd sat around reading it.

The snap of a twig brought him out of his thoughts, his eyes scanning for the cause of the disturbance. His stance dropped, his weight shifting back as his body prepared to bolt if he needed to. A boar walked out of the brush, eyeing him as it spotted him. Vargas noted that the boars name appeared to be in blue but wasn't rushing him.

Must be a neutral mob. Unless I aggravate it, it should leave me alone. It's color probably means it's equal to or higher than my own level. With those thoughts in mind, Vargas shifted his way around the creature, making sure not to approach or make any aggressive actions that might set it off. The two continued to square off until the boar finally wandered off.

With the release of his breath, he let himself relax. Stepping through the brush some more, he ended up in a dirt road and followed it down to Honeyhome. Looking around, it seemed to be a simply starting village for players to become accustomed. Spotting a sign with a set of scales, he made his way to the shop.

“Welcome! How can I help this beautiful afternoon?” the jovial, large man asked. He wore a brown apron, blue colored shirt and brown pants. His brown hair and beard made him seem like a very generic NPC with his attire seeming to match most general goods stores in other games.

“I was wondering if you might have any weapons for sale. I'm not looking for anything custom or extravagant,” Vargas responded, looking at the man’s wares. He did seem to carry a wide variety of equipment and niceties.

“Hmm….well, I do have some simple weapons. For you, I'd suggest a dagger or short sword,” the man suggested, pointing him out to the one-handed weapons rack. Vargas walked over to it, examining the blades; daggers, swords, maces, axes, etc. Grabbing an iron dagger, he examined the weight and feel of it in his hand. It felt good. Even though it'd require him to get in close to his opponent, it would also allow for him to pressure them as well.

“How much for this?” he asked as he approached the counter.

“50 gold.” Vargas still didn't know how much he had but he figured it had to be more than that. Perhaps it would've been better to stick with the other two and ask how to open his menu. Agreeing to the price, he was prompted by the system and accepted the transaction.

“Happy to do business with you. Have a great day.”

 

Tetsunosuke heaved a sigh of relief as the newcomer arrived in the Honeyhome Village without much fuss. Now he had to deal with this scheming scum... wait she just accepted his offer for the hunt. His respect meter for the woman went up, but not quite up since he still doubted her sincerity. Well maybe they should complete the deal first before he would say sorry for doubting her sincerity. But for now, the suspicion that this woman was up to something still lingered in Tetsunosuke's mind. He took the scathing response of the woman about the manner he fought with calmness, since that time he really did err on the side of caution. He wanted to finish the wolf with less waste of precious HP, since one wrong estimation on his part would lead to a nasty counter-attack. And so he finished the wolf on three strikes, to lessen the chances of it attacking or calling other comrades. That should be important, since he would not want to deal with a bunch of them head on. He could however, but that should be a waste of resources. If ever, he wanted to take the whole number head-on.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the woman used her cards to take a reading about the situation around them. As she finished to take a reading, she informed him that a bunch of monsters started to surround the village, and they should start now so as not to let the village guard take a huge number of them out. Although the woman's assessment of the situation seemed reliable, he wanted to at least get an exact report of that current situation.

He then slid his right hand onto his robe, and when his right hand was retracted, he was holding two talismans that he scattered in the air. The two frozen pieces of paper then floated in mid-air, and then he grasped one with his index and middle fingers. He then started to chant in a Japanese language, and then the talisman he was holding shattered like thin ice. In its lieu, a misty wisp appeared in his view. He then spoke to the generated wisp.

"Markus, you wanted revenge on the creatures that attacked you while you are gathering herbs, right? I assure you that you will gain your revenge. Just give me a complete assessment of all the creatures around Honeyhome Village, and I and this woman will deal with them."

As if agreeing on what Tetsunosuke had said, the wisp started to move, and quickly it did, as it only took a matter of seconds before it came back, and then the wisp suddenly went inside Tetsunosuke's forehead. It seemed that by this it gave some information to Tetsunosuke, since after this act, Tetsunosuke thrust his arm nearby the sheathed tantou, something near his arm making a click; and ran towards the right, his left hand grasping the second talisman and he started chanting again. The talisman broke into pieces, and then the generated wisp started to move towards his right arm, as it meant to possess the tantou sheathed near it. Sure enough, his destination was the three wolves that were quite far from a huge number of wolves just within seeing distance. He then outstretched his right arm, and with a click, the tantou appeared from his arm, but now it was connected by a chain that went from the sleeve of his robe. Moreover, the tantou, which was black iron from the beginning, now had a light-blue sheen on it. He then threw the tantou towards the wolf that was quite near to the whole pack, and with a flick of the wrist, the chain connected to the tantou started to bind the wolf, and then the tantou ended slice-plunging towards the heart of the wolf, and the cut was unnaturally deep as the supposed to be just a deep gash became something that ripped the heart of the wolf as blood splattered all around the grass. With a swinging movement of his right arm, he then rammed the captured dead wolf towards the two others, driving them further away from the main pack, releasing the dead wolf from the chains in the process. He then retracted the chain to the point that only a foot of chain separated his hand and the tantou, and then he charged towards the two wolves which was still recovering from the ramming. He then grabbed the tantou again and released it in an oblique downward direction towards the first wolf that he saw, splitting its skull, and then with a movement of his hand, the tantou started to hurtle sideways towards the neck of the second wolf, decapitating it. Not wasting time, he then retracted the chain so that the tantou would return to his hand cleanly, and then went to the next weak spot within the formation of the wolves, moving towards the left.

 

While Tetsunosuke was dealing with his own problems, another handful of beasts burst from the treeline and made tracks towards Madison.

Her sneering grin only widened as her cards sprung from one hand to another. A quick in-hand cut later, and she slid a grip of three off the top. Not bothering to look at them first, she threw them into the air. The cards shifted into place, inches apart from one another, and began glowing as she poured mana into the spell.

The crackle of violet flames and painful cries of her victims filled the air. The wolves' advance immediately stopped as various parts of their bodies began to rot and slide off in gooey piles of smoldering fur and meat.

Snatching her cards out of the air, she shuffled up and prepared for the next spell.

"Who's friggin' next," she screamed at any other animals that might be thinking twice about jumping at her.

 

With his new weapon sheathed on his belt, Vargas decided to head back to the other two. At the very least, one of them could help him figure out the game mechanics a bit. With that in mind, he made his way back into the forest.

He tried to follow the path he took to get out as best he could. His stumbling earlier made it harder to retrace his steps. However, the loud challenging cry, that he could only assume to be the woman from before, rang out and practically told him where they were. Drawing his dagger, he sprinted off towards her voice.

Pushing through the brush, Vargas found himself looking at a scene of devastation. Bodies, that he could only assume to be some of the wolves, lay in crumpled, dripping, nasty heaps of fur, flesh and bone.

"Wow. Seems you two had a lot of fun with these guys,” Vargas said as he looked on at the others. Drawing his new dagger, he stood ready in case any of the wolves might attack him too.

 

As Tetsunosuke was sprinting towards the next blind spot amongst the group of wolves, he then heard something bursting from the foliage from his back. The only thing in his mind then was, "That woman, why did she attract those wolves." He knew that it would be a disaster if she did that. Now that she attracted the wolves from that direction, the whole pack would be surging against them. Well damn her, she knew the formation of the wolves in the area, but she attacked in that perilous area, which he knew that after he had cleared the wolves in that area, she would be entering it currently while the wolves were around her in a crescent. That should not be the way to deal with a pack. Well he wanted for her to die to know that folly, but the hero instinct in him determined not to.

Sighing, Tetsunosuke hastily halted his advance towards the next area, his boots skidding on the ground to generate enough friction to stop. He then bolted back towards the woman's direction. Surely, although she had dispatched a couple, some more wolves surrounded her, closing that crescent, and now twenty wolves had surrounded her, now ready to charge. And there was this another problem: the newb had already went out of the village, and it looked like he had a new weapon in tow. Behind him, but were quite far away, for him to notice, were two wolves charging towards his direction.

While the newb was still speaking, Tetsunosuke charged towards the wolves, whirling the chain with the tantou. As he had gauged the distance between him and one wolf, he then hurled the tantou diagonally upward, and then pulled the chain downward, and the tantou crashed towards the wolf with blinding speed, bisecting its head. He then pulled the chain immediately after that, and, grabbing the tantou in his right hand, and then grasping his right arm with his left hand for more leverage, he dug the blade towards the nose of the second wolf, and then, moving two quick steps forward, he then slashed in a vicious arc, scattering its brains on the ground. He then turned towards the newb, and as he had heard all that he said, he replied, "Well, not that much fun if you think about all the mess." He then stared at the piece of brain that he slashed from the wolf, then back at the newb, and then towards the circle of wolves that was closing in on the woman. "Looks like that one needs a little bit of help there. Let's go quickly." He then moved towards the woman.

 

And jump her they did.

Maddy had plenty left in the tank, but she was beginning to think that cursing herself with some back luck may have possibly been not the smartest idea to begin with.

The idea was to attract more wolves to the area; not to have the flea-bit mongrels focus mostly on her.

She knew she should've cursed that little faerin shit who played with his toys at the guildhall instead.

Another trio of wolves emerged from the forest, their noses sniffing the air for their prey. The beasts gingerly crossed the field, wary about their mutilated brethren that littered the area.

The cursemage locked eyes with them, her hands flawlessly working on an in-hand bridge shuffle. The crackling of her cards invigorated her as much as the violence that filled the air. Fanning the deck in one deft motion, she selected three cards. They ignited in dark flames at her touch, as she held them at the ready.

The wolves hunched over, lips bared in sharp, bloodthirsty snarls.

If she had a middle finger available for bird-flipping, Madison would've replied with the fiercest one possible.

Hunger overrode the animals' sense of caution as they leaped at her, breaking off as a small pack and flanking her. Madison had the focus to throw the cards up at two of them. Before they could get the jump on her, the spell ripped through the air and took out two of the beasts.

Madison turned just in time to catch the third in mid-air as it lunged towards her. Instinctively, she shot up her free arm to try and block the wolf, but instead it latched onto her arm. Violent, electric pain shot up the limb as sharp teeth and powerful jaws clamped down. A startled scream escaped her lips. The momentum of the creature pushed her to the ground, sending her deck of cards sprawling across the grass.

The wolf thrashed and tore at her arm as it pinned her down. The witch could only feel a general, numbing wave of hey this is probably not good for you you should really do something about it washing over her. Thank goodness she never adjusted her pain settings in her palm menu.

Desperate and running out of time, Madison wiggled underneath the weight of the wolf to draw herself closer to her scattered deck. A gloved hand scrambled for a card, any card, with which to defend herself. She finally managed to grab one in her gloved hands. The card immediately burst in violent flames as she poured all of her anger and malice into a blast of pure, untamed black magic.

With as much force as she could muster, she half-punched, half-pressed the card against the side of the beast's head. The flames exploded, and the spell was cast. The jaws latched onto her forearm immediately loosened, having no rest of a head to be attached to. Bits of bone, fur, and brain flew across the field, collecting with the rest of the dead wolves that learned their lessons a bit too late.

Her breath ragged and body throbbing with pain as her Hit Points dripped out of her shredded arm one by one. Madison found the strength to rise to her knees. She cursed to herself quietly as she collected her deck. The thing was of no use to her with one good arm--she'd have to resort to reciting incantations to sling spells from here on out.

At least she had a bit of healing magic at her disposal.

Her right hand dropping at her side, she pressed her injured limb against the grassy, blood-soaked earth. The witch winced through the sudden jolt of pain, and muttered the necessary words to start the process.

Small glowing runes formed in the air around her bleeding arm as thick blades of grass grew around it at an alarming rate. The earth pushed her limb into the air, elevating it while the grass wove around it to form a bandage. The effect was almost immediate. Madison felt her body overcome with a soothing calm as the magically-enhanced grass began to stitch her up.

Footsteps rang out behind her. Madison turned to see the faerin and the other unremarkable nerd that tailed him.

The cursemage shot them both the most bitter of looks. "You're fucking welcome," she seethed as she waved around her bandaged arm.