"Get ready," Langa said, stepping in line behind Liv and Eniche at the edge of the yellow zone forest. "The maestril will appear as soon as we enter his domain."

Liv nodded and checked that everyone was ready before he stepped into the grove of tall black trees. The mist surrounding the area was thinner since it was morning, but there were wisps of light passing through the gaps in the trees, creating long shadows.

 

[WARNING! YOU HAVE ENTERED THE RED ZONE: CALPU'S CORRUPTED GROVE!]

 

Langa could not help the way that his muscles tensed up when Liv used his buckler to block a sword strike that seemingly came from nowhere.

The shadows shimmered, and then, right in front of them, the maestril stood on two legs. This was Calpu’s grove after all, and here, he was king. His ugly and misshapen combination of a fox and wolf head tilted to the side as he observed the mortals that dared to intrude on his domain. He wore a metal breastplate and leather trousers, but his body was otherwise bare. His two silver broadswords reflected the dim sunlight as his black eyes swept through the group and fixated on Langa. He averted his eyes and scanned the maestril instead. The only thing that changed from the last time was that his karma had increased. Briefly Langa wondered why he could see Calpu’s karma. For all other creatures, he only saw the name and HP.

 

Calpu (Shadow Maestril Mini-boss)

Level 7

HP: 3000/3000

Karma: 1610

 

"Oh, my. You brought friends this time, did you?" Langa could feel Calpu's gaze on him as he spoke, but he refused to look him in the eye, he could not risk the mental magic hitting him again. "Including the human and the little kitty who ran away without avenging you last time."

 

[Player Sigurd Magnarson has blessed you with Healing Light. You gain +57HP for 5 minutes.]

[You are in Player Liv'Kungsadu's party. 10% extra damage to critical hits]

 

Eniche rushed up to the maestril and struck his arm with her mace, but he dodged to the back, ducking behind the shadow of one of his large trees. He was too fast for her, so Ghol followed him in stealth and stabbed her dagger into his side. She became visible when she attacked, and Calpu caught her eyes and caused her to stop moving.

Langa knew instinctively that this was the skill he'd been hit with before. While she was paralysed, the maestril lifted his sword, and there was no way she would survive the hit with her low health. Eniche quickly stepped in front of Ghol, and Calpu stabbed his sword into her abdomen, getting through the chain mail, and cutting into her stomach. Langa could not tell if it was deep or shallow, but Eniche fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. Ghol disappeared into stealth.

This was not a good start.

Sigurd quickly began the chant to heal her. Even though he had told himself that he would rather not use Thunderbird’s Stunning Strike, Langa prepared himself to use it just in case he had to protect Sigurd and Eniche. However, at that moment, Kindaro used his telekinesis, sending five of his knives flying straight at the maestril, but as Calpu dodged the knives, Liv also ran towards him, his kick landing on the maestril's chest, and his breastplate taking most of the hit. He lost less than 5HP, which was surprising because Langa had seen that same kick instantly take away 20HP from the corrupted fox yesterday.

This was a real monster.

Calpu staggered, and licked his lips, "My sister and I will feast well tonight. Child of a god, I can smell the overflow of karma oozing out of you...Even if I only get 10% of yours, I can move on to the next tier," he said, looking Liv in the eye, "Come closer, mortal, let me feast on your karma."

"You're a fool if you think that I, a demigod, will fall prey to the mental magic of a lower life form," Liv sneered, his purple eye glowing. The insult seemed to trigger something in Calpu, and he roared, bringing both his swords down on Liv. Liv blocked them with his buckler, the strength behind the swing knocking Calpu's sword arm back. Not one to miss an opening, Liv gave him a roundhouse kick to the side, making him stagger. The maestril ran into another tree's shadow, but Liv chased after him, from shadow to shadow, giving one kick after another. Sometimes his kicks glowed orange, and those kicks made Calpu howl in pain.

None of the others made a move, waiting for Liv to create an opening.

"Insolent scum!" Calpu roared, but Liv jumped into the air, Calpu, expecting another kick to the face, raised his arms to protect his face, but Liv just punched hard on his chest, the impact hitting the metal breastplate with a thud. Kindaro used this opportunity to cast his skill, and he made Calpu freeze on the spot, making him a still target for Liv. Liv punched the breastplate again, four times, five times, the clash sounding to Langa's ears, not like a mortal punching a metal, but like a hammer against iron. Liv's strength was no joke, and with every hit, he was taking about 5HP at at time. His combos were amazing, and watching the skilful way in which he used his techniques, Langa realised how truly terrible he was at his spear technique. But still, something nagged at him as he watched Liv battle the monster, his technique was flawless, the way he used his stamina sparingly but decisively was admirable, and his strength was magnificent. Yet, Langa saw something in Liv that he was very familiar with. Even exhibiting all this strength, he knew instinctively, that Liv was holding back.

At the end of his combo attack, Liv's fists glowed a bright orange, and when Calpu swung his sword down at him, Liv punched his now unprotected face, and the maestril was dazed for a moment. In doing so, he left his left side vulnerable, and Langa did not miss the opening, using Flash Step to step into Calpu's left side, and he drove Tonare into the gap between the breastplate and the trousers. He quickly pulled it out, and red blood gushed out of the wound. Langa tried to hastily retreat to the back line, but Calpu's claws were already heading straight for his chest. That was just unnatural and wrong.

Just as Langa thought he was going to be clawed to death by a freaking dog, not even a cat, an arrow flew towards Calpu's head, and he used his hand to block it, giving Langa ample time to retreat, and hide behind a tree. Thank the gods for Makoto.

Although he was slow, Calpu ran after Langa but was intercepted by Eniche, who seemed to have recovered from the attack. She looked pissed off. The hair on her arms and neck thickened into fur, and the claws on her hands grew as she leapt up, hitting Calpu square in the chest with a strength that seemed inhuman, then pulling back, and bashing him hard with her shield. Kindaro used his spell to freeze the monster, and once more Langa charged in. This time, Ghol attacked with him, striking multiple hits on the monster's neck, fast, and pulling back, while Langa struck hard and fast on Calpu's leg, trying to cripple him.

Just when it felt like the tide was finally on their side, Calpu roared, and all the trees around them shook. The shadows of the trees rose up and formed a circle around the entire party. One second Calpu was roaring, standing in front of Liv and Eniche, and the next, he was blurred in shadow, disappearing, and Ghol, was screaming in pain on the ground. She was lying in a pool of blood, a sword buried deep inside her chest, her leather armour broken, and inside that circle of shadow, Calpu was standing over her. Langa froze in horror as her scream died down, and dark smoke flowed from her body into Calpu's hands.

"I told you, this is my domain!"

 

[Party member Qin Ghol III has died]

 

The message flicked for an instant in Langa's vision, and then Kindaro screamed, "How dare you cut down my servant, you filthy creature!"

Kindaro was angry, and his ten knives coated in brown mist took to the air once more, flying towards Calpu, but just like he did with Ghol, Calpu vanished into his circle of shadow, appearing behind Kindaro. Shit, Kindaro has even less HP than Ghol, Langa thought, Flash Stepping right next to Calpu, but before he could stab Tonare into the monster, Calpu dodged in the shadow, and once more vanished into the shadows, appearing at the edge of the shadow circle, right in front of Eniche. The circle of shadows then suddenly disappeared.

"His shadow skill must have broken her out of stealth. Thanks," Kindaro said to Langa, realising that he'd let his emotions get ahead of him, and nearly died. Langa nodded and ran back to the front line. He heard Kindaro ask Makoto to top up his mana from his wasted skill.

Langa was the only melee damage dealer left now, and he braced himself as he stood behind Liv, while Eniche battled the maestril. "The bastard uses shadow magic. Fuck, that AOE skill must be on cool-down, but I don't know for how long, so we have to hit him hard and fast, okay? Stay behind me," Liv told him.

Nodding, Langa scanned Calpu once more. They had been at this for what felt like an hour, and the maestril just would not die.

 

Calpu (Shadow Maestril Mini-boss)

Level 7

HP: 2164/3000

Karma: 1645

 

All that fighting, and he still had over 50% of his health. Damn it, and his karma had gone up by 35 since the start of the battle. Wait, Langa thought, was that 10% of Ghol's karma? Had he absorbed her karma? Did that mean that the 10% that he had lost the other day had also been absorbed by Calpu?

“Langa, Liv’Kungsadu, I have an idea,” a voice said from right next to Langa. It was Kindaro.

Langa took a startled step back because the stupid mask on his face scared the hell out of him.

“What the hell are you doing in the front line?! Get to the back!” Liv screamed in frustration as Eniche swung her mace into the maestril’s shoulder.

“Makoto is covering me. Listen, I don’t have much time, but I’ve learned something. Since Calpu uses shadows, I knew he had to have either light or darkness affinity on top of his mental affinity. So I checked, and the bastard is using light, but his resistance to the death discipline is zero. So there’s something I want to try, it’s part of my attribute, so it’s a big skill and it drains me completely of mana. It takes a while to prep the spell, and it needs to hit him in the heart,” Kindaro told them.

His attribute gave him a strong attack skill? Langa had no idea what his own attribute was, on his status it said that his attribute was locked.

“Your attribute, huh? Alright, I got it. So you need us to break that slippery bastard’s armour, right? Look we’ll do our best. A few more strikes and I should be able to break it. Just please get to the back!” Liv said, readying his buckler once more as two consecutive arrows from Makoto hit Calpu in the abdomen, below the breastplate, cutting deep into him, and he roared.

“Wait a second, Kindaro. Didn’t you say you could only see our mental resistances? How come you know the maestrils affinities and resistances?” Langa asked Kindaro, who only looked sheepish. “I knew it.” This guy had lied to everyone, in the end, he was not to be trusted after all.

“Get back to your line!” Liv screamed at both of them.

“Right. It takes 60 seconds to prep my attribute, so that’s all I need,” Kindaro said.

“Wait, I’ll create an opening for you. I think I have something that can break his armour in one hit. I’ll also use a big skill, so tell Sigurd to be ready to heal me as soon as I’m done,” Langa told him.

As Kindaro nodded and started to run back to the back line, he said, “And you said that I was holding out on you.”

Langa ignored him. Liv then hastily informed Eniche about the plan while Makoto was shooting at Calpu’s ankle with his arrows. Once Langa and Kindaro used their skills, the maestril would be focused on them. Liv would protect Langa, and Eniche was to protect Kindaro.

Langa saw the look of disdain on Eniche’s face at the thought of having to protect Kindaro, but she nodded. “I’ll do as you say, Liv’Kungsadu.”

While they were talking, Makoto’s mana arrow cut clean into Calpu’s ankle and he screamed out in pain, raising his other foot to leap up and stomp on Makoto. There was no way that Langa would allow that kid to get hurt. Langa’s speed was too much for him, and he ran in front of him, spear raised. In his haste to protect Makoto, Langa neglected to be cautious, and for less than a millisecond, his and Calpu’s eyes met.

“Your mind is my playground,” the words were whispered inside his head, and once more, he felt fear fill him up on the inside, it raged, causing every movement in his body to tense up, and he could barely feel Tonare in his hand. It felt like someone had dipped him in a vat of ice-cold acid, rendering him helpless. It was dark all over, and he could not move. Logically, he knew that he was in a vast forest, not in an enclosed space where he was trapped with nowhere to go, but his mind would not accept it. He had to get out, had to escape this cage, this box, trapping him. He could feel his heart beating rapidly, the pulse of it enriching him, somehow, he had to find a way out.

“MOVE!” A loud voice cut into his thoughts. A familiar voice. The magic of the maestril was broken, its hold gone from his mind but replaced by someone else’s magic. This voice controlled him, forcing his legs to move. Kindaro. Kindaro was controlling him now, he had done it to break the maestril’s control. In the back of his mind, Langa knew that this was a big deal because Kindaro had said that his mind control skill only allowed him to freeze people.

Langa looked around, finding that in his daze, Eniche had stepped in front of him, and she was busy protecting him, her shield held steadfast against Calpu’s attacks. Liv was in the air again, kicking Calpu’s neck as he landed. Kindaro let go of his mind, and Langa breathed.

‘I am in control,’ Langa thought, repeating the mantra over and over again.

Fucking claustrophobia in the middle of battle? That was just like him. He was angry with himself, fuming. He should have used his weapon's skill much earlier, maybe Ghol wouldn’t have died. It was just a little pain, but he knew how much pain made his mind freeze up and act out of line again. He had to do this, though, so, taking a deep breath, he gripped Tonare tightly, and Flash Stepped in front of Calpu. As soon he pulled back his hands, thrusting as hard as he could into Calpu’s chest, he activated Thunderbird’s Stunning Strike. Once again, the entire spear was bursting with lightning, and it burned through Calpu’s armour like it was paper.

The maestril screamed.

Langa would have rejoiced in Calpu's suffering, except that the backlash this time did not just burn his hands, no. The lightning burned all the way up to his elbow, and he screamed even louder than Calpu, his entire arm felt like it would fall off his body. He fell to the ground, twitching in pain. Thankfully, Kindaro had warned Sigurd, and he immediately began to heal him. Liv had also rushed over, standing directly in front of him, to protect him from Calpu.

 

[Critical hit! (Calpu: -601.5HP)

Extra damage! Calpu:-60.15HP ]

[Backlash! (Langa Zulu:-48HP)]

 

He had silenced his battle notifications, but evidently, the system thought that this was important enough for him to know. What the hell? No wonder the backlash hurt so much! He was only supposed to deal about 560 damage with that skill! Had it stacked with the extra damage from Flash Step? And the extra damage from Liv’s title? Holy shit, no wonder it took almost 20% of his health! He was healed now, but he still could not move his hands from the numbness caused by the lightning.

He looked over at Calpu, and damn, his whole breastplate had been melted off, and his chest had a large burn wound on it. He could feel the others staring at him in disbelief. He had reduced Calpu’s HP to less than 50% with only one hit!

Kindaro was the first to recover from the shock, he held his staff upright, and his mask glowed a dark brown as he chanted. “Comedenthatos morsthana!” A glowing brown light erupted from his staff, and suddenly, the air seemed ripe with the stench of rotting corpses. The brown light hit Calpu squarely in the wound left by Tonare. The skin touched by the skill started decaying like it was being subjected to necrosis, and Calpu screamed again. It did not do high instantaneous damage like Langa’s skill, but it was taking 100HP per second, and in 5 seconds, Calpu would be below 1000HP. This battle was almost over.

 

Of course, as soon as Langa thought that, everything went downhill.

 

The catalyst was Eniche. The moment that Kindaro started chanting, her face paled, but unfortunately, no one was looking at her, they were all watching Calpu. But she fell to the ground, fear on her face. As soon as the spell hit, and started decaying Calpu’s skin, her muttering grew more distressed.

“They’ve come for me…." she whispered, trembling. "The undead… death…they’re here.” Her eyes were glazed over, and by the time Langa realised that Calpu was controlling her mind, using her fears of the undead that had destroyed her world, it was too late.

After using his skill, Kindaro was drained of mana and collapsed on the ground weakly, and Makoto was desperately trying to refill his mana. Eniche was supposed to go over there immediately to protect him. Unfortunately, she was under Calpu’s control, so the moment that Calpu’s scream of pain turned into a roar, and the shadows condensed into a circle, no one was prepared.

Calpu blurred into the shadows and appeared behind Kindaro again, swords raised to kill him. Sigurd reacted first, casting mist rope on Calpu, it didn’t tie him down, but it did slow him down a little, turning what would have been a fatal strike for Kindaro into a critical one. The sword missed his chest, but it cut into his shoulder, an injury which, given Kindaro’s low health was still quite critical.

Eniche was still whimpering on the ground, and Liv had a split second to make a decision. Langa’s heartbeat sped up, he had been overusing Flash Step today, so his stamina was dangerously low, and yet, he could feel his heart beating, like a pulse, beating faster and faster, and for a moment, it felt like time slowed down. Calpu was winding up for another attack, Makoto was trying to refill Sigurd’s mana so that he could heal Kindaro, and Liv was thinking. Langa knew what Liv was thinking, if he rushed to defend Kindaro, Calpu would shadow step again, this time targeting Langa who would be left vulnerable. Liv had to sacrifice either Langa or Kindaro.

In that case, Langa decided to make things easier for Liv. If he and Kindaro were in the same place, it would be easier for him to protect both of them. Flash Step was now off cool-down, so he Flash Stepped to Calpu, intending to stab him once more in his exposed chest.

But Langa miscalculated. After all, Calpu was not just a monster. He was a sapient, intelligent being. The last time he’d tried to attack Kindaro, Langa had stopped him with his Flash Step attack. So this time, Calpu did the same thing, baiting Langa. His target was never Kindaro at all. It was Langa, the one who had dealt the most damage to him. When Langa landed, spear raised, Calpu used his shadows to move half a step back, dodging the attack and swung his sword at Langa. Langa had learned to dodge from fighting mana dummies, and the real thing was very different, especially since Flash Step was now back on cool-down, and, moving within the shadows, Calpu could keep up with his speed. His stamina was dangerously close to 10%, and in the middle of dodging, once again, for a mere fraction of a second, Calpu caught his eye, and he froze.

Once again, Langa's heartbeat sped up, and this time he felt that it was no coincidence that time seemed to slow down, and he saw everything in slow motion. He could see the blade aimed at his neck that he could not dodge. Kindaro was still helpless on the ground, Sigurd healing him. Liv was running towards him, his buckler raised, but he was not going to make it in time. Langa smiled ruefully.

So, this is how I die, he thought, protecting a guy I don’t even like.

But just as he resigned himself to death, a black coat covered his vision, someone he had not accounted for, someone that he had forgotten had been right next to Kindaro, stepped in front of him.

Makoto.

Time righted itself, and Calpu’s blade dug deeply into Makoto’s neck. Killing him instantly. The boy’s body fell into Langa’s arms, the mental shock freeing him from Calpu’s control.

 

[Party member Sato Makoto has died.]

 

Liv’s brass-knuckled fist collided with Calpu’s face, the fist glowed, breaking his jaw, just as another punch collided with his eye. But no matter how hard Liv hit him or how much HP Calpu lost, they could not stop what was happening. Black strands flowed from Makoto’s body into the maestril. Liv swung hard, and his buckler hit the maestril’s chest, and he fled into the shadows, the shadow circle dissipating.

Langa knelt down on the ground, holding Makoto’s body, and he closed the boy’s wide-open eyes. There was fear etched on his face, and Langa’s heart felt like poison. Why? Dammit. He knew that the boy would be waking up in the safe zone, alive, but holding his small body in his hands like this, hurt him. “If you were so scared, why did you do it?” Langa whispered.

He had not received Makoto’s karma, since he still had one life left. A second later, the body disappeared, meaning that Makoto was awake. They could not communicate with dead party members through the comcer, or else Langa would have called to make sure he was okay.

Langa stood up to see that Eniche was free as well. She was busy slamming her mace into Calpu’s chest, over and over again in rage. He could understand her. He knew how violating it was to have your worst fears get played over and over again in your head. He paused, frowning, as he looked at Calpu. Something was not right. The last time he had checked, the maestril had been at 625/3000 HP, as Kindaro’s 100HP per second DOT had still been active. Kindaro's attribute skill was still active, only that it was now only taking 30 HP per second. However, the maestril looked like he was healing now, so Langa scanned him.

 

Calpu (Shadow Maestril Mini-boss)

Level 7

HP: 1325/3000

Karma: 974

 

"The hell?" he muttered in disbelief. His health had gone up!

“Yeah,” Kindaro said, standing up, and finally healed. “He’s converting his karma into HP. Sucks for him because it means that he won’t be able to use his AOE attack as much anymore.”

“Are you guys good?” Langa asked since Liv and Eniche were keeping the maestril busy.

“I’m fine, but I’m running low on mana, and without Makoto here, my regen rate is in the pits,” Sigurd said, frustrated.

“Mine’s about 3/4 full. The kid filled it up pretty well,” Kindaro said, checking his status. He picked up his staff. “I’m pissed. Not as pissed as the lionkin, but pissed. Let’s go.”

When the three of them reached the fighting, Calpu’s eyes swept over them, and he howled. They all tensed. Could he still use the shadow circle AOE skill? Even if he could, it should still have been on cool-down. However, no shadows condensed, instead, ten figures emerged from the trees. Corrupted foxes and wolves. Normally, this would not be a problem for the five of them, except that it was 6 level 4s and 4 level 5s. On top of that, they had to contend with Calpu.

This bastard had called for backup.

Langa did some math. He and Liv together, or Liv and Kindaro together, could probably handle the horde in less than a quarter of an hour since they were level 6, but there was no way that the others could hold out against Calpu without them for that long. Conversely, Eniche and Sigurd would definitely be overwhelmed by the horde.

“I’ll take mobs, you guys hold Calpu, and I-“ Liv started, but someone interrupted him.

“No,” Eniche said. “I’ll go. I have the highest health.”

“Don’t be stupid, you idiot. You can’t fight so many mobs of your level, it’s suicide!” Kindaro shouted at her.

“He’s right,” Langa agreed. “I know you feel bad about what happened, but just calm down for a bit.”

Eniche’s hand tightened on her mace, and she said, “Kindaro, I’m sorry.” Kindaro flinched, and even Langa was surprised. “I hate you, and death magic scares me, but we’re teammates. I should have found a way to protect you instead of falling prey to Calpu's attack. And Langa, I’m sorry that I ran away the other day, and let you die when I should have protected you,” she paused. “I used to curse at all the players who abandoned our world because they were scared to fight the undead. Now, I understand them. I need to do this.”

“Hold on, now-“ Langa tried again, but Liv held up his hand.

“Very well, take care of the mobs. Don’t let them interfere in our fight with Calpu,” Liv told her. Eniche nodded and ran towards the trees where the mobs were emerging from. “Sigurd, go with her. Slow them down so that they don’t overrun her. You have enough mana for that, right?”

“I do. If you guys need heals, just call me back,” Sigurd said, and he followed after Eniche.

“You’re sacrificing Sigurd? Don’t we need heals?” Kindaro asked.

“If they do their job, we won’t need healing. Besides, she needs him more than we do. Get ready, Calpu’s coming,” Liv answered.

Calpu was done healing himself, but surprisingly, Kindaro’s attribute attack was still taking health, though it was decreasing less than before. The attribute now took only 20HP per second, no matter how often Calpu healed himself. Liv took a deep breath, and ran forward, using his buckler to block Calpu’s claws which were aiming for Kindaro. With no hesitation, Kindaro activated his telekinesis, sending his knives flying into Calpu’s abdomen. Langa ran up and stabbed his glaive into Calpu’s thigh, then retreated. His stamina was still recovering, so he could not use Flash Step yet, and Thunderbird’s Stunning Strike was still on cool-down. He stood to the back, and his eyes darted towards Eniche and Sigurd.

Sigurd had cast his mist rope, and he was currently holding three level 5 foxes still with it, and two level 4 wolves. Langa could see that he was struggling to keep it up. Eniche, however, was calm.

She circled carefully around the level 5 wolf, while keeping an eye on the level 4 foxes, and when the four of them jumped into the air to attack her, she swivelled back, hitting the level 5 wolf on the head with her mace while keeping her shield above her, so that two of the foxes crashed into it. For now, she was okay, so he focused on his battle.

Liv created an opening for Langa, but instructed him not to use his weapon skill until Calpu was below 500HP, to make a decisive kill, so that when the backlash from the skill took him out of commission, he would not be in danger. Thus, Langa used Flash Step again, attacking Calpu’s abdomen where Kindaro’s knives had cut. He wanted to follow up again, but Calpu ran away, into a tree’s shadow, towards Eniche and Sigurd. Before he could reach them, however, Liv’s glowing foot hit him in the back.

Three foxes and one wolf were dead, and Sigurd looked worse for wear, trying to hold the mobs still and heal Eniche. She was covered in blood, her health in the red, but she kept bashing the head of a wolf that had gotten free from Sigurd with her shield.

Calpu screamed again, and dove once more into the trees’ shadows, too fast for Liv, so Langa chased after him, throwing a dagger at him, and forcing him to morph out of the shadows to dodge it. Kindaro sent more knives flying at Calpu and Langa received a message after the fight dragged on for a few more minutes.

 

[Party member Sigurd Magnarson has died.]

 

Liv kicked Calpu in the chest, sending him flying, and Langa bit his lip as Sigurd’s death caused Calpu’s health to rise back up to above 800 again. He looked at Eniche.

She was completely covered in blood. She must have levelled up at some point, because her health was high again, and her shield and mace were damaged. It did not seem to matter against the final two level 5s and one level 4. It was not just the hair on her arms but also her neck, face and head that had turned into fur, she was growling, scratching the foxes with her claws, not allowing a single one of them to get behind her. She kept them in her sights, and every time they bit her, she stomped on them or scratched them with her claws. She looked like a lioness in the wild. She was really good at this, it made more sense for her to be able to do this with her claws, since she fell into the cat species, unlike Calpu and the corrupted wolves and foxes.

Langa focused on his own battle, watching the shadows for any movement from Calpu, trying to figure out where he would emerge from. He heard howls, growls and whimpers, and then, he heard Eniche scream one last time, and two messages popped up in front of him.

 

[Congratulations! Level Up!

Level 7

+7 karma

+2STR, +2VIT, + 1AGI

You have 3 free attribute points to distribute.]

 

[Party member Eniche V Tigris Vale has died]

 

This must have been what Liv was aiming for. The accumulated experience from Eniche’s fight helped the rest of the party to level up since it technically was not part of the quest. He glanced at the brutal scene of Eniche’s death. The leaves of the trees were covered in blood, and nine bloody bodies of foxes and wolves were strewn about next to Eniche’s own mauled body. Langa bit his lip, and Kindaro telekinetically sent a knife into the neck of the last, badly injured wolf. Eniche’s lost karma was absorbed by Calpu, and he healed the wound on his side.

With the level up, Langa's health, MP and stamina were back to full. Both Liv and Kindaro had also levelled up thanks to Eniche. The three of them stood in a line, and Calpu watched them, leaning against a tree as his injury healed. He was at 900HP. It was about the same as the three of them combined. This was it, they were the last standing members of their team. This was their final gambit.