Silk tucked under one arm, the other desperately trying to keep her hat from flying off her head, Monica sprinted away from the shopping district at full speed, boots thudding against the stone roadway as she fled.

Behind her was certain death, a mountain of bodies that had realized they’d been tricked and were finally mobilized after her like bloodhounds.

“Leeeeeeeeeeave meeeeeeeeeee alooooooooooooooone!!!!”

They were, unfortunately, unsympathetic and unresponsive.

The chase wove through the massive starting town, the fox skidding around corners much to bemusement of any players that happened to spot her, only to be replaced by shock and dismay as the flood behind her reached them, showing them no mercy as they were either swept along or trampled past, like a stampede of armor slamming into them at full speed.

Her one and only saving grace was the same thing that had ruined her earlier: her starting stats.

While most races started with barely noticeable stat adjustments of plus or minus 1 or 2, and classes provided about the same for the relevant stats, the most assuredly untested and unbalanced kitsune had a massive change of 10 for five different stats, one of which was AGI.

So while the Rogues and Rangers of the crowd were slowly drawing ahead of the rest with AGI stats reaching as high as 9 or sometimes even 10 right out of the gate, they were being left in the dust by a fox bundled up in bulky robes, toting an entire monster along with her, and boasting a terrifying AGI of 16 from the get-go.

But even with her massive speed advantage, there remained the issue of finite running space. There were only so many corners to turn before she’d eventually end up in the plaza again, and get herself even more stuck. So that left her two options.

Either duck into a building and hope no one spotted her, or get outside of town and hide in some area nearby.

The first seemed unlikely to work at all with this many eyes on her… not to mention that she’d be left with no way out again even if it did.

Which meant she was headed outside the city walls if she wanted to escape.

She’d hoped to find that skill store to find some way to fix her abysmal setup, or even just find a proper quest to start the game with, but right now she had more pressing matters to handle.

Her boots kept their constant thudding against the paved roadways, towering stone walls continuing to rise in every direction, barring any kind of normal exit, no sign of a gate leading outside anywhere she’d seen yet.

As she kept searching, the group behind her had thinned ever so slightly, and for a moment she thought they might have finally developed a sense of respect for a woman’s personal space like sensible.

Unfortunately reality was not so kind to her, and the actual reason was quickly made apparent as those that had fallen out of main horde now burst around the corner at the other end of this street in front of her.

Uh oh.

Outrunning them was no issue as long as the path was clear, but with both ways out of this back street walled off, she found herself pinned between a tightly packed row of houses to her left, and the towering wall of sheer stone to her right.

She quickly surveyed her options, having several seconds before the space between both groups flattened her like a fox-earred pancake.

The houses to the left were the obvious choice, but the space between them was too tight to even attempt slipping into the alley, with it being a close fit for Silk alone, not even considering herself.

And the wall was… a wall. Typically walls were rather good at walling things off, and did not take particularly well to attempting to be run through as much as she might wish to.

She decided she’d have to take one of the alleys and hope she could wedge herself in deep enough to make the rest of them lose interest…

...But at the last moment, her eyes glimpsed her escape route.

The wall itself was completely sheer and unclimbable, sure.

But the single small ramp up to the top edge for the town watch was decidedly more suited to being scaled.

There was no way it would have a matching ramp on the other side for exiting the town properly, but at this point? A jump from that height was preferable.

Steeling herself, she veered hard right, beating a path up to the top of the wall, leaving bewildered guard NPCs in her dust.

The two player swarms had closed in right behind her as soon as she started up the ramp, and were struggling to get up the tight wooden path as people pushed and shoved to be the first one up after their self-imposed quest target.

No time to slow down or rethink now. Just the lip of the wall ahead of her, and every single other player in the game behind her. Squeezing Silk a bit too tight, she sped up further.

The sun shone in her eyes, hanging low right in front of her, calling her forward.

Monica reached the top of the massive stone wall, and pushing off with one foot, she leapt.

The warmth of the sun on her face, the freedom of escape burning inside of her, the thrill of the adrenaline pumping through her body… she felt amazing, better than she’d felt for ages before.

Players would tell legends of this day for months after, of the mysterious fox girl that had evaded any attempts of capture, and flown away into the sun as she disappeared like an angel returning to Heaven.

Unfortunately reality was much more cruel of a mistress, and fate was far from finished with using her as a punching bag.

When she opened her eyes again, still sailing through the air gracefully, she rapidly realized her mistake. Or rather, why this side of the town had been so mysteriously devoid of exits or gates.

And so, the winds swallowing an assortment of swears that would make a sailor blush, Monica plummeted past the wall, past the cliff they were built atop of, and crashed hard into the raging river a good hundred or so feet below that.