Strange Arrivals and New Beginnings [OPEN]

[Reynard]

Fiddling with the handle of his sword, Reynard was itching a bit to just start attacking and testing combat in this world already. Unfortunately, his sense of responsibility was holding him back. It was always the job of the senior to make sure his juniors could fight decently before leaving them to their devices. Especially if they had no prior experience to martial arts. Suppressing his eagerness at the moment, the foxtail considered the other cleric’s words to best start this lesson.

“Hmmm… That would be a sensible request, but I think you should learn how to fight a bit. Your weapon,”

He pointed to the staff.


“Is a combat-type which can deal damage unlike if you had a support-type like a wand or staff. It may provide you good stats for healing but since you have that weapon at the moment, you should be able to fight with it when need.”

Compared to her, Reynard was prepared for both possibilities as he hadn’t decided what kind of healer he was going to be yet. His sword would allow some direct combat while his wand would allow good support spells. They did have a downside that they might not be as effective alone but allowed for flexibility. It may have been looked down upon by hardcore gamers who had closed party roles but as seeing this was no longer a game anymore, maybe Reynard made the right decision.

“But for now your suggestion has merit as I too would like to know how to cast magic properly. It is a boon that both of us are Clerics so we may easily find out how to cast.”

Reynard brought out his skill hotbar and saw his three available skills on it. Only one of them was at active type skill: Reactive Heal, a cleric’s signature spell. His finger hovered over the icon as he explained his plan.

“We both cast Reactive Heal on each other and pay attention to how the motions are. Most likely when I press this button my body may automatically move to perform the spell. It may be an adequate way to cast spells but I want to know if we can do it without having to press buttons.”

The cleric would wait for KittyGrey’s action and let her take the lead when she was ready to cast. Of course, he would also be paying attention to her body… movements. Body-movements. Yeah that’s what he meant.

[kittygrey]

Ame nodded, looking down at her staff. She chose the weapon because it allowed her to deal damage with the boost of her magic, though she was nervous to actually fight with it. She was afraid that she wouldn't do much damage, then again, most clerics didn't do any damage, or more so, chose not too. She wanted to be one of the ones that could deal damage when needed, but still take her role as a cleric seriously. She knew she wouldn't do many solo missions, though she wanted to make sure that she could if she didn't have a party around to support her. She was an individual, regardless of her role, but even still, she was a cleric before a damage dealer and intended to be one of the best there were, but she had a long way to go.

She nodded again, following his lead as she opened her interface as well. she selected her skills menu and found reactive heal. She wondered if Reynard used the same. She waited for a moment, listening to his words, nodding continuously, until she realized that she was just nodding, and not saying anything. After a moment of waiting, it popped into her head that perhaps he wanted her to go first. She felt herself blush as she felt embarrassed and then said, "I- I'll go first then." She pressed the button and automatically said "Reactive Heal!" She felt her body moving, but couldn't actually do anything. It felt so, weird. Her hands tightened on the grip and as she spoke her staff, which was placed butt end on the ground before, lifted off of the ground and did a slight swooping motion to the left and then pointed to Reynard. Instantly, she felt like she regained control of her body and her eyes widened as she smiled as she watched a light golden glow surround Reynard. The move was said to give off a warm feeling, she wondered how it felt to him.

"Oh wow.. Cool! Do me now!" Her voice was filled with excitement as she jumped up a bit, clapping her hands. Her staff dropped to the ground and she looked down at it in surprise, but then bent over to pick it up, a shy giggle escaping her mouth. The last thing that she wanted was to be seen as a dumb blonde girl, a stereotype often taken very seriously, but, she supposed it was just in her nature because she sure seemed to be acting it at that moment. She wasn't normally a clumsy person, and people often referred to her as "smarter than your hair color" which more often than not she took as a compliment.. She felt that she should probably stop doing that. She shook the thought out of her head and instead went back to thinking of the move she had just done. Though the move itself seemed like it would be boring to watch, she liked the color that shone after it, and wondered what it would feel like to have it cast on her. She couldn't wait to have it cast on her, though she did wonder if it would look differently, or be different when Reynard did it.

*Words: 541*
*Tags: Reynard*
*Notes: Wasn't sure whether to tag Emmerich or not.. so i chose not to, sorry Em, And, nice, just nice ending XD I laughed everytime I read it.. and I couldn't stop reading it LOL! So, good job on that XD*

[Emmerich]

While Reynard and Kittygray were chatting among themselves, Emmerich wondered off a couple meters away from them, looming over a slime. He wasn't just going to stand around and just talk about how combat in this world works, he opted to try and experience it first hand. He believes the sometimes a man just has to take action and blindly throw himself into a problem to understand it. He looked down on the green blob. It was the size of one of those inflatable exercise balls and it just rolling around in the grass with no care in the world as if nothing mattered. He was going to fix that. With a grin, he brought forth his ribbed mace. He pulled back, readying to attack the green slime. "Show me what you got, you little blob." With all the strength he could muster, he dropped his mace down upon the monster.

The ribbed mace head shot through the slime gelatinous hide; Clumps of green slime splattered over his armor, face and hair. He felt them wiggling around on his flesh. With a  With a strong grip on the handle, he pulled free his mace from the slime, causing even more bits of it to fly over the grass, ground and onto himself. The slime squirmed and made squealing noises after the blow was made. It seemed to be fed up with Emmerich's abuse, because the next thing that happened was it flung it's self from the ground and slammed against his torso. The impact felt like someone punched him in the gut, even though he was wearing armor. The hit sent him backwards; He was forced to dig his heels into the ground to keep himself from toppling over.

"Glad to know that you got some fight in you, otherwise, this would be too easy!" He laughed gave the slime his hardy laughter, just before he charged forward. When he got within striking distance, he lifted up his shield and hovered it over the creature and dropped it down. The slime spattered into pieces; It's gooey remains flew everywhere, and again they covered his body. When it seemed that slime had been slain, Emmerich hanged his head in disappointment. "That's it....?" he said with a sigh exiting his mouth. Just as he was having fun it just ended right there. But then his eyes widened when gold coins suddenly appeared where the slime had been killed. So the games loot mechanics still worked in this world. With nothing else on his mind he decided to take up the gold coins and return to where the others were, to let them know of this discovery. He knew it wasn't much, but at least they won't have to worry about going broke in this world like in real life. If everybody could get money from punching things, there wouldn't be any poor or homeless, wouldn't there? Anyway, he just moseyed on down over to them, trailing slime remains as he walked, not like anyone could tell since it's green on green.

---

Word Count: 509 
Tags: Reynard kittygrey
OOC: Sorry about taking so long to post, I'll try harder to keep up on the time between posts.

[Reynard]

A warm feeling spread over him as an orange glow surrounded his body. On his party list, a familiar buff icon of Reactive Heal was beside his name. It looked as if KittyGrey did the actions perfectly but it looked a bit strange when she came from her button-pressing-pose. Like when you see an animation in a movie that just wasn’t ‘right’. It looked passable but you could tell it wasn’t naturally. It was his turn to perform the skill on KittyGrey as he did say he would reciprocate her actions. Plus, with the way she was excited to for Reynard to do it to her, he couldn’t really back out.

Reynard pressed his own skill button and immediately felt his body move automatically. His left hand grabbed his wand from his hip and pointed it at KittyGrey. A similar orange glow surrounded her showing the skill taking effect. It was a weird experience as he did the movement without actually thinking about it like it was second nature. It was different from how she did it which made sense as he as using his wand to cast and she as using a pole. Either way, it meant they were capable of preforming magic now, but the problem was if they still had to use the hotbar when casting. It might still be possible to use a hotbar if you were a long range caster but what if you were a melee character? Or like Reynard who used two one-handed weapons meaning both his hands where full. They needed a better way to preform skills.

“That… was a peculiar feeling but at least we confirmed we can perform skills even if we do not really know how to exactly. Though I may need a better method as both my hands will be occupied when fighting.”

Putting his hand on his chin in a thinking pose, Reynard wondered if there was a better way to perform his skills. There was one method he thought off but it seemed so… anime-ish, and a bit embarrassing if he was wrong. Seeing as he had nothing lose but his pride, Reynard decided to try his idea in casting again. Seeing as KittyGrey still had her Reactive Heal buff, he would have to use another person as a test dummy. That meant the guardian who had gone off and attacked the slimes.

“I am going to attempt another method. Just a moment please.” Reynard addressed the other cleric.

Without warning Emmerich, Reynard pointed his wand at the approaching guardian and shouted with as much confidence as he could (which wasn’t really much) the name of the skill.

“Reactive Heal!”

Even if he was prepared for his body to move, it still felt weird when it did the motions without having to think about it. Like his mind was only half concentrating on his task. But the method worked as Emmerich was bathed in another orange glow.

“So it did work.”

Hopefully the action was self-explanatory for the other foxtail but Reynard would still explain to her what happened if she asked. And the guardian too in case he was baffled at what Reynard just did.

[kittygrey]

Ame waited, and soon saw the golden glow that had appeared around Reynard, swirl around her own body. She felt a warm feeling on her skin, and even more so in her bones. The feeling made her smile as she closed her eyes, letting it linger for a moment more. She opened her eyes once the feeling had gone away, a blush coming into her cheeks. She nodded to his words and then tilted her head at him as he put his hand to his chin. She watched him as he thought, noticing him for what seemed like the first time. She looked him over while he, hopefully, wasn't paying attention. She had thought the fox tail cleric was handsome to begin with, but he looked rather manly standing there in that pose and the thought made her entire face turn pink. She looked away from him as he spoke, asking her for just a moment and she looked back, only when he pointed his wand in the direction of the guardian, Emmerich.

Ame watched as the soft glow formed around him and her eyes widened. She smiled wide and yelled, "Cool!" She looked back to Reynard with her wide smile and nodded at his words. "So, we don't need to use the skill menu? That's amazing! I wish I could cast it and try, but I suppose I'll have to wait for that." She didn't pout, as she wasn't upset that she couldn't try, she was just happy that he had figured that out. She would have her chance once one of them got hit and then she would try it out for herself, but she was just happy knowing that they really didn't need the skill menu in order to perform magic. She tightened her grip on her wand and tilted her head to Reynard. "So, should we join in, or are we going to let Emmerich have all the fun?" She let out a soft giggle and turned in his direction.

Without waiting, she ran happily towards the guardian, hoping that he hadn't killed everything yet. Her eyes widened again at the view of the gold coins. She tilted her head at them and then shook it. It was simply just the game giving bonus gold to the character who had killed the monster, though since she wasn't that experienced at MMORPG's, some things still were a surprise to her. She watched as Emmerich made his way over to them, even though she had been the one to start chasing after him. She pouted lightly at that moment, sad that she hadn't seen the fight, but was excited at the fact that there would be more. She had to always keep that in mind, there would be more. She nodded and smiled to the guardian. "Wow, you killed that slime really quickly! Great job!" She would give him a smile and then look around the field. "Where shall we go now?" She was beginning to feel more comfortable in the game, she wasn't afraid anymore, and she hadn't even thought about home since they had entered the new area.

*Words: 522*
*Tags: Reynard, Emmerich*

[Reynard]

He had been so focused on his skill that Reynard didn’t notice when he suddenly gained some additional gold he didn’t have before. Being in a party meant gold would be split and some loots shared so even if Emmerich was the one who killed the slime, all of them received something either way. This meant killing monsters still dropped some money which made since from a gaming perspective, but what was the justification ‘in-game’? Reynard probably should not be using the term ‘in-game’ and should be using ‘real-life’ but his mind hadn’t fully accepted the world they were in. Also there was probably some reason but he shouldn’t be thinking about it at the moment. Concentrate on learning how to fight.

At KittyGrey’s suggestion, it was time for Reynard to try his hand at battling. Although he wasn’t showing it like Emmerich, Reynard was secretly excited as well to fight. He did martial-arts and it was always one’s dream to try and apply it one day. Just that they knew there was a time and place for such things and being trapped in another world happened to allow it. The cleric drew his sword and wand to fight but not before addressing the other cleric.

“There are still some slimes and I want to try my hand at battle. Seeing as I am off the healer class, my damage will be lower so I will be relying on your support for this.”

Once she acknowledged her role, it was time for Reynard to attack one of the slimes. Approaching one, the foxtail raised the sword in his right hand and preformed a diagonal slash at the blob. The HP bar of the slime decreased as expected but smaller compared to the guardian’s own effort. The blob retaliated by tackling Reynard. He raised his wand hand out of instinct and felt the pain of the attack shot through his arm. It wasn’t a pain that would leave him helpless and actually felt softer than he had expected. Maybe his armor was more than just for show after all. His HP dropped more than Emmirich’s which was a combination of having lower HP and lower defense compared to a tank even if he was wearing the same kind of armor.

Since he had lost some HP, the Reactive Heal buff had activated restoring him to a full bar once more. Reynard was impressed as it meant KittyGrey’s healing capabilities were good if she could negate a full damage even if it was till at a low level. The cleric continued his assault on the slime, requiring a few more hits compared to the guardian’s two-hits-of-death. His HP bar would drop a bit even with KittyGrey’s support as there were refresh times that couldn’t always keep up with the damage dealt by the slime. At one point, Reynard tried to dodge but suddenly felt off balance and wasn’t able to complete avoid the attack. He would have to work out why that happened.

Once the slime died in a shower of sparkles, gold and some loots appeared once more where the body would have been. Gasping for oxygen, Reynard waited for his body to relax as the battle was over. He sheathed his weapons and braced supported himself by putting his hands over his knees making him hunch over a bit.

“That was a bit more exertion than I realized.”

When he had composed himself and his body was no longer in a fight mode, Reynard addressed his two party members.

“Well, Emmerich and I have tried fighting and it would be best for KittyGrey to fight. But I just realized that her weapon is an actual staff used for casting. You could still fight with it but your damage will be even smaller than mine. It would take longer and might cause you to receive more hits.”

Of course the two would still support her but it would be up to KittyGrey to kill the monster. It would do her good to know how a frontliner felt when fighting as it would improve her healing mindset.

“It is still up to you KittyGrey.”

[kittygrey]

Ame nodded at Reynard as he spoke of trying to fight now, as well. She felt her body itching to also try it, but she remained calm, knowing that she would eventually have to try as well. She watched as he began his fight, the slime hitting him, and taking his health down. She was surprised when his health went back up to full HP, as it meant that her reactive heal was actually quite strong. A smile glimmered through her face and she knew then that she had chosen the correct class for her. In the real world, she was always used for wanting to help everyone, it was only her adopted family who had shown appreciation anytime she wanted to help them, but here, in this world, it was different. Some people would probably still want to use her, but she also knew that there were many who would rely on her healing abilities, and appreciate them as well. She knew that Reynard was one of those people, and probably Emmerich as well. She had started off with a great team, if she did say so herself.

As the fight continued, she realized that she could now try to use her reactive heal without the skill menu. She took a long breath in and raised her staff. Just as she had felt her body do before, she followed the same rhythm and brought it out, calling out, "Reactive Heal!" Once she saw the warm glow encircle Reynard, she let out a small laugh, a giggle more like and continued to smile widely. It had been much easier than she had thought it would be, and the feeling of her doing it herself felt much more natural now, especially because she had used the skill menu first to cast it. She nodded her head, telling herself that she could do it, she could make it in this world. Though she hadn't fully succumbed to the idea, she felt her mind thinking of this new world, as her own, and it made her heart shine, but then she noticed the slimes death, and called out, "Good job, Reynard!" She smiled to him, but her eyes became worried as she watched him bend over. She ran over to him in time to here what he had said, and looked out into the field. 'Fighting seems like a lot of work, but we are still low leveled, so once we rise, I wonder if we would still be affected in the same way.'

Ame nodded to his words, knowing that her damage dealt would be lesser than his but she felt as though she was ready. For the first time being her, she didn't feel afraid anymore, and even though they were just starting out as well, she felt as though she had good teachers. As he said to her that it was her choice, she nodded again. "I will fight. Even if I take more hits, it's better to try than to sit back and do nothing. Please, unless you have to heal me, don't help. I want to do this on my own." The words slipped out of her mouth and at that moment, she could feel confidence in her voice and it sent a shiver up her spine. She had never been a confident person, but she felt new here, as though she didn't have to hide who she truly was. Probably because no one actually knew who she was.

She thought about Reynard's set up, and how at first she was thinking of using the grimoire and a dagger, but as she thought, she knew that the staff was the right weapon for her. She tightened her grip on it, looking over the field. She found a close by slime that was set to be her prey. She took a breath in and released it as she ran to the slime and brought her staff down on it. It had done about half of the damage that Reynard's sword had, but as the slime attempted to attack, she found herself side stepping away, dodging it. Her eyes widened slightly, as she had seen that Reynard couldn't dodge it. It made her wonder what she had done differently, but they would have time to discuss that after her battle was finished. She was able to bring her staff down on the slime twice this time, but because of it, she was hit. She didn't know why, or how, but the slime managed to bring her to the ground. She shook her head and got up quickly, even though her body was becoming sore, though the healing buff had activated and brought her up to full health as it had for Reynard. She huffed lightly and managed to side step it's next attack, and then she bounded towards it and brought her staff down twice from the back. She quickly backed up, but the slime managed to get another hit in. This time, it was a smaller hit, and took less HP, but she could feel herself becoming even more tired.

She found herself shaking her head as she continued to hit the slime, dodging it's attack. She huffed even more, feeling her arms becoming weak, but she shook it off again and brought up her staff. She hit two more times, for the last time and the slime dispersed into a gold shimmer. She felt her body give out as she fell onto the gold that it had dropped. She managed to roll herself over and bring her hand up to her face, blocking the sun that shone down on her. She wondered why she had become so exhausted all of a sudden. She was breathing heavily as though she had just finished a triathlon, though even the people who normally did them didn't look, or probably even feel as worn out as she was. She knew then that it was probably because she had to hit the slime more times that Reynard in order to kill it, but she smiled, satisfied that she had done it all on her own. If they wanted to continue fighting, however, she knew that she would need to rest. She found herself taking her hand from her eyes, looking in Reynard's direction and calling out softly. "I'm sorry, but I need to rest. Go on without me and I'll catch up to you once I feel like I can." She felt bad that she wouldn't be able to go on, and she would probably feel worse if they stayed, but she knew she couldn't continue on, not without regaining some of her energy. Maybe she should have asked for help, but, she had to test herself, her will, and in her mind, though she felt paralyzed on the ground, she had won.

*Words: 1140*
*Tags: Reynard, Emmerich*

[Emmerich]

Ah, so they could use skills just like in the game too? He thought to himself as he warm glow of the healing spell from Reynard enveloped his body. After the glow had faded, he felt energy coursing through his body, he felt like he could tackle a bear, fight a mountain, or dance a little jig. "Thanks!" He shot a smirk at the Fox-Tail. With his energy renewed, he wanted to try out a skill himself. He opened up his menu and in his skills tab he had a free point that could be used for any of his limited options of abilities. It was to be expected; He was level 1 after all. For a couple moments he stared at his skill list, trying to decide what to go for. He wasn't used to being in the tank classes, he'd normally played the more offensive weapon-based classes instead. Such as his pirate by in the North American server. Since he is a tank, he'd thought that it would make sense to choose a skill that would draw in aggro. 

"Let's see.. " he mumbled to himself as he played with the scroll bar of the window. "C'mon, how hard can deciding on a skill be?" His gloved fingers rubbed the clef of his chin as he pondered. Then, he eyes drifted down to <Taunting Shout>. To him, It seemed that it would be something that a tank would pick. By it's descirption, It lures in monsters to you. But he still wasn't so sure about choose that one though. But even so, he decided give it a try, just to see how it would work. With a motion of his finger, he places his skill point into the skill, allowing it to be used. A chime played after he was done with selecting his skill. Yay~! The guardian looked around at his commrades. They seemed to be busy trying out the combat for themselves. Oh well, he'll keep an eye out for them, but meanwhile, he'll try out his new skill. With another motion of his hand, he brought up the skill menu again and places the icon on his hotkeys slot. "Ok Let's try this!" He pressed on the icon, and suddenly felt something take over him. He could not explain it, it felt like something was forcing it's way out his throat and through his mouth. He covered his mouth with his hands trying to not to let the thing escape. As he did this, he could see a boar grazing on the grass some distance away, and at that moment it came out.

"COME OVER HERE YOU, SO I CAN MAKE BACON OUTTA YOUR FAT HIDE!!" Emmerich shouted. A violent wave of sound emitted from his head and shot out and made contact with the boar. Once it did, the beast stopped it's gazing and looked at the guardian with fierce eyes. Before he knew it, the boar was already charging toward him. It threw it's head around and made an ear-pitching squeal as it approached Emmerich. The guardian prepared his shield and held it out in front. When it got close, Emmerich saw text and a number hovering over it's head: Pittered Boar <Level 6>. "Oh shi--" Was what he said, just before the boar rammed him. He was forced a couple meters back from the force it the blow, even with his shield between him and the beast, he felt a strong punch had landed in his gut. The force from the impact would had made him vomit, fortunately he hadn't eaten since he got here. Otherwise, there would be chunks hanging on the insides of his shield. He looked at his hp bar and noted that attack took off nearly one fifth of it.

"Hey guys.. help." he weakly blurted out.

---

Word Count: 638
Tags: Reynard kittygrey

[Reynard]

Reynard internally cringed at the way KittyGrey’s fight was going. As he had somewhat predicted, her damage dealing capabilities was the lowest among the three of them and would take a lot of hits before the slime went down. That gave the slime more opportunities to hit her causing her to fall down at one point. Even if he knew it was part of learning how to fight, Reynard had to suppress himself from deciding to finish the slime. It was for her own benefit to know how a monster’s attack pattern would be to effectively heal. He need not worry as the cleric’s life never went down too low before she was able to finish the slime. If he thought he was exhausted before, it was nothing to what she felt right now. Collapsed on the ground kind of gave it away

“That was a good first try at battle. Go ahead and take a rest before we continue.”

He had feeling they wouldn’t have to rest too long to feel ready to fight once more. Like most games, once you weren’t in a battle, your HP and MP would recover quickly and Reynard felt fine even just resting for a few seconds. It probably meant his body could fight longer than his original. His only limit would be mental especially if he had to deal with the new concept of casting spells. It would take practice to be able to get used to it.

A loud shout coming from Emmerich broke the peace followed by a loud clashing of metal and flesh. Reynard assumed the shouting may have been the guardian’s own skill… or he was just really excited about fighting. Looking over to what happened; Reynard was shocked to see what monster Emmerich had challenged.

Of all the things…. Why?!

A Lvl 6 monster was now readying his charge again at the guardian who, thankfully, was still upright but may need some help. 4 levels was just too much of a gap at low levels and the guardian would be testing the dying system in this world if he was alone. He was dang lucky then that he had a party with him and Reynard be damned if someone would die on his watch. With the Party UI still open, Reynard saw that a worrying amount of health had been lost, almost 20%. Thankfully the <Reactive Heal> he had casted mitigated the damage and restored maybe 5% of the HP. Drawing both weapons out again, Reynard grumbled at the infuriating actions of the guardian and then addressed the still collapsed cleric.

“Emmerich has managed to attract a higher level monster and needs assistance. Help out when you can.”

Reynard ran past Emmerich and towards the boar. He drew his sword horizontally while running, and when he passed the boar, slashed at its side. The attack took out a smaller amount of HP compared to his battle with the slime. The higher levels gave the monster more HP and defense making his already weak attack do less now. Remembering his own spill on patience and perseverance, he had to just keep on going until the monster died. It would not do well to show a poor example to the foxtail he was teaching how to fight.

“Emmerich time to tank properly!”

For good measure Reynard casted a <Reactive Heal> as his cooldown had finished. The boar was going to attack the guardian once more and with Reynard a distance behind it, ran towards it to catch up.

[kittygrey]

Ame smiled with a nod and shut her eyes. She could already feel her energy regaining, but for the moment, she just didn't want to move. However, with Reynard's next words, she felt her body shift, and her head twisted in his direction. She relaxed her body bringing herself back into a laying position and nodded her head. She would help as soon as she could, but she just needed a few more minutes. As she laid there, she looked up to the sky. She couldn't believe how much the fight had taken out of her, and the slime had only been a level one, and there was Emmerich, fighting a level six monster?! She knew she really wouldn't be needed, because Emmerich was a guardian and Reynard had both healing capabilities as well as a sword, which did much more damage than her staff did, but even still, she didn't want to let down her team. She needed to help them with the fight, or she just wouldn't be satisfied with herself.

Slowly, she felt her upper body lift from the ground. Her she sat forward slightly, putting her hands on the ground. Her head hung low as she looked at it. Why did she feel so heavy? She looked at her health bar, seeing that both her health and mana were slowly regenerating, but she also felt that it wasn't fast enough. Perhaps the lower her HP and MP, the worse effect it had on her both physically, and mentally. She felt a slight headache, but it was nothing compared to the paralysis she had experienced only moments before. At that moment, she wished that adventurers could start off with a health and mana potion, or at least be warned about the effects on their bodies when it came to battle, though really, she had been tossed into the world with no instruction either. She breathed heavily, thinking about it. She needed to get her levels higher and she promised herself she would never let herself get to that point again, she never wanted to feel that way, ever again.

Finally, a few more minutes went by, and she managed to stand. She turned her body around to look at the fight. Neither of them were doing much damage to the boar, but both were fighting rather heartily. The scene made her smile and she grabbed her staff, which had been on the ground beside her. She gripped it tightly and called out "Reactive Heal!" She felt the warmth of the glow surround her body and raced off towards the two. By the time she got there, her cool down time would be finished and she would look to the boar, charging up her staff, and bringing it down on it's back. Her attack didn't nearly do as much as the others, but she wouldn't let them fight it alone. She back up quickly after her attack and called out to them. "Anyone need reactive heal?" She would cast it on whomever stated they needed it, and if neither of them did, she would charge up her staff again, and bring it down once more, then, like before, back up quickly as to not draw to much aggro to herself. That was all she needed, was to be killed by a boar, though she supposed it would have been a good chance to figure out if they would actually die, or just respond, though she wasn't willing to take that risk.

*Words: 583*
*Tags: Emmerich, Reynard*

[Reynard]

Just as he was dashing for his second strike at the boar, a figure came between him and the monster. Reynard had a split second to identify the figure as KittyGrey; meaning he couldn’t just barrel through her. There wasn’t enough distance left to stop his trajectory; that only left changing it to avoid hitting the female foxtail. When he would have tackled KittyGrey, Reynard planted his foot and twisted behind her to avoid hitting her and getting hit by her weapon. Instead of stopping his spin once he cleared her, Reynard felt himself overbalance as if an extra weight was on him he hadn’t accounted for. Planting his sword to the ground, Reynard stopped his over spin before he made himself dizzy. When his balance was restored, Reynard prepared his sword once more to attack, but first he had to fix the party first.

“KittyGrey! Refrain from attacking and focus on support healing. You are better equipped for support right now.”

It was hard to have multiple people try to attack one monster. The boar wasn’t so big that and only had space for maybe two people to attack it: one from the front and from behind. If they had a long-range attacker then another one could attack. Unfortunately, KittyGrey had a staff and would be more off a hindrance than assistance in this case. Reynard had to continue his assault to bring down the monster quickly. He dashed again forward, this time making sure to inform the party of his action.

“Support! I shall attack.”

Another slash at the boar brought its HP down once more making Reynard happy about his success in landing his attacks. But, the male foxtail had forgotten something important. Even if Emmerich had taunted the boar initially, Reynard’s constant attacking had produced more hate at the boar as the guardian hadn’t followed-up his attacks yet. The boar’s attention now focused on Reynard which sent a slight shiver down his spine, either out of fear or excitement.

When the boar charged at him, Reynard planned to dodge to the side and spin around to deliver a counter attack. Everything went well when the boar closed, Reynard moved to the side and it should have missed him but the cleric suddenly felt a pain shot through his back and was spun a bit more than he planned. The extra rotation forced him to kneel down and catch himself with his wand hand to prevent himself from falling over completely. A quick look at his HP bar confirmed he had still been hit by the boar despite knowing nothing should have hit him. A chunk of his HP was lost, even more so than his first fight, but thankfully KittyGrey would have casted <Reactive Heal> when he asked for support and allowed a bit of HP to return.

He would figure out what happened later as his needed to focus on fighting this boar. The rest of his party had a better view of what happened: Reynard moving to the side but his tail got caught by the monster's attack. It was looking bad as even if he planed on being a combat-healer, his equipment and stats were still for the stereotypical “support-cleric” making them unsuited for actual combat. Thankfully, what he lacked in stats, he made up in party members.

“Emmerich, continue attacking! KittyGrey, continue with your heals!”

They could do this as long as everyone helped.

[Emmerich]

As he was bathed in the light, he could feel warmth emitting from his body. Once the glow disappeared, he felt refreshed. With one look, he could see from his status information, in the corner of his eye, that some of his health had returned to him. He was quite fortunate to have met not one, but two clerics, and in his mind thanked whatever god out there for being blessed with their presence. With his health partially restored, Emmerich turned his focus on the Pittered Boar. It was being kept busy by both Reynard and Kittygrey.

"Damn it!" he grumbled to himself. He knew it was his fault that he has put not only himself at risk but also the others as well. All because he wanted to try his hand as using a skill. The Pittered Boar was stronger than their levels put together. Just one full bodied charge from the boar was able to knock off one fifth of his health, with plate armor on. He was pretty convinced that the others would only last two or three hits at most if it decided to turn it's attention to them. Which it unfortunately did. When he noticed the boar had begun to point it's tusks in Reynard's direction, Emmerich hurried himself over to him as fast as he could. But however, he wasn't fast enough. The boar threw itself at the male cleric, it's tusks only managing to catch the long bushy fox tail of the cleric. Even so, despite it not being a direct hit, Reynard's health was considerably lowered. 

Emmerich could feel a surge of anger inside of himself. His eyes darted over at the boar and glared at it. He closed in on the boar, just as it was readying another attack upon the cleric. With his mace tightly grasped in his hand, He sung it at one of it's hind legs; bashing it against the joints. This forced the boar to lose it's footing. As the creature tried to readjust it's legs, The guardian runs along the side of the boar and brought down his mace again on it's back. With that last hit, Emmerich finally had it's attention. It turned itself around until it had it's tusks pointed at him. Emmerich lifted his tower shield for protection. He knew that even with his shield, it would take off a chunk off his health bar, but even so it was better than nothing.

The Pittered Boar ran at him. Knowing that it was too close to move away from, Emmerich stood his ground with his shield up. There was a loud crash when the bone and metal collided. Unlike before, however, Emmerich was able to keep the boar in place, for five seconds, before he was forcefully pushed back by the it's tusks. His metal graves dug into the soil and made tracks as he was being dragged away. Not wanting to just passively defend, Emmerich sung his mace in an overhead swing, beating down on the boar's head while behind his shield. 

---

Word Count: 510
Tags: Reynard kittygrey

[kittygrey]

Ame took a few steps away from the boar. She heard Reynard's voice behind her and turned to focus on his words. She looked at him with surprise, had she interjected his attack? She felt her body run away from the scene and nodded to him. She would have to apologize, but now really wasn't the time. She nodded again and called out "Reactive Heal!" She pointed the tip of her staff to Reynard and would watch as the glow over took him like it had before. She could feel a pounding in her head when she used her mana but it went away quickly. Instinctively, she looked up at her HP bar. She raised a brow seeing that she was at half mana. Would she be able to heal them enough to defeat the boar? She hoped so, she knew she might have had four more heals left in her mana power, and hoped that it would be enough. She looked away from her bar and too the battle, where the boar was now snorting down Reynard.

She watched as the boar kicked up his back feet and charged towards him. She wanted to call out, tell him to watch out, but she knew he was watching it, knew what was coming. She let out a brief sigh as he dodged the attack, but surprise hit her eyes when she realized that his tail had been the one to take his attack and he was now, knelt down on the ground. She let her eyes whip up to his HP bar, and watched as it began to lower. Her Reactive Heal set in and raised his health by a bit, but it the boar struck him head on, he would lose almost all of his health. She watched her cool down as it became complete and pointed the staff on him again. "Reactive Heal!" Once again the glow would hit him and she would nod to his words. "On it boss!!" She felt herself blush a little with her words, calling him boss. It wasn't meant to be rude, or disrespectful, she just actually thought of him as the leader. He was a strong personality and just happened to take the lead for their small party.

Her eye's then shifted to the other half of the tank. His reactive heal had been used up, but he took less damage upon being hit, even still, she didn't want him to get hit and not have reactive heal, or his next hit could be fatal. She shook her head, watching her cool down bar. 10, 9, 8, 7. Her eyes glanced back to the scene as she watched the boar ready itself for another attack on Reynard, her eyes grew big and she gasped, but Emmerich forced his mace down to the boar, hitting it over and over again. She let out her breath as the boar turned towards Emmerich. She shifted again to her cooldown. 3,2,1. "Reactive Heal! She pointed her staff to Emmerich, just as he laid down his shield to block the boar. The warm glow now surrounded him and once it had been set, the boar hit his shield. She let out a sigh of relief and wiped her hand across her forehead. "Thank goodness.." Now, she watched the battle, the hold of the boar with his hield, then the slight draw back, then the counter swing, landing the boars head. She looked at the boar's health, waiting to see what it would drop down to upon his hit.

*Words: 594*
*Tags: Reynard, Emmerich*

[Reynard]

Even though they hadn’t agreed to it before had, Reynard fell back into his habit of calling out party roles in the middle of battle. He used to do it when he was a support cleric as healing and observing the flow of the battle went hand in hand. It was a bit harder to see what everyone was doing if you were in the front lines. You had to focus more of your attention on the monster than on your party members which showed when Reynard barely missed hitting KittyGrey a while ago. For now, he was glad that the two weren’t showing any irritation with him calling some shots. Life-or-death situations placed most egos on hold.

Emmerich had finally gone back to attacking the monster with his mace. Out of the three of them, he was doing the best damage and the best to take damage. Even if Reynard was wearing the same level of Plate Armor like the Emmerich, the stats were so differently distributed that in wasn’t even a competition. Right now, Reynard didn’t care about that only wishing this boar would die already.

The guardian’s hits brought down the boar’s HP below 50% already; unfortunately, so was Emmerich’s. What the boar didn’t have though were two healers to restore lost HP. KittGrey casted her healing spell already which Reynard copied with his own. This gave Emmerich two stacks of Reactive Heal which would proportionally increase the restored HP. Finished with his healing spell, Reynard continued with his attack, slashing at the back of the boar. The boar lost more health and the foxtail noticed that one more of the human’s attack would kill it already.

“Emmerich, finish it!”

Reynard prayed their tank wouldn’t miss at such a close distance.

[Emmerich]

"Right!" Emmerich raised up his mace again, and made a loud grunt as he bashed it against the Pittered Boar's head, right between it's eyes. Just as Reynard had predicted, his blow took away the boar's last bit of health. Upon losing it health the beast let out a pitiful moan, just before it collapsed onto the grass. There, it's lifeless body soon exploded into a steam of colorful orbs, which dissipated into the wind. And what was left in place of the boar was a moderate pile of gold. 

"Finally!" said Emmerich, his winded from the battle. The turned his gaze over at Reynard, then sheepishly looked away, remembering that it was his fault that thing nearly killed him. But even so, he forced his eyes to return to looking at the Fox-Tail. He let out a sigh, and walked over to him, feeling his heart heavy with guilt. "Hey, are you alright? I'm sorry about all of this." He turned his sights over to Kittygrey. "And to you too." he said to the female cleric, before turning back to Reynard. "We almost got killed there, all because I wanted to test some skill. And I know just apologizing isn't going to undo the fact I almost endangered you two. Let's call it day, OK?"

---

Tags: Reynard kittygrey
Word Count: 216

[kittygrey]

Sweet, Sweet Victory

Ame watched as the two men each attacked the boar, Reynard stopping momentarily to stack on to her reactive heal to give the Guardian an extra boost. She watched the battle intensely, and focused on each move they made. She found herself watching the other fox tail, trying to learn from his moves. She felt a smile cross her face and her tail swayed gently behind her. All she could do was watch, and wait for the battle to finish. She could see that he had prior battle experience, probably from other MMO's, but she found herself envious of his experience, and his leadership. She wanted to be powerful, and confident, like he was, and vowed that the next time she would meet him, she would be. She wondered if they would continue to be friends after the battle, but more than wondered, hoped. She was interested in knowing the fox tail better.

As she heard him speak, she looked to Emmerich. She waited to see if he would end the boar, and allow their party some rest. She waited, anticipating it and watched as he sent his mace into the boar's face, right in the middle and clapped, cheering out to them. "That was great guys! Excellent job!" She giggled as she ran over to them, but tilted her head at the guardian. She looked over at Reynard, wondering what his reaction would be to his words, and then she shook her head to him as he spoke to her, apologizing for putting them in danger. "It was bound to happen eventually and every one is okay, so please don't apologize to me! I enjoyed watching you both fight." She smiled, but then her face fell flat. She had enjoyed it? She thought back to the feeling that she had had when she was fighting, she was afraid but she did enjoy it. What did that make her? 'Need I remind you that this is a game? You simply enjoyed playing the game, Ame, don't beat yourself up over it.' Mentally, she nodded. Right, it was just a game, a very realistic game at that.

She tilted her head and gave Emmerich a soft smile. "It's alright, you were excited." She looked at him with worried eyes, but nodded. "I think that is a good idea as well. We should rest. Fighting does some strange things to these bodies." She looked down at herself, not that she would look any different, but she felt exhausted, but knew she wouldn't collapse like the last time. She looked over to Reynard and smiled. "Is that alright?" She asked, wondering if he was feeling the same as she was, wondering if he wanted to stop as well. They had had a decent run, or at least, she had thought so. Fighting and defeating a level six, even though there were three level ones, was pretty impressive in her eyes, and hoped that the two before her felt the same. "Uhm, thanks Reynard, for watching my back, by the way. I'm sorry about interjecting your attack, I was caught up in the moment, I suppose." She rests her hands behind her back, holding them together and feels her face flush lightly with a shade of pink. She hoped he wasn't mad at her.

- Words -
550

- Tags -
Reynard, Emmerich

- Skills Used -
---

- Notes -
---

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M
Modified by KittyGrey

[Reynard]

The guardian’s mace hit the boar square in the eyes removing the remaining HP. Just as with the slimes earlier, the boar collapsed in dying throes before exploding into pixels. With the battle done, Reynard put away his wand before sheathing his katana. He drew and exhaled a slow breath to transition from his battle mode to a more relaxed posture. The fight was tiring but he could feel himself recovering from the fight. A quick glance at his HP bar showed it recovering as well.

Reynard was taken aback by Emmerich’s apology. While it was technically the guardian’s fault, it was a mistake anyone would make along the line. The only difference was that this was no longer a simple game and the consequences could be more than losing some exp. They still didn’t know what would happen if someone died. The foxtail was split on reprimanding the human or just letting the incident pass. Thankfully KittyGrey saved him from deciding by forgiving Emmerich for his blunder. Reynard gave a nod in agreement to KittyGrey’s words.

The battle was tiring and Reynard could still feel his pulse trying to slow down. Despite it all, it was an enjoyable experience. Although he felt he could have performed better if he wasn’t split on his task between supporting and attacking. He had decided to try doing a combat healer for something new but it was an increase in requirement in his multi-tasking skills. It was decision he was going to have to live with and train to improve. His thoughts were interrupted by KittyGrey’s request to rest.

“Uh… sure. Go ahead.”

He wondered why KittyGrey bothered to ask him first. She could take a breather if she wanted to. Reynard was starting to get embarrassed with the apologies he was receiving. It wasn’t as if he was going to hold a grudge against them for that. Maybe a little more annoyed with Emmerich cause he did have fault in starting the mess but KittyGrey had little to worry about.

“N-no problem.”

Great he was getting all flustered all of a sudden.

“You just have to remember that your role is to heal and stay away from getting hurt. A down healer causes a drop in the party’s ability to fight continuously. That said, you did not do so bad at all.”

Over time she would probably have more skills at her disposable that would allow her to supplement the party’s offense with some long range magic. He wouldn’t tell her now as Reynard felt that finding about one’s capabilities was better than a large info dump.

“By the way, is there a shorter name I can refer to you as? Using full names while fighting is a bit difficult.”

After they were done with pleasantries, Reynard could suggest going back to city as fighting a lvl 6 monster was enough additional excitement on top off being transferred to a new world. Unless they suggested it first and he would have no problem agreeing with them.

[kittygrey]

Just Call Me Kitty

Ame felt her hands strecth above her head as she let out a yawn and then lowered them to her sides again, giggling at herself. She felt her eyes widen and she tilted her head as her stomach growled. She moved her hands up to them and let out a small laugh with a tilt of her head. The fight had seemed to take a lot out of her and she felt as though she was starving. She wondered if Reynard would allow her to test her chef abilities on him, but the question would have to wait as he began to speak. She let out one last soft giggle as she watched him become flustered. She nodded at his words and felt one of her hands raise above her head as she blushed. "Yeah, I suppose I have a long way to go." Then she smiled to him with a tilt of her head. "Thank you! I promise I'll get better, just need to learn my role in things I guess." She smiled widely and felt happy to hear that he had thought she did good. After all, it was her first battle.

She felt her head tilt again and she nodded. "Uhm, of course! You can call me Kitty, or Grey I suppose. Really, I don't mind either!" She let out another soft giggle and then eyed him curiously. "Would you mind if I called you Rey? Not that Reynard is a super long name or anything, but, I think having nicknames are cute," She widened her eyes at herself and felt her face flush, her mouth forming into a hard line and then she continued. "Uh, I mean, you know, uhm.. Fun.. and it establishes a relationship between two people.." Did she just say relationship?! "I uh, I meant friendship! Yeah.." Ugh, she was a foolish girl indeed. He probably thought she was a complete lunatic now. She felt her eyes shift to the side as she felt the nervousness on her face, but she shook it off and decided that she needed to change the subject, and quick. Not that he wasn't super cute or that she didn't want to get to know him better, but that was just it, she didn't know him, so why was her mind forcing her into saying strange things like that?!

Anyways! She eyed him again and put a questioning face on her own. "Uhm, I was wondering, would you be interested in letting me cook something for you? I have the chef crafting class and I'd really like to test it out. Not to mention, after that fight, I'm pretty hungry." She let out a small laugh and tilted her head towards him. "I'm a pretty good cook, so, I think it will turn out good. But if you don't want to, that would be fine as well." She felt her face flush again with bright pink. She hoped he wouldn't say no, especially since Emmerich had already left them and she felt as though she didn't want to be alone just yet, plus, Reynard seemed like a nice person, and with his experiences, she figured she could ask him some questions about the game. Maybe even get more acquainted with her class and figure out where exactly she wanted to take it. She knew that she wanted to be able to fight, especially if she went off into the fields by herself, but she knew her role was a healer mainly, and of course she would have to become more familiar with the cleric's role solely as well. "So, will you?" If his answer was yes, she would ask, "What is your favorite food?" And if his answer was no, she would pout but smile and say, "okay, well, maybe I'll see you around sometime?"

- Words -
637

- Tags -
Reynard

- Skills Used -
---

- Notes -
Choose your fate XD

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M
Modified by KittyGrey

[Reynard]

The big ball of sunshine and happiness, now referred to as ‘Kitty’ during fights, was still going strong even after the fight. Albeit she didn’t have to exert much physically but it was good that someone could keep up the morale of the party. You can heal the physical wounds of a person with a few spells but their spirit required a different kind of magic to be healed.

“Sure. I suppose being called ‘Rey’ is fine.”

Reynard wasn’t even his real name and it still took some time to connect that he was being referred to when someone mentioned the name. But like any good gamer with multiple handles, he would get the hang of it. Plus he did agree that it established a closer comradery between two people, which being in a fight together counted as. Although Reynard did wonder why his tail was suddenly wagging involuntarily.

With the adrenaline starting to wear off, Reynard suddenly became very aware that his stomach was feeling a bit empty. Maybe rushing of to fight had not been such a good idea. He should have thought about the necessities first such as food, water and shelter. Then again he was thinking this was still a game and stuff like that weren’t usually considered at all. It was lucky that KittyGrey was suggesting cooking something to eat. Plus it was the first time anyone had offered to cook for him.

“That sounds like a grand idea. I am not particularly picky at the moment and would be willing to eat anything. What can you cook at this level?”

He wasn’t really that familiar with the cooking class and his only knowledge about found was that it provided some temporary buffs. Since they weren’t that important he never really cared about them before. Now that they were in the game, food was going to get way more essential than just some stat boosts.

“Where will you be cooking though?”

Reynard asked with his head tilted to the side in an inquiring position. His ears twitched showing he was thinking about something while his tail still hadn’t stopped wagging.

[kittygrey]

The Locales

Ame smiled as Reynard told her that it was okay if she called him Rey. With his disposition on the subject, however, she wondered if perhaps he was looking for her real name because KittyGrey obviously wasn't it. But she swished the thought away. If he wanted her real name, he would have to ask, but he would also have to tell her his, as a sign of respect. If he chose not to tell her, she wouldn't be mad, as that was one's personal identity, aside from their character identity, and for gamers it was something of a rule sometimes to not allow others to know their true names. In her case, she didn't care, but she wasn't going to blurt it out either. She no longer thought of Rey as a stranger, so she didn't really have a problem with telling him, if he chose to ask. With that thought, she did kind of wonder what his real name was, but they weren't close enough to share that information, just yet, or, so she thought anyways.

With his next statement and the question that followed it, she tilted her head. Really, she didn't even know. She hadn't really seen a limit on what she could cook, ordinary food being really the only description. She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't think I'm limited to what I can cook, level wise though, level one only!" She let out a giggle, as she was being completely sarcastic on the level part, she hoped he took it as a joke as well, though she didn't really know his sense of humor either. "But in all seriousness, it seems like as long as I could cook in my real life, I can could whatever I could there, here, and I was a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself!" She smiled widely, proud of herself for being the cook she was back home, and really hoped it was as she said, and that she could actually cook the things she knew from before. "Do you like Sushi?" She couldn't imagine anyone not liking it, but she was sure that there were people out there who didn't like it. "Or would you prefer something actually cook?" She giggled again softly, as sushi was easy to prepare, simply because there was no cooking involved, the only thing difficult, was the mechanic in rolling the rolls and well, the little Japanese girl was a pro!

At his last question, she shifted her eyes to the left and bit her lip. "Uhm, well, I.. don't know.. the Inn would have a kitchen, but they might not let us use it.. Or perhaps one of the Lander's would allow me to use theirs?" She hadn't had time to speak with any of the locals, and wondered what they thought of adventurers. Did they like them? Hate them? This, technically, was their home, even though it was a game, and adventurers were placed here as real world people signed on. She bit her lip again and then stopped, looking back at him. "We could try our luck anywhere, really. What do you think?" She tilted her head again, wondering his thoughts on the situation. She was ready and willing to go anywhere at this point, as she was starving from their battle.

- Words -
555

- Tags -
Reynard

- Skills Used -
---

- Notes -
---

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M
Modified by KittyGrey