[Closed, Eris] Cat Fight

[Maia]

The high afternoon sun pierced the treetops of the Windsor Greatwood, bringing light to the forest below. Maia basked in its warmth as she picked her through the roots and fallen leaves, calmly following her target. The weather today proved much less cold than it had in the previous weeks… thank god. The wilds were bad enough without having to wear some bulky, unattractive jacket or dorky cloak to survive them.

The assassin hoisted her axe over her shoulder lazily. In her dominant hand, she held her simple starter sword at the ready. Much to her dismay, after this morning’s exercise, she was sweaty and covered in mud. There had been no avoiding it. Ugh. Nature was so inconvenient. Still, even she could handle getting her hands dirty given the right motivation. Her temporary discomfort would be worth the levels she farmed.

In general, Maia the proud believed in strength of character over physical prowess. When the Apocalypse struck, she did her best to uphold that ideal. While other adventurers ventured off to pioneer the expansion, she had happily remained behind in the starter city. She would win prestige not through farming kills, but by making friends and gaining influence!

Well, she tried. Soon, however, she realized that she was getting nowhere. Elder Tales was nothing like the real world. If she wanted to conquer it, she needed to understand it first hand. Charisma alone would simply not cut in here, where magic and dungeons influenced politics as much as money and manipulation. Finally, she conceded defeat. She would advance her classes like everyone else.

With both reluctance and determination, Maia had set out from Londonium at the crack of dawn. She intended to hunt boar on her own until her abilities reached a more respectable level. Even though she had no prior experience with video games and MMORPGS, things were going well so far. She successfully managed to pull monsters one at a time. With her high DPS output, she had no trouble quickly taking them down without someone to tank.

Full of confidence, she circled the large sow she had cornered. The beast snorted and pawed at the earth, threatening to charge her any moment now. Smirking, Maia readied herself. When it did rush, she would dodge. Then she would take advantage of the slight delay after its attack to bury one of her blades in its neck. Close range strikes were not very ladylike, but it could not be helped. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. The walking bacon had to die.

Unfortunately, the boar never rushed her. Right before it did, it suddenly lifted its head. Its gaze trailed off into the distant woods. It deliberated briefly before bolting. Maia was half offended, half pleased. On one hand, she hated being ditched by anything. On the other hand, the fact that she had scared it off without a fight meant she was improving faster than she had thought.

Mentally congratulating herself, she relaxed her guard. This would be a good point to take a well deserved break. Stretching with a yawn, she sheathed her weapons. She started nonchalantly heading back towards the main road. She did not make it far. As soon as she stepped into a nearby clearing, the wildcat that had been stalking her lunged.

Maia was completely caught off guard. Its weight easily threw her off balance. She collided painfully with the ground. Within seconds, she was pinned. She managed to struggle just enough to get an arm free. Furious that this oversized house cat had dared strike her, she slashed it across the chest. It barely recoiled. An uncommon predator, it was much more powerful than the prey she had been hunting.

Oh dear. She had not deigned to take any defensive or escape skills. What should she do? She was far too pretty to die like this!

[Words: 655]
[Tag: Eris]
[HP: 82%]

[Eris]

     Natalie detested the weather, though there was little logical reason to. It was gorgeous out, the perfect day to spend basking in the sun. It was the sun that was the problem, though, harassing her from above like some sort of... big... hot... thing. She enjoyed the warmth, of course, it was just everything else that came with the sun that she hated. Namely? Freckles, sunburns, and oh - more neeping freckles. 
     It was an avoidance of the sun that had lead her into the cover of the Windsor Greatwood, hiding under the shade the trees mercifully provided. Perhaps she could have just stayed inside as opposed to wandering around in the sun, and the dirt, and the muck - but she was an adventurer, and she had levels to gain. She could hardly accomplish that by staying inside, much to her chagrin, and she supposed that doing so in the sun was better than the rain. 

     She picked her way carefully through the trees as she searched for opponents, wary of stronger monsters that would prove to be too much of a challenge for her. She was by no means an old hat at this game thing, not yet, but she was learning. One of the things she'd learned thus far? There were plenty of things out here that could kill her, and if she gave them the chance, they would. Thankfully, she'd figured out how to keep from doing that. She'd initially chosen her Dancer subclass because of the familiarity, not the skill, but there was an admitted use in it after all. Though she'd thought the idea of a pacifying dance silly, it had saved her more than once, and that was even just this morning. The only problem was that she had to notice the monster, before it noticed her - or at least, before it decided to attack her. It meant she had to stay on her toes, sometimes literally. 

     The boars that wandered the wood were of little interest to her, but they were plentiful, and easier to kill than other things. The unfortunate part of that, though, was that she wasn't the only one trying to kill them, and her competition wasn't always adventurers who could be reasoned with. For example? The wildcat. She'd caught it by surprise, coming upon it as it came upon the young boar she'd been following. Wary, it had paused to discern whether or not she was a threat. A mistake on it's part, she supposed, as she began to dance. Slowly, with sure and elegant movements, Natalie soothed the creature before it had a chance to decide that she did, in fact, look to be a delicious snack. For a moment, it had seemed as if the beast would resist, but soon enough it had fallen prey to her movements. 

     She'd been tempted to attack it then and there, but she knew from experience that doing so would be a mistake. Even if she'd managed to turn a beast docile, attacking it was a sure way to earn it's ire, and if it was stronger than she was? Hoo boy, she did not want a repeat of that situation. So, as the cat's ears flicked and it dropped onto it's rear, lulled for the moment into being a 'good kitty', Natalie turned and took off in the opposite direction. She only had thirty seconds to get away, and she was NOT wasting them by standing around. Into the surrounding forest she disappeared, tapping into her skills as she moved. If it followed, she wanted to be ready for it, but luckily for her, it didn't. Time seemed to creak by slowly, but after ten minutes of hiding and waiting for an angry cat to leap out and try to kill her, she was sure that it had forgotten her. Or, at least, been distracted by something else.

      Uncaring as to what that something was, Natalie returned to her hunt, orbs flashing dangerously as they darted through the air after her prey. A triumphant sort of pride welled within her as yet another boar burst into anima bubbles around her orbs, and she paused to allow herself a congratulatory break. Sighing, she took a seat on a stump, careful to check that it was just a stump before doing so. She'd been attacked by angry stumps before, and it wasn't a pretty sight. 

     Glancing around, she was surprised to find that her hunt had drawn her once more near where she'd seen the wildcat, and her relaxation came to a sudden halt. What if it was still around? She grimaced at the thought, and rose to her feet, eyes alert for any sign of movement. There was none, at first, but just when she was about to relax again - there. From her right, the grass rustled, the sounds of tramping feet signalling the approach of something through the foliage. It was moving quickly, but it wasn't until she heard the squeals that she realized it was another young boar. It burst out of the bushes with a terrified scream that made her leap into the air, chilled by the sound and surprised at the speed with which it tore into her personal space. It had little interest in her, though, only aiming to get away. She watched it go with wide eyes, whirling back toward where it had come from. What had it so scared? The cat? Probably, she thought with a grimace, summoning her orbs near, just in case.

     Taking one wary step toward the source of the boar's terror, Natalie's ears caught the sound of a fight, and the distinct shriek of an angry cat. Had the rest of the noise been from a boar, she would have left it at that, following in the young one's tracks. A parent fighting a predator was no concern of hers, but this was no protective battle. The grunts of pain that followed the hissing and spitting of the vicious feline were distinctly human. It still wasn't much of her concern, or her business, but... Damn. She hurried toward the fight anyways. Maybe they were fine - maybe they didn't need her help! Maybe, she hoped, there was no need for her to lure the cat's attention back onto herself.

   Not so. When she spotted the beast atop a young girl, poised to strike, she knew she had to intervene. Rushing forward, Natalie's orbs hit the cat before she did, knocking it to the side and drawing it's attention away from the unfortunate girl beneath it's claws. It whirled and spat, claws striking out toward the red-headed woman that had dared interfere with it's meal - but suddenly, she wasn't there. In a Blink, Natalie appeared on the creature's back, eyes wide and a cuss on her lips. She had meant to appear beyond the beast, and to attack it from afar! Damn, damn- ! There was nothing to do but to go along with it, though, and wrapping her arms around it's throat, she wrenched it bodily away from the other girl. She had little desire to be so near it, though, so as they rolled, she sprang away from the furry ball of claws and teeth and launched her orbs at it once more. They did a good job of distracting the cat as she jerked back, counting down the seconds until she could teleport away once more. Paws large enough to rent a good sized hole in her face slammed against the glass weapons as they hurled themselves toward it, and though the cat did send them flying away, Natalie sent them right back. 

     A pity, she thought - all of that dancing, all for naught. She was still in a fight with the damn cat. Sigh. 


[words: 1294]
[tagged: Maia WHOOPS tagged the wrong one at first]
[hp: 100 mp: 95 ]
[notes: watch as Nat makes it look like she totally absolutely meant to jump on that cat, lmao.]

[Maia]

No no no! With all of the strength Maia could muster in her artificially athletic body, she struggled to push the big cat off of her. Her efforts were in vain. The heavier feline had her properly pinned. It outleveled her far too much for her to overturn its advantage. Hissing, it shifted its paws to restrain her arms, too. She had only managed to make it angrier. Sure of its victory, it slowly dug into her with its claws. Then it opened its mouth over her neck, flashing rows of long, curved teeth. It seemed to have no idea that killing her would make her disappear in a burst of anima bubbles. It was a predator, acting on pure programmed instinct. By dropping her guard she had become prey. There was no escaping it.

Abruptly, the assassin stopped fighting. Something deep inside of her shut off. Reality was settling in. Elder Tales was a game. Players died in it all of the time without serious consequences. She had gone unusually long without tasting that bitter defeat, but rationally she should not fear it. Everyone screwed up. Everyone got jumped by the wrong monster at the wrong moment. No one would judged her for appearing in the Cathedral. Since her animal captor clearly intended to go straight for her throat, it might not even hurt. So why was her heart racing so? Why did the mere prospect of losing terrify her so?

She closed her eyes, trying to calm the tempest emotions swirling in her chest while she awaited the final blow. It never came. When she opened them, she found that the big cat had turned away. It was looking at someone else. What? How? Who? Before her confusion had a chance to settle in, a scarlet haired woman appeared from nowhere… right on top of its back. Maia squirmed under the additional weight. She did not understand what was going on, but she was damned well not getting gutted now. Not while someone else could see it happen! She would never live down the shame.

The crazy girl who had decided to ride the vicious kitty wrapped her arms around its neck and tried to wrench it out of position. Like a Spanish bull enraged by the sight of red, it snapped at her as they rolled. Maia could not help but think that the situation was absurd. Her fellow adventurer’s crystal ball weapons and cloth armor betrayed that she was some kind of spellcaster. Wrestling large game was not exactly their specialty. Well, someone else’s stupidity was not her problem. Taking advantage of the chaos, she slipped away from the immediate danger. Hastily, she got back on her feet and retrieved her weapons.

Her composure restored, Maia sized up the situation. The other adventurer was now locked in combat with her attacker. She did not appear to be making much progress in the way of damage. The prideful DPS suddenly felt miffed. She was no damsel in distress. How dare someone so reckless and weak try to save her! Gripping her blades tightly, she slipped into the ABILITY stance. Without any more hesitation, she dove forward and buried the steel of her sword into their opponents’ back.This was her fight. She would not be outdone by a stranger.

”Mind your own business!” she called out, clearly annoyed. ”This one’s mine.”

[Words: 570]
[Tag: Eris]
[HP: 82%]