Treading Shallow Water [Combat/invite]

[Aila]

anyone's any
was all to her

It was pretty. It’s petit white form, but three limbs of whiteness, purer than slow, surrounded by several green appendages, swayed gently in the warm breeze, twisting its thin body from left to right, from right to left, and back. It found itself at home among its brethren, white soldiers among a field of color. They were both isolated yet united among themselves. Such a scene was truly, absolutely beautiful. She could just sit here all day admiring their appearance…


“No, I’m not here to look at flowers!”


Aila jolted herself from her flower-viewing trance, immediately getting up from her squatting position.

It was almost frightening how she had been entranced by the flowers on the side of the road. Their beauty drew her like a siren would sailors with her alluring voice and seductive temptations. If she was in a bind here, she could only shudder at the thought of what was coming ahead.


After all, her destination today was none other than the Savill Flower Grove, an abandoned flower garden now teeming with monsters. It was one of the few areas with monsters that even her low level could handle and thus a necessity for her to challenge. Though she had chosen the area for its scenery, she couldn’t help but feel regret how little progress she might accomplish there. If she were to draw an example, it would be like trying to do homework with the tele on. No matter how much you try, you’ll finish the program and release that you’ve only written your name.


So no matter what, she couldn’t allow herself to get distracted by the oh so brilliant plants that littered the expanding region. She desperately needed to raise her level, so all she could do was train here and gain as much exp as she could. Also, it wouldn’t help to make a little gold from slaying monsters, though she had another plan in progress for making a living.


“That said I might require some company. Soloing will only take me so far.”


Wading her way through the flowery paths, Aila began to contemplate how efficiently she could actually level by herself. Considering her low level and her class, the results deemed not so well. She definitely would need someone to hunt with. However, her list of friends was briefer than an average person’s recitation of the digits of pi.


“I know, I’ll call Nanako. I’m certain she’d make a wonderful battle partner.” Aila clapped her hands, elated to remember the adventurer she had met only the other day. The Monk would definitely be a powerful asset, not to mention that she’d be happy to partake in the girl’s company. “As for anyone else, I suppose I’ll have to find someone to party with at the field. Hopefully someone will be willing to team up with me and- oh, these pink flowers are adorable.”


As Aila abandoned her train of thought to pounce over to the flowerbed once again, it became clear that it would be a long, grueling day.

---

Notes: I'm bad at starting thread. ;w;
Word Count: 509
Tags: Galen , Nanako


[Italics= English; Underline = German, Bold = Italian, Nothing = Japanese)

by sixsmith.

[Galen]

Galen took a deep, nervous breath as he found himself walking barefoot through the path towards the flower grove. 'This certainly wasn't going to plan...' He thought to himself as he looked down at his own hands. He had always had good timing with video games, and always wanted to try something 'different', to 'break the meta'. He noticed how valuable the Shaman's shields were, and thought that, if well timed, he could end up making peoples' lives last longer than basic healers. The idea was to do some basic grinding, and find a small party that he could display his skills with, and work his way up. That was the plan. And the plan has since fallen apart. It relied heavily on him playing a character, when "Jason" wasn't a part of the picture. Galen could talk with people, or complete strangers. Galen could be social.

Jason couldn't. Now that he was in the game, things were completely different. He couldn't quite 'make friends' like a character would. This was problematic, because statistically, the Shaman was seriously held back in Solo Combat. Luckily, he had been allowed to re-choose his abilities at the end of the tutorial, where he had left off, causing him to shift from a strictly support role, to a solo build. But things would still be problematic. Leveling would be slow, because he would have to regularly fight monsters well below his level. At least the first levels should be easy... thats how it was designed, right?

"Alright, you can do this... You are Galen, the forest shaman." he said, clenching his fists as he tried to put some Morale upon himself. Trying to, but not very much succeeding. "Maybe things will get easier at a higher level... Maybe my plan can still work, I just need a different start?" He thought out loud to himself as he bit his lip. Being lost in thought, he didn't notice the female on the same road up until he nearly crashed into her. He came to such a hard stop that he almost collapsed upon himself.

"S-sorry! I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention!" He would say, immediately jumping to taking the blame for the action. He went from thinking he was alone, to being in a social interaction fast enough to give him whiplash. But he couldn't face the humiliation of just turning and running away, that would be even worse. 'What do I do, what do I do?' The thought would play over and over in the back of his head, almost acting like ambiance to the rest of his thoughts. He tried to figure out something to say, something to make it less awkward. "Are you, uhm... Headed to the uh... Uhm... whats it called..." Another pause as he tried to remember the location he was about to walk to. "Grove?" He wasn't sure that was correct, but it sounded close enough, right?

[Aila]

anyone's any
was all to her

It was only seconds ago that Aila had been happily observing the flowers, when someone nearly ran over her, only another step away from toppling her fragile body over. Evidently, flower-gazing proved a hazardous activity as its ability to entrance her nearly turned bad very quickly. She hadn’t even noticed that someone else was on the road, much less how dangerously close he came. Finally, before impact, she managed to catch onto the sound of his footsteps approaching just in time to leap back in both shock and a sense of self-preservation, falling onto her bum.


“Kyaaa!” She screeched from shock. Though the sudden encounter was less than pleasant, she couldn’t help but mentally congratulate herself on screaming like a young, frightened girl.


“Nice work, Aila.”


“Thank you, sir.”


She then proceeded to mentally high five herself after her little imaginary skit.


More importantly, after having fallen, she looked up to find a young-ish man standing above her, somewhat stumbling from their near collision. He was a somewhat tall, somewhat unkempt man wearing a cloth robe armor that resembled hers but clearly indicated him as a shaman. From the starter staff in his hands, it was easy to surmise that they were of similar levels.


“Sorry! I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention!” The Shaman quickly apologized, while showing clear signs of panic on his face.


“Oh no, it’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention to the road either.” Aila replied, picking herself up from the ground and brushing off the dirt from the fall.


“Are you, uhm… Headed to the uh… uhm… whats it called… Grove?” He suddenly followed with an abrupt question which almost threw Aila off guard. To her, it came out of nowhere, a sudden personal question without even a greeting to start with.


“Y-yes. I am headed towards the Saville Flower Grove. I’ll be hunting for monsters there.” She soon responded after a brief awkward pause. Better to just answer the question politely and be on her way…


Wait! Isn’t this exactly what she wanted: a battle companion? Though, he seemed a bit awkward, his level matched up well with her own. Perhaps, she should talk to him a bit more to see if he would be interested in a little grinding.


“Pardon me if I’m making a wrong assumption, but I guess that you are also headed towards there. May I ask for what purpose? Grinding, as well?”


She followed her inquiry with a beaming smile, the almighty conversation supplement.

---

Notes: Sorry for the delay. I'm a slow writer >_<
Word Count: 414
Wo


[Italics= English; Underline = German, Bold = Italian, Nothing = Japanese)

by sixsmith.

[Galen]

A very forced smile would be pronounced upon his face when she answered him. The smile looked off, over exaggerated for sure, as he could feel his heart thumping against his chest, hard enough that he half expected it to be visible. But, she would answer his question, and follow up with one. Then he realized how he had completely skipped a step on the social ladder with the greetings and already felt himself mentally fumbling. Another long pause as he tried to figure out how to salvage the situation was held before he would suddenly bow, something that was much more polite than his dirty, unkempt appearance seemed able to do.

"Er, Yes! I was hoping I might be able to boost a few levels, so I might be a little less, uhm... So I might be more capable." He said, appearing to fumble over his own words as if even this interaction overwhelmed him. However, he could tell by her equipment he was probably a healer class like himself, which... might prove problematic. If there was no real damage output, how could they fight? But at the same time, these were low level monsters. By no means were they defenseless like in the tutorial, but game designers would be bad designers if they made level one enemies impossible to fight by any class. For all intensive purposes, they should be able to be solo'd by even the most supportive of classes. But that was back when this was a game.

Admittedly, her smile had helped calm him down a significant amount. He at least felt like she was able to talk to her, which was leaps and bounds over normal. "Oh, right, I'm... Galen, by the way." He would almost blurt out, suddenly, re-remembering that he hadn't introduced himself yet. "I went with the Shaman class, but that was when I expected to be playing a game..." He admitted, somehow thinking that would make the conversation less awkward. He turned his gaze away from her to look further down the path, as he tried to think of something else to say. He could see where the zone-change portal was, so they weren't very far off.

"I can tell we're probably both support classes, which means we work better in a group than we do alone... Would it be rude of me to ask if we were to grind together?" Did he really just say that? Make the opening move to a social interaction? No no... she initiated it with questioning why he was there. If He didn't ask, she would have, this was just skipping the middle man... if anything, it was shortening the awkward conversation... right? He didn't say anything else afterword, but he had a big forced smile on his face, while his eyes looked like they had almost pure terror hiding. Of course, yes or no, it would make things easier, but he was in a solid state of panic between now and then.

[Aila]

anyone's any
was all to her

In response to her own sunny smile, the Shaman seemed to put out an obviously fake smile. His nervousness became clear as the pause between her words and his response grew bigger. His exaggerated emotions, his panicked look, and overall awkwardness pointed towards his inner turmoil. Honestly, the whole scene was just… just…


“So cute!”


Aila couldn’t help but giggle to herself as she watched the fumbling man’s nervous actions. She felt a bit guilty about laughing at another person’s social miscomings, especially as she had been a target of teasing herself back in the real world, but he was just so cute. That nervous pauses between his movements, which exhibited a lack of social grace, reminded her of a little cat, rolling around the floor. Though, she wasn’t sure how she should feel about calling a man, who looked older than her, cute.


"Er, Yes! I was hoping I might be able to boost a few levels, so I might be a little less, uhm... So I might be more capable. Oh, right, I'm... Galen, by the way. I went with the Shaman class, but that was when I expected to be playing a game..."



"I can tell we're probably both support classes, which means we work better in a group than we do alone... Would it be rude of me to ask if we were to grind together?"

Ah, as she was observing his flustered expressions with an all too happy grin, he invited her to party with him. Naturally, that was her intention to begin with so there was no doubt she would accept.


“No, of course not. I would be elated to accept your humble invitation.”


And there it was, she had gained her much needed partner. Clearly, her new companion and acquaintance lacked social elegance so it was up to her to lead him through the conversations that would follow.


“By the way, my name is Aila. Pleasure to party with you. Shall we go?”

---

Notes:


[Italics= English; Underline = German, Bold = Italian, Nothing = Japanese)

by sixsmith.

[Galen]

"It is very good to meet you, Aila."The forcefulness of his smile seemed to fade, which was an interesting sight to describe, as it isn't to say that he was frowning, or smiling less, just that as much force wasn't needed, as the smile was a slight bit more genuine. That isn't to say that he was cured of his introvert-ism, just that he was more comfortable around her than previously. Of course, the small giggle that left her lips was... different. She was laughing, but at least it didn't feel like she was laughing directly at him, or at least, in a negative connotation. Still, he was nervous about the giggle, and what it was actually about. He payed close attention to it, and would look for more things like that in the future, but until then, he at least had a partner.

Of course, with all the mental focusing, he had almost completely missed her comment, causing him to almost have to take a double take to remember her saying something. "Hm? OH, right right, yes, lets!" He said, speaking a bit too quickly in the process as he would tap on his Heads Up Display to accept her Party invite. It wasn't that much further of a walk, so he wasn't sure if it would be appropriate to speak in order to make the walk seem less long, or if silent preparation would be appropriate. And, of course, if talking was the appropriate response, would he be able to gather the courage to actually speak for the small talk in time for it to even be relevant?

By the time he had even finished with the thought process, they were already in the zone transition, where they would have to start encountering monsters. "These places always seem bigger on the inside... but then again, its basically a pocket dimension, given that this still is technically a game, I suppose..." He found himself saying to himself. The words merely came out as a verbal thought, so Aila would actually get a moment to hear him speak when he wasn't so fearful... whatever that was worth. Truth be told, Galen wasn't even aware that he had spoken anything at all. His mind is often cluttered with many thoughts going on at once that when he needs to make a coherent thought, the cluttered thoughts break it up. As a result, he sometimes needs to give it more 'strength' by putting a media to it, in this case, a verbal one.

Meanwhile, he would hold his staff in both hands as he examined the opening area. He could see some monsters hopping around, mostly minding their own business, which was nice. much easier to take things slow when the monsters were cooperative. Of course, he knew this wouldn't always be the case, but being a dedicated support class with no significant focus on combat meant that he had a hard start, even with a party, so monsters making it easier was very appreciated.

[Nanako]

Her steps were fast and heavy, quick in their way; with loads of green everywhere, the trees were passing by faster than one could ever imagine, as if time itself was slow. Her blood and body in constant fever and adrenaline couldn't stop, no matter what. Because... Her enemies wouldn't, no matter what. And they were charging mad at the poor monk. She quickly kicked a tree to gather impulse and jump once again; only to fail miserably at it and hit the ground with full force. With a quick roll and a gigantic anger vein on her forehead, Nanako continued running along her path fleeing from her enemies. The monk then could finally see a bright light in the end of the amount of heavy forestry; it was a field!  

She finally reached her possible safe heaven with much more space to deal with her enemies. The monk turned, quickly moving a long enough distance to evade and see her enemy charge towards the wind like a cannonball; it was a pittered boar. A big one. Within that split second Nanako assaulted the beast with a frontal kick on the side of its head, launching it to the ground; to her dismay, a second boar jumed out of the dense forest, hitting the girl with full force, launching her to the ground. With a short groan she rolled amidst the ground full of flowers and stood up, spotting another pittered boar coming towards her. By cupping her hands and focusing her mana within both knuckles, she striked the air, launching the densely concentrated ball of mana, distorting the boar's path and bringing it down. It soon stood up, and from the bushes in it's sides, two baby pittered boars emerged. The other two previous adult boars gathered close to the latter, making up a total of five boars, three adults, and two babies. 

Goosebumps took control over the shaking body of the Monk. She gulped down her thoughts on what on earth would she do to deal with that situation; Would that be really the first time nanako would die? She knew that someone else was there at the moment, but one single slip could mean death in a situation like that. The boars scratched the ground; the adults charged first, followed shortly by the babies. 

- COME! I'LL BREAK YOU ALL REAL GOOD! - Flexing both her legs to equal levels, extending her right arm forward and raising her left arm slightly backwards, she clenched her fists, assuming Ji'in, a karate stance. 

The challenge is set! Who is going to win!?

WC: 433
Tags: Aila Galen

[Aila]

With the confirmation that the two were now happily partnered, Aila joyfully made her way down the road towards the grove. It came to her attention after a while that their walking paces were quite different, probably due to the difference in their heights. She struggled to keep up with the taller, faster man, deliberately stretching out her legs to go further with each step. Naturally, she allowed none of this struggle to show on her face, moving with a calm, intellectual elegance that one would expect in a ball room. There was no point in giving the man anything else to worry about, so she kept the matter of their paces a tight secret.


Galen was silent, deep in thought as far as she knew. As they walked along the road, Aila would feign brushing her long, chestnut hair behind her ear to steal a glance at the young man who walked beside her. She noticed his face start to melt, his stiff expressions just slightly being more natural. In all honesty, she was interested in the man. Not just as a party member nor as a cute guy, she was interested in him as a person. Thrust into another world, there was no-one here that she knew from her past life, so she held a hidden desire to really know somebody. With the chaos and action that followed the Apocolypse, she never really got the chance to have a moment of quiet and just learn more about someone else. So the silent stroll through the flowery path was a much appreciated time for her.


The peaceful period soon ended though, as they passed into the monster-ridden zone. It was gorgeous scenery, a garden filled with flowers, trees and other plants. Had the little silhouettes of monsters flittering in the bush or the awkward Shaman beside her not exist, she probably wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to run up and spend all day gazing at the flowerbeds.


"These places always seem bigger on the inside... but then again, its basically a pocket dimension, given that this still is technically a game, I suppose..."


A little side comment escaped the Shaman’s mouth that almost sounded… natural. Without fear or nervousness, the quick aside caught Aila’s attention, a worthy feat considering she was looking at flowers. Perhaps out of respect for his surprising nonchalance, she immediately decided to respond casually.


“I don’t know. I actually think they seem small, but maybe that’s just because everything is half scale…”


Her response, though, was soon marred by a glimpse of what seemed to someone else in the area. It wouldn’t be surprising really to see another adventurer out here, fighting a few monsters. However, what was alarming was the numbers. It was five boars against one adventurer, and the human’s armory didn’t look especially impressive. In fact, she felt like she had seen that armor before… and that human.


“Nanako!?” Her face gave way to surprise, seeing her acquaintance in an almost certain death situation. She spoke out loud, unable to hide her alarm.


Watching the Monk ready herself against the pittered boars, Aila remembered her new found companion standing beside her.


“Um… Galen. This might be a sudden but how do you feel about saving others?”


Notes: Screw templates
WC: 546

[Galen]

By the time Aila would ask him, he would look rather... different. He was shy, and he was always afraid of public ridicule over even the smallest of things. One time when he was in middle school, and he transferred class in the middle of the day due to a hiccup in the scheduling. It took him ten minutes to gather the courage to open the door to the new classroom, for fear of everyone staring at him. But this is a life he has lived, one that was rather alone, and afraid of his surroundings. As a result, though, he always did what he could to help others, even at the expense of himself.

While his race as a Wolf Hair is probably easy to hide when his ears are hidden by his hair, they were quite visible as he had both hands up, eyes a pure yellow as he waited for the right moment. Damage Interception![/i] He would call out, creating a barrier between the Monk and the boars. One of the appeals the Shaman class had for him was that his spells were relatively short in cast time, allowing for more clutch rescues. Not to mention that the shields were typically stronger than heals, though they had a timed duration, unlike heals. Not to say one is better than the other, they just both have their strengths and weaknesses.

"That shield won't last long against that many boars, even if they are level one, re-position yourself!" He yelled out as he quickly took stock of his surroundings. The only other enemy in the area was a small slime that was bouncing around, curious to the commotion. An idea occurred to him as he looked back to the fight, and then towards the dull green slime. Immediately he would drop down on one knee to the curious blob attracted to the usage of mana, as he would pet it, or at least, pet it as much as he could. While little was know about why healthy green slimes turn dull, it is suffice to say they are weaker than regular ones. These two aspects in mind, he thought he would try his hand at his Animal Tamer skill, and see if they could even out the numbers. He held up his free hand, careful not to startle the slime, as he would take a second to cast his spell Prayer of Recovery On the slime. The idea was that the usage of a positive spell on it might help sway its opinion of him. He selected the skill from his subclass menu, and desperately hoped his gamble wouldn't turn against him.

It stared at him for a second, before bouncing up and down. "Oh, thank god that worked..." He muttered to himself in relief. A three on five were the current odds. He could have either made it a three on six, or a four on five... But the gamble paid off as he would point towards the boars, and watching it bounce towards them.


Notes: I hope I'm doing the Animal Trainer skill properly...

[Nanako]

The wind started to blow strong, the monk feeling saved from a pinch in that exact moment; for her relief, not only did she heard the voice of someone she certainly knew, Aila's, but someone else as well. With a quick leap to the right side of the summoned barrier followed by another one to take a medium distance from the monsters, she gathered mana and concentrated it in her hands, cuping both together and assaulting the air with both of them, generating a concentrated mass of mana that flew towards one pittered boar and the baby beside it. With the successful hit, she jumped to their direction, linking her first atack to another one.

- Aura Kick! - for a split second, a shining effect covered her foot, as she striked it on the larger pittered boar. Thanks to her acrobat skill that increased one's jump height, the attack was somewhat powerful enough to knock it down, but not kill it. 

The baby rushed and leaped in an attempt to attack nanako; with her eyesight concentrated on both, the monk reacted with a high kneekick to block the incoming attack, losing some HP in the proccess. While the small beast was airborne, she quickly delivered an attack with her elbow to the left side of its head, followed by a blow with the back of the hand to it's right side of the head, ending with an open palm strike to the forehead, launching the baby to the ground with great force. 

Unfortunately and to her surprise, the pittered boar stood up and charged unnoticed. With that said, the monk received a powerful assault, launching her to the air. With a short groan she mannouvered her body on the air and landed standing still; there wasn't time to rest, since both charged once again, this time with another baby boar to help, making it even harder for Nanako. She wasn't used to evade many times like that when fighting in the real world. With the current battle setting, things were hard. Nanako was fighting both baby boars, and one adult, while the other two adults were taking their time on the barrier and consecutively, the slime tamed by the other person currently helping her. She inhaled a great quantity of air, trying her best to get used to the way of fighting while avoiding hits. Charging at her again, the first to close in was the adult boar, thanks to it's developed muscles and strong legs. With a small leap to the side, she evaded the attack and side-kicked the boar in a counter attack. Cupping both hands together and concentrating Mana in her fists she assaulted the air in the direction of the charging babies, breaking the charge formation of both.

While both baby boars were almost done for, the Pittered boars had around half of it's health bar left. Finally with a moment to interact with those supporting her, she shouted.

- We're following any plans!? Who should I attack first?! - that was all, as she had to concentrate on not getting hit anymore by the babies or the adult boar. 

Nanako's HP was in its 65%, and her mana around 60%.

WC: 536
Tags: Aila Galen

[Aila]

Aila watched in awe as Galen immediately jumped into action, shielding Nanako as well as recruiting a nearby slime to help their cause. Meanwhile, she saw Nanako struggle to fend off the attacking boar, barely saved by the quick help from Galen. Observing them, she herself gathered her resolve to fight.


“Alright, Aila. You can do this.” She thought to herself as she closed her eyes to prepare herself and took a deep breath. Her muscles instantly relaxed but her mind grew alert. Within an instant, she forged her thoughts into a laser beam, full attention towards a single objective. Her eyes opened, and she instantly took in everything she saw.


Needless to say, Aila had basically zero battle experience. Although she was forced to practice martial arts in the real world, Ju-Jitsu to be precise, she’d never been in an actual battle. Thus, lacking any sort of actual fighting experience, knowledge or tactics, it became clear that she’d have to rely on some other source of reasoning to decide what to do in a fight. In other words, she was just gonna move by instinct.


“Okay, I need to help Nanako.” With that thought in mind, Aila swiftly dashed away from Galen to move closer to the damaged Monk. Her feet pounded on the road beneath her before she took a large leap to make it over a flowerbed in her way. As she ran towards all the chaos, her mind began to think of a strategy.


“First of all, I should heal Nanako since she looks damaged. After that, maybe I should attack one of the boars. But which one…”


A quick glance over the battlefield let her know the positions of each of the aggressive monsters. Three of the boars, one big and two small, were currently in combat with Nanako. The other two had been stalled by Galen’s well time shield but were very likely to be back in action soon. In this situation, Aila had two options: Help Nanako with the three boars or stall/handle the other two boars. Normally, as a support and healer, her job would be to help her allies as much as she could. However, in terms of the party, she was less of a support than Galen as her Druid class had more offensive potential than his Shaman class did. So it might be better to delegate the task of distracting the other boars with her more all-rounder potential, and leave the defeat of the other boars to her peers. Of course, this strategy heavily depended on how fast the other two could take out the three boars. If she was left hanging too long, the boars would undoubtedly defeat her without much effort. It all came down to if she trusted the others enough… Wait, she was already here? She needed to make a decision quickly.


Pressed on time, only a few steps away from the middle of the battle field, Aila panicked. She looked back and forth from the important factors: Nanako, the boars and even the slime. However, when she glanced back at Galen, she noticed something different about him. What was a nervous, awkward guy only moments ago was now something that seemed much more different. His face lacked hesitation and his muscles lacked stiffness. He looked… capable.


With that, Aila’s decision was made.


“Heartbeat Healing!” She yelled out and pointed her wand at Nanako. A green aura covered the Monk and began to slowly refill her lifebar. It was gradual but powerful, so Aila was certain it would be effective. However, she didn’t stop to look at the effects and instead turned from Nanako and stood midway between her and the other two boars.


“Nanako, Galen. Can you please defeat those other boars as hastily as possible? I’ll stall these two.” She declared and lifted her wand at the two adult boars, like a rapier ready to pierce her foes. Staring down the aggressive beasts, she couldn’t help but feel fear, yet her resolve didn’t waver. “Come. I’ll be your opponent.”



WC: 676
Notes: Sorry, if I messed up the plan.

[Galen]

Galen was relieved when the Monk was able to reposition, and despite his own heals being much less powerful, he was sure that they would at least assist in providing what was needed between the heartbeat healing cooldowns. But now he was exactly where he needed to be, he had three entities between him and the opponents, with zero aggro gathered on him. He was able to wait a few seconds, and then was left with a difficult decision: He could shield the Monk, taking on three boars, which would allow the heartbeat healing to apply its full effect, rather than trying to compete with the DPS of the boars, or he could shield Aila, who was now off-tanking, and used her primary healing spell on nanako. He had no clue as to the other spells that Aila had, if she had more healing, or more offensive ones. He simply did not know what she chose. Much like how Aila had to make a choice, so did he.

Most people always attempt to blitz a boss to minimize fighting the minions, and while that is quite an effective strategy, they had no effective blitz options, and these smaller problems were already spawned and causing damage. "Do what you can to take out the little ones first. They'll have a higher DPS than the big ones if left alone!" He called out as he held up his hand, first casting his barrier on Aila, it having just came off cooldown. She was stalling, so she needed to stall as much as possible, turning and taking advantage of his low cast times, to add a small little heal to Nanako, to supplement the Healing over time. It wasn't much, but he could cast it multiple times, at least four times, inbetween each casting of Heartbeat Healing. While his heals weren't as strong as hers, his was more modular, and could spread the healing around easier than she could. This was one of the reasons why he liked the Shaman class. They say it can't turn around a fight, but in his opinion, if it is played properly, the fight will never get to the point it needs turned around.

Meanwhile, the small slime recruited to the fight bounced over next to nanako, and the first thing it would do was jump on one of the small boars. The slime only had basic attacks, since more advanced ones would be difficult for young parties to deal with, and they weren't the bulkiest creatures out there, but it did succeed in at least drawing aggro from the monk, so the monk was only dealing with a two on one, instead of three. Judging from what he could guess of the stats, he figured that it would be a slow battle between the slime and the young boar, which was good. his slime would most likely be defeated, but it wasn't much of a matter, as long as the whole party survived.

It was to be said, though that most of what Galen was relying on was what he knew of basic war strategy, playing other games. This was entirely different and for all he knew he may very well get everything screwed up, and them all killed because of making a very poor tactical decision. Truth be told, this wasn't a social interaction to him, which may be why he seemed so different, and he didn't even notice the transition himself. This was them needing to succeed, or die, in the most literal of senses. If he had stopped and thought about it, he might have not been speaking so much, but what he saw was someone vastly outnumbered, and in need of assistance. The one thing that Galen would ask for was assistance, even if it forced social interaction on him, because in the end, he needed help. There had been times before he had needed that kind of help, being bullied in school, where people just walked away and didn't help him when they easily could have stopped the one sided fight... He knew what kind of hurt that was, and the kind of distrust it can cause, and even if it would mean he had to hurt himself in the process, he wouldn't let anyone else get hurt if he could do something about it. Which was moderately humorous from the outside looking in, because that would end with him helping someone, and then making every possible effort to get the hell out of dodge so he didn't have to talk with a complete stranger. Galen was an odd one, for sure, but right now, he needed to help someone, and that was his primary focus.

Note: Final word count 787

[Nanako]

Her blood was in a constant fever. The thrill of fighting started to take over the monk little by little, but she had to restrain herself. Fighting like that, no rules, no judges, no need to aim for being the best at any moment... It just felt great. Nothing like that ever happened in her days of a karateka before on the real world. She grinned like n idiot, but soon returned to her serious expression. The heals received slowly gave her back some energy, and right at the exact moment the shaman finished talking to her Nanako jumped to the air, higher than a common jump as an acrobat. 

- Aura Kick! - taking advantage of the fact that the slime aggroed one of the baby boarss and the two other boars were distracted by Aila, she moved as soon as possible. By aiming on the baby, she landed dealing damage to both as they were close to each other. The adult boar had around 30% of its HP left on the health bar while the baby boar was gone for good. 

The adult boar stood up, huffing heavily and wheezing at the same time; looking tired thanks to the prior damage received, the creature charged in once again. However, rather than just throwing itself against the monk, it decreased the running speed and atacked in a horizontal swing with it's tusks. For the monk, that was amazing. Even simple animals like those could think on what to do rather than aimlessly keep trying the same recipe, or follow any guidelines! Imagine what the tougher ones could do! It's certainly a paradise! 

Nanako then leaped backwards to avoid the damage, squatting to get to the same height as the creature to deliver an elbow atack aiming to its head. The creature resisted, and swung it's tusks once again trying to perforate her. With a roll backwards the Monk avoided the attack and quickly kicked its jaw, standing up once finished. The Boar took a few steps back, dizzy. Cupping both hands together, Nanako charged to its direction channeling mana to her arms.  

-Aura Dragon Punch! - With this, she striked the boar with full force and at melee range. Her enemy flew in the air, disappearing in bubbles. 

She then glanced over her shoulder to check the situation between the second baby boar and the slime, and the latter was victorious. The baby boar was weakened before their fight started despite its higher stats. On the other hand, the other two boars were charging mad, this time, at Aila. Unlike the boar Nanako had beaten, both of them were of higher levels. The monk rushed to help her friend, but probably wouldn't make it in time, cursing her own selfish attitue towards the fight at that tough moment.

HP: 82% MP: 46%

WC: 469
Aila Galen

[Aila]

The sound of combat behind her back. The feel of a soft breeze gently caressing her rosy cheeks. The smell of fragrant flowers, lined throughout the area. The sight of two angry, wild boars, trampling the grass and flora beneath their feet and charging towards her at full speed. All of it registered in Aila’s mind yet she stayed focus. Although the boars looked intimidating, although she had to fight two of them alone, although her feet were shaking in place, and although she didn’t want to die, Aila stood her ground. She made her choice so she would follow it. Some little section of her mind wondered why she was so determined. Perhaps it was just a shred of masculinity in her, something that her father had desperately struggled to awaken, that had caused such resolution. Either way, she was prepared to fight.


In the few seconds it took for the boars to reach her on their way to attack Nanako, she began to think of a plan. Under her belt, she had three spells: A healing spell, a snare and a damaging spell. Her healing spell was on cooldown since she had thrown it at Nanako, so she really only had two options at the moment. Considering her objective, it became clear what her plan of action should be. The only problem was that she might have to get a little… messy for her plan to work.


As she raised her wand though, a little part of her felt like doing something fun. It was hardly the time for it, considering that if she messed up, she was likely to be slaughtered by man-hunting boars. However, her Id won and she decided to go with it anyways. After all, those cast times had to be there for something… right?


“The light that cuts through the night…” Taking her wand, she wrapped both hands around it, as if imbuing it with power, and made a pose similar to a priest praying. At the same time, she activated her spell, causing little electric sparks to gather at the tip of the wand.


“Fall from the heavens and throttle my enemies. Lightning Fall!” Finally, she raised her wand in a triumphant blaze of glory. The spell caused an orb of electricity to form and be launched into the sky. After a short a while, lightning shot out from the orb and perfectly struck one of the charging boars. The other one wasn’t safe either as the electricity soon leaped from the hurt one and struck its companion as well.


Aila was very satisfied with the results, as her plan worked and she managed to fit in a nice fun bit of roleplaying, although the chant didn’t actually affect her spell at all. Now that she had damaged them, both boars should be aggroed on her and no longer go after Nanako, thus relieving her burden. Of course, this also meant they were now ready to skewer her to bits.


Obviously angered by the electric attack, both boars ran forward, now with their eyes set on Aila. Since she had just used a spell, she was left defenseless, with no way to cast another one or dodge. In other words, she had to take the full brunt of the attack. Blunt force pounded her body and even knocked her back a few feet from pure momentum.


It hurt. It felt like getting hit by a soccer ball to the stomach. It was probably nothing compared to being attacked by an actual boar in real life, but the pain was still there and it wasn’t something Aila was too keen about. However, she didn’t have time to let the pain soak in. She needed to respond quickly or else they’d just hit her more.


She got up, as soon as she could and raised her wand once again. A quick glance at her own health bar told her that she didn’t take as much damage as she thought she had or should.


“Must’ve been Galen’s shield…”


With the thought that even as she faced off the two beasts, she was being supported, she raised her wand once more.


“Now then, for my counter attack.”


HP: 80%
MP: 70%

WC: 705

[Galen]

Galen was more than genuinely surprised when it turned out that his slime had been victorious in a fight, as he had expected it to surely lose. But that was good news all around! He took a moment to position himself closer to the fighting, but not too much to gain aggro. The battle was going about as well as he could have hoped. While damage had indeed been done all around, they were sufficiently alive, with nobody in the red. They looked like they were going to be able to win the fight! But now was no time for relaxing, a critical hit could do serious damage to any one of them. "See if you can get around behind the Boar and flank it!" They were down one boar, and all the pigletts. This meant they were three on one, odds in their favor.

Squeesh

Alright, four on one, given his slime. His eyes watched closely on his cooldowns, and he cast another of his Prayers of Restoration upon Aila. It wouldn't be much, but it should help until his spell could come off cooldown. He watched the green slime, somehow, understand his order as it bounced around, and started attacking from the boars right flank. it wasn't much damage, and at this point a well placed kick would probably stomp the slime's life out, but he wasn't too concerned, since they were all well in the green. Nobody has to die today. He thought to himself, gritting his teeth. He held his hand in front of the icon, desperately waiting for the countdown to hit zero. "Come on... four more seconds...