How a Samurai and a Summoner Meet [Private/Closed]

[blade]

Blade had decided to go on a little stroll on his horse which he had named Takeo. He had decided to choose this name because it could be translated as warrior. The reason why he had called out Takeo was because Blade wanted to get used to riding on him. Takeo was still a relatively new partner to him and Blade had never ridden a horse back in the real world. While it seemed that having the subclass of Cavalier granted you the prior knowledge of how to ride a horse, it did not dispel the anxiety that Blade held towards doing something he wasn’t used to. It didn’t exactly help that the horse that was selected to be his partner had a bit of an attitude and a somewhat rude mouth. You didn’t even need the animal communication skill to figure that one out. It was rather obvious from how willful he was and how he acted. For some reason though, it seemed that Takeo was cooperating for today as he hasn’t thrown Blade off his back unlike the last few times Blade rode him. Well, not yet anyway, Blade still thinks that Takeo would do that at some point if given the chance. “Takeo, let’s increase the speed a little.” He said to the horse who had been going at walking speed as a start. Takeo showed an expression that clearly showed he didn’t like to be ordered around but still complied. Unfortunately, he also decided to change speeds at random times, something that almost made Blade fall off multiple times. “Oy, don’t you get smart with me.” Blade said in equal irritation at what appeared to be a smirk on the horse’s face, how horses could smirk like that, Blade didn’t know. In his irritation, Blade began to pull on the reins, trying to get Takeo to stop. However, it seemed that the horse wasn’t going to go without a fight and it kept trying to throw him off in spite of his reins being pulled. In the midst of their fighting, they had failed to notice a level 3 slime coming towards them. Once they saw it though, the two of them immediately stopped fighting and were already ready to fight the new enemy. While the horse and its rider didn’t always see eye to eye, they at least agreed on one thing. ‘When the enemy is in front of you, all useless squabbles must be temporarily left behind so that we can fight like warriors. This is why Blade gave the horse his name. It was because like him, Takeo had the heart of a warrior in his veins. Blade drew his sword and Takeo got into a running stance. “Charge!” Blade shouted and Takeo charged towards the slime. Right when it seemed that they were about to collide, Blade jumped off of the horse’s back and Takeo had taken a sudden turn. “Kabuto-wari!” Blade shouted as he swung his sword down with full force. Immediately after that, he had gotten into position for the next attack. “Shunsen!” He exclaimed before following up with a horizontal slash, which along with cutting the, it cut the air and formed a cutting wave vacuum which dealt even more damage to it. At this time, Takeo had turned around and come back. Blade had jumped back on him right before the slime could successfully retaliate. “Lucky the body freeze didn’t happen this time huh?” Blade said to Takeo. The horse in response gave a sound that was as if it were saying “Don’t expect yourself to be so lucky all the time” as it turned around once more to face and charge at the slime again. With a shout, Blade swung his sword at the slime from the back of his horse to deal it some more damage. Unfortunately, using a Nodachi was not the most effective while on horseback as he had to hold it in both hands, thus limiting the reach, so he was only able to deal a small amount of damage. ‘Man, I’ve really got to make myself a spear or a bow or something so I can fight more effectively on horseback.’ He thought to himself in annoyance as Takeo had turned around and charged at the slime again. This time, Blade decided to jump into the air and stab his sword into the slime from above. He kept his sword inside the monster until its health bar was depleted and burst into bubbles of light. “I’ve got to level up fast or else I’m going to be stuck having trouble with these low level monsters.” Blade said with a bit of a sigh as Takeo came to pick him up. “Well, let’s get going. We need to get some more practice in so that we can work on our coordination.” With that, the pair went off to see what other enemies they could find.

It didn’t take long for the pair to find out where more action was. Well, they didn’t see the monsters themselves but rather other players who were apparently running away from a small horde of monsters. If it was multiple monsters, then it was all the better for practice in Blade’s opinion so they went in the opposite direction of those fleeing and went in the direction of where the monsters would be. Unfortunately, what he saw when arrived made him clench his fist in anger. He saw a girl in the middle of multiple monsters all level 5. After looking at the level of the girl which was level 1 just like him, he realized what happened. The fleeing players had decided to run past another player and let their pursuers focus on that player. Blade had heard of this tactic from his friends at school and now that he’s seen it firsthand, he couldn’t help but feel that it was a despicable and cowardly tactic to use. Despite the odds and overwhelming numbers, Blade felt that he couldn’t just sit there and do nothing and let that girl meet her end even though he was well aware that players revived. He took a deep breath and gave out a shout that rang through the area. “The Samurai Blade has arrived on the battlefield!” He exclaimed before charging into the monster with his horse. To fend off some of the monsters, he swung at them with his sword. While it didn’t do much damage, it helped clear the way a little to get to where the girl was. There was already a slime about to attack her from her blind spot. In response, Blade jumped from his horse with his sword firmly in hand. “Kabuto-wari!” Blade shouted as he swung his sword down with full force, dealing it a decent amount of damage due to the skill’s secondary effect of boosting the attack of the first hit. Immediately after that, he had gotten into position for the next attack. “Shunsen!” He exclaimed before following up with a horizontal slash, which along with cutting the, it cut the air and formed a cutting wave vacuum which dealt even more damage to it. Seeing that the monster was stunned, he turned to the girl. “Are you alright?” He asked before getting hit himself as he didn’t look in front of him but he stood his ground and kept his sword up. “In this situation, we’re just going to have to retreat.” With that he got back onto Takeo and motioned for the girl to get on as well. He noticed the girl also had a bow and arrow. “Sorry, but could you hold them off with your bow or whatever you have while we retreat? I don’t have any ranged attacks.”

Zoya

Words: 1292

[Zoya]

^-^ blade words: 1015

With a big sigh the rather short girl sat down on the ground and put her bow down infront of her. She had made a stupid mistake and decided to go out of the “Safe” area, alone. Never in the world had she ever gotten the idea of going away alone, but her stubborn mind had suddenly decided that today would be the day that she gathered all of her courage and went out. She had no clue where to go, or what to do. Fighting mobs all by herself was still a big no, unless she could find the tiniest and most innocent creature ever that wouldn’t stand a match to a low leveled summoner. “What to do.. what to do..” she muttered to herself, pulling her hands through the grass. She luckily was in an area where there was soil, so if anything would attack her she’d be able to summon a little golem to fight for her, not that a 1 meter tall golem would be able to stop something like a high leveled boar.. Other than her bow and the golem, she had no other way of defending herself. She had decided to go for a support build, even though she wasn’t sure if she’d find someone to actually support. As she was planning on going for a support build, she had also picked a carbuncle, a light beast creature, as one of her starting skills. The carbuncle was cute and had some cool abilities but was just like the golem probably not strong enough to keep higher leveled mobs away. As she was in need of company, Zoey decided to summon the little beast/light type creature, a carbuncle. She aimed both of her palms towards a spot on the grass infront of her and said “Summon Follower, Carbuncle” After two seconds a fox/rabbit hybrid creature appeared infront of her and hopped closer to her. The cute and innocent follower put a smile on Zoey’s face as it hopped even closer. Zoey carefully pet the creature on its head repeatedly, completely forgetting that she was in the middle of a field where mobs could attack her. What was supposed to make it safer for Zoey to be in the middle of a field, had actually made it even more dangerous. The carbuncle had completely distracted the brunette, making her unaware of a group of people fighting a group of mobs not so far away. Out of nowhere the group sprinted past her, making Zoey finally turn away from the carbuncle. With a confused glare she looked around and soon shot up after grabbing her bow. A group of monsters was coming right at her, they were already too close so she couldn’t run away. Zoey froze in place, falling from mob to mob. There were 3 young boars and two stupid slimes now all around her, not allowing her to flee without taking some damage. She knew she wasn’t going to make it, but wasn’t going to give up. Zoey pulled an arrow out of the quiver on her back and put the back against the string of her bow as a boar charged to her. She took a second to aim for the beast and felt incredibely as she hit the mob underneath its left eye. The arrow however didn’t deal a lot of damage as the boar was level 5.. and Zoey level 1. As now all of the mobs were coming closer to attack her, Zoey run out of the middle of the mobs so she’d have an easier time fighting. But soon got hit by a boar and slime, causing her to trip and fall on the ground. The little carbuncle who was following her closely quickly healed its summoner and started shooting beams out of the ruby core on its head towards the enemies. She soon found herself getting surrounded by the enemies again, she knew that she needed a miracle to survive. Quite ironically, that miracle happened when she heard a shout. As Zoey got up again her eyes darted around, eventually falling on a man mounting a horse, that was charging right at.. the mobs she was fighting. She was slightly shocked for a second as the man charged into a mob, but quickly focused again and took another arrow from her quiver. She fired it at a boar that seemed to be targeting the boy, it did almost nothing, but atleast made the boar target her instead of the male. Zoey fired another arrow at a boar to the right of her when multiple things happened behind her. The noises made her turn around, and she was greeted by a big slime right infront of her who was about to attack when the man who was helping her suddenly jumped off his horse and slashed at the slime. Zoey backed off and eyed the man with a slightly panicked expression when he asked her if she was alright. She nodded and opened her mouth to warn the male for the mob that was about to attack him, but it was already too late. Zoey pointed towards the male with her right hand and said “Phantasmal heal” making the carbuncle turn towards him and a bright shining star effect appear around the male that healed him after two seconds. The brunette carefully listened to the man’s words, doing exactly what she’s told. As the man motioned her to get onto the horse, she quickly jumped onto its back which was quite easy thanks to her acrobat subclass. The male then told her to hold the mobs off with her bow, which she replied to with a quick and emotionless “Sure.” Zoey pulled out another arrow and aimed at the closest boar. She pulled the string back and sent the arrow flying at the boar, who sadly got out of the way, making her miss. The girl proceeded to send arrows towards the mob, taking a small pause to desummon the carbuncle. “Thank you” she said while pro ceeding to fire arrows at the enemies. Don't give up

Made by Sifr @ THQ.

[blade]

In response to Steel’s request, the girl immediately complied as the two of them rode on Takeo away from the monsters. While keeping one eye in front of him while partially letting Takeo take over the steering and such, he watched the girl use her bow and arrow to shoot at the enemy. (He also had to hold onto the girl by the scarf and collar of her shirt to keep her from falling off the horse as she aimed) Unfortunately, she seemed to be a lousy shot at this distance. Either that or it had something to do with the fact that her bow was of really low quality as expected of a beginner’s bow. Since Blade was the type to not think badly of others, he was more willing to accept the latter idea. He was even thinking of making this girl a better bow as he was a blacksmith. While he wasn’t sure whether a bow could be made by a blacksmith as Blade usually associated them with wood, he was eager to try. Going back on topic, he watched the girl continue to fire arrows into the mob of monsters trying to chase after them. Unfortunately they for the most part missed and even for the ones that did hit, they didn’t do all that much. They were lucky that a horse could outrun such slow monsters. “No worries, any decent person would help someone in trouble like that. By the way, you can stop firing arrows now, these monsters are primarily territorial so if its targets go out of range, they will stop pursuing. It’s best not to waste your arrows anyway.” He said just as the girl sitting behind him desummoned her contracted creature. After another minute or two, it seemed that what Blade was saying was correct and the monsters decided that the chase wasn’t worth it and went back to their own business. Seeing this, Blade pulled on the reins with his free hand and Takeo soon slowed down to a stop. “Nice work, Takeo.” Steel said to his horse companion. In response, Takeo just gave him a look that said ‘Nice going, now you’ve got me all tired. Get off of me, you two are heavy.’

“Well you’re still not very friendly are you?” Blade said in response to the look Takeo gave him as he let go of the girl’s shirt collar and scarf before getting off. He then offered a hand to the girl to help her down from the horse. After helping the girl down, thus freeing the horse from the weight, Takeo immediately ran off to who knows where. “Well, the unfriendly horse you just saw run off was Takeo, my rude mouthed but reliable in battle steed.” He said as he turned to face the girl. “Anyway, my name is Blade and I’m a Samurai, a level 1 just like you. What’s your name?” He said this in a warm and friendly tone, almost acting as if he didn’t just recklessly charge into a horde of enemies that were much stronger than himself and get himself hurt. “Although the way we first met was rather unusual and dangerous, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He held out his hand for a handshake. “Anyway, are you alright? You got hit a few times earlier didn’t you?” He asked although he himself took more damage from that fight, or rather retreat, than the girl in front of him. This was apparent in how he lost more health. It was in his nature to think of others before himself although that did lead to his recklessness which made those close to him worry. But to him, as long as whomever or whatever he was protecting was safe, he felt that it was fine.

Words: 634
Zoya

[Zoya]

^-^ blade words: 746

Almost every arrow that she fired flew right past the group of enemies. It was quite disappointing that she was having a hard time hitting at least one of the five that were attacking them. Not that hitting or not really mattered, as they did close to no damage to the level 5 mobs, the arrows didn’t even make them stop running or at least slow them down a little. “I should probably train some more or switch to a different weapon, maybe a gun would be easier..” she thought to herself, knowing that she’d have to train a lot to get good with the large longbow she was using right now. After saying thank you to the carbuncle before desummoning it the man that had just saved her responded.. probably thinking it was meant for him. Zoey decided not to tell him it was meant for the carbuncle as he definitely helped her better than her follower. She did however listen to the male telling her that the mobs would stop following them after a bit and that she could stop firing. The brunette was actually about to fire another arrow when the man told her she could stop, however put the arrow back in the quiver but still kept an eye on the monsters running after them. “Are you sure they’ll stop coming after us?” she mumbled, wanting to know if the man was 100% sure that these mobs would stop. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the man who had just saved her life, but if the monsters kept following them the horse they were riding could possibly get tired and stop. They could of course look for other adventurers and run past them, so the mobs could attack them. But that would make them just as bad as the idiots that had done that to her so Zoey quickly put that plan aside. When 2 minutes passed the man’s words were proved to be true since the mobs went back to minding their own business. The male then stopped the horse before complimenting it, which the creature had really deserved. It had saved the two and probably did the most work as it was the one who got them out of the monster’s aggro zone after all. She was glad that the two had saved her, and this did mean that she owed them one. Zoey would probably offer her assistance to the man in the future when needed, and would probably buy something for the horse.. She was a little confused when the man told the horse that he still wasn’t really friendly, she had probably missed the action the horse made that made the man say that. When the man let go of her scarf and shirt collar Zoey adjusted the scarf slightly to make it more comfortable and grabbed the man’s hand as she hopped off of the horse’s back with a light smile. She grinned as a reaction to the man who was introducing his horse as unfriendly but reliable, which was apparently amusing for the brunette. Zoey eyed the man when he proceeded to talk, this time introducing himself instead of the horse. She liked the man’s name as it kind of fitted with his class, but wasn’t sure if this was his real name. He then asked her about her name to which she replied in a gentle and friendly tone. “Well my username is Zoya, but you can call me Zoey.” Zoey pushed her hand through the gap between the wood and the string of her bow, pulling the weapon up over her shoulder and making the string of the bow face forward. She then carefully grabbed the man’s hand, saying “It’s nice to meet you too” while looking at him. As she let go of the hand she replied again to the male asking if she was alright. ”Uhm.. I’m good, well.. thanks to you I am.” Zoey took a small step back and bowed slightly. “Again, thank you for saving me. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to survive.” she said, still smiling slightly. After a bit Zoey looked around, searching for a place to go. She wasn’t really sure where to go now.. It depended on what Blade was planning to do. If he’d go his own way Zoey would make her way make to the town as soon as possible, but if he’d want to stay together she’d just follow him. Don't give up

Made by Sifr @ THQ.

[blade]

“Hmm, Zoey huh? Is that your real name?” Steel inquired. “If that’s the case, you can call me Tatsuya, that’s my real name. Well, whichever you want.” As he was a relative newcomer in terms of MMORPG gaming, as well as gaming in general, he wasn’t completely aware of the fact that normally, one does not reveal their real name to someone they just met in an online game. Well, this wasn’t really much of a game anymore as it had turned into their reality so he wouldn’t have paid much attention to it anyway. He also just had the feeling that Zoey was her real name. It was then that he felt that his real name didn’t completely match with his appearance. Well, he half felt that. The reason was that his current appearance which was made for him by his roommate back in the real world was a mix of both European and Japanese features. The structural shape of his face resembled more of a Japanese person while his skin complexion and eye color resembled Europeans. His silver or white hair color made him look like a main character or a prince character of a fantasy series. It just seemed to him that a Japanese name suited and at the same time, did not suit this unusual appearance that still somehow worked.

Moving on from the random thought that crossed Blade/Tatsuya’s mind, a thought that only went through his mind for a second or two before Zoey had said thanks once again, not knowing that the first time was actually directed towards the summoned creature. She was even bowing a little which put Steel off inwardly although he didn’t really show it on his face. He was used to mutually bowing to an opponent during kendo matches and other such and he was used to bowing towards other people. But due to the very rare times he was bowed to, he wasn’t exactly used to it. “As I said earlier, I just did whatever a decent person should do. Besides, I think Takeo did more of the work, carrying us out of harm’s way. All I did was get him to follow my reckless whim of charging into the horde of monsters of a higher level than us. I have you to thank as well. When saving another person is involved, I don’t really think before doing anything and I didn’t have any plan when I charged in there to try and save you. Because of your support, you were able to at least slow down the monsters even if by a little bit and we were able to get out of there in one piece.” He said this with a sheepish smile. This wasn’t just him acting humble, he truly thought that he didn’t do anything that was worth praising. In his eyes, he felt that he only made a loud noise to announce his presence and got Takeo to charge in despite the extremely dangerous situation.

It was then he decided to look around as he wanted to see whether he knew how to get back to town from here. Zoey seemed to be doing the same thing although she could have just let her eyes be wandering for all he knew. “Say, do you happen to know where we are? While we were riding on Takeo, all of my focus was on making sure there weren’t any enemies in front of us and on you to make sure you didn’t fall off although I was also watching you to see how you would do.” He said honestly. “Because of that, I wasn’t able to keep track of where we were going. I don’t even have a map. I guess that was pretty stupid of me to do, just charging in without thinking at all.” He then began to analyze the area a little. It seemed sparse in terms of monsters which meant that it was likely for at least slightly more powerful monsters to be here. “Well, for starters, maybe we should stick together to get back to town. There’s the possibility of slightly stronger monsters in this area so it’d be pretty dumb to go alone with our levels.” He then opened his menu and searched around for the party request button. As he was a complete newb in terms of gaming, he had to search for a bit before getting to what he needed. After finding the button(s) he had to press, he sent a party request to Zoey. “I’ll be in your care then. To be honest, this is the first time I’ve worked with someone else. So far, I’ve been by myself in this world if you don’t count Takeo. I look forward to this experience.” He said with a smile.

Words: 800
Zoya

[Zoya]

Sorry for the late reply ;3; blade words: 892

Zoey nodded “It is, I don’t care if you call me Zoya though if that’s easier for you or something.” she replied. “Okay, I’ll call you Tatsuya then.” Zoey smiled slightly. The name made her curious to the boy’s nationality as it didn’t seem to be European. To find out she simply asked him in a gentle tone, “Where are you from? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” The brunette eyed him, waiting for him to answer. For Zoey, people that aren’t from Europe are a big deal. Even though she has always wanted to, she has never been to any country outside of Europe. The only countries she has ever seen are The Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium and England. Zoey always wondered why her father refused to go on vacation with her to a country outside of Europe, even though it was probably one of her biggest dreams. Because she isn’t able to go out of Europe, people that live in other continents are one of the few things that can actually tell her how it is to live in for example; New York. Of course the internet can show pictures and people can write things about their country on it, but it just doesn’t feel … good enough. If Tatsuya would tell her that he’s from a country that isn’t located in Europe, Zoey would become quite excited. After saying thank you to the male who had got her out of a bad situation, the man told her the same as he did before when she said thank you to her carbuncle, but also said that his horse had done most of the work. He also thanked her, which confused her a little as she had done almost nothing useful. Yeah, she had fired quite a few arrows, but about 80% missed. Her small carbuncle had probably done more than her, it had at least healed Tatsuya. “Still, I really appreciate what you did. Most people that I’ve seen so far seem to only care about themselves.. So I didn’t think anyone would come to help me when those- not so nice players made the mobs target me.” she almost called the players that had ran past her to make the mobs target her a very rude word, but the girl stopped herself because she didn’t think Tatsuya would appreciate her cussing. “Plus, even though Takeo was the one that got us out of there, you were the one that decided to help me. And there is no reason to thank me really, The only useful thing I did was order my carbuncle to heal you, my arrows weren’t that useful.” she chuckled at her own words, knowing how idiotic she must’ve looked back then. She was actually doing her best and was really focused, but she still ended up missing a load of arrows. Zoey was definitely going to train in the future so she could actually hit things. “I have no clue, all I know is that we came from that way.” she pointed back at the way they came from. Even though she had planned to go back to the town if the two would split up, she hadn’t really remembered the way she had walked. “I didn’t really pay attention to how I even ended up in Windsor Greatwood, I was too busy with avoiding slimes and rabbits.” Zoey face palmed a few seconds after she told Tatsuya she hadn’t paid attention to how she got in Windsor Greatwood. Zoey had a habit of sometimes getting a little too comfortable, and then starting to say rather embarrassing or personal things. She right now probably looked like a coward, which wasn’t exactly her goal. Yes, she was a little scared of the rabbits, she was scared for about every moving thing in Elder tale as almost everything could probably kill her. It seemed that the humiliation of her own words hadn’t been enough. Tatsuya told her that he had been watching her while she was shooting, meaning that he had seen her miss most of the time though she was really doing her best. Zoey knew that he was busy before with keeping her on the horse, but hadn’t noticed he was actually looking at her while she was firing at the mobs that were chasing them. “Ha.. So you actually saw me miss, constantly..” Zoey smiled awkwardly as she proceeded to look around for any clues to how the two would get back to a safe area. She soon relaxed again and looked back at Tatsuya as he called his rather heroic action stupid. “I wouldn’t call it stupid, It was heroic. Besides, I should’ve paid attention to where we were going while we were fleeing on Takeo, The mobs just scared me a little so all I cared about was when those mobs would finally stop coming after us.” The brunette replied, trying to make him feel a little better. “Yeah, I’m fine with teaming up.” Zoey eyed Tatsuya who was doing something in his menu, she wasn’t sure what he was looking for but soon found out as a party invite appeared infront of her. Zoey quickly accepted the invite and smiled. “This is also the first time for me, so I’m quite excited to see how this will go.” Don't give up

Made by Sifr @ THQ.

[blade]

“In that case, since you’re calling me by my real name, I’ll call you by your real name.” Tatsuya replied with a smile. It appeared that Zoey was curious about his origins as she soon after asked him where he was from. Based on context, Tatsuya could guess that she was asking about which country he was from as it was rather obvious from his name that he was not from the UK or even Europe for that matter. “Yeah, as you could probably imagine based on my name, I’m not from this country. In fact, I’m not even from this continent. I came from the far east, from Japan. I actually only moved here to the UK recently before I got sucked into this world.” He then noticed the look of excitement on Zoey’s face. It was quite obvious that she was curious and excited about him being from another continent. “If you have any questions about my home country or anything like that, I’d be happy to answer them.” He said with a smile, indicating that he was okay with her indulging her curious mind without outright saying it out of consideration for the other’s feelings. From experience, he knew if he said such things like “You’re curious aren’t you?” outright then it would be rude. As he developed a similar way of thinking to that of a samurai, he didn’t like being dishonored himself nor did he like to see other people become dishonored. While this was just a simple matter of embarrassment, he would still count it as that.

Zoey thanked him again saying that the only other players she’s met only cared about themselves. “Unfortunately, in any part of the world, there will always be people that only care about themselves without any regard to those around them. But that’s no reason for me to do so myself. As I’ve always lived, I will resolutely follow my beliefs.” He said in response. Zoey was also saying stuff about how she wasn’t much help and that there wasn’t any reason to thank her. “Even if you say that, there are other things that could have happened. We were in such a disadvantageous situation where it was unlikely for us to escape with our lives. You could have easily abandoned me and left me to deal with the monsters on my own in order to escape on your own. And yet, you decided to stand by me. That already is worthy of thanks.” He said this with a kind smile. “In the past, when I recklessly threw myself into the fray in order to save someone, it wasn’t uncommon for the person I was saving to escape on their own. You didn’t do that so I think you’re a good person.”

“Ahahaha, it’s the same for me.” Tatsuya said with a light laugh. “I didn’t really know how I got here either. To be honest, after I left town, I was too busy arguing with Takeo as we traversed the land and the next thing I knew, I was in the Windsor Greatwoods.” He said this in a somewhat embarrassed tone. He could obviously tell Zoey was embarrassed so he decided to help her by embarrassing himself so that she wouldn’t be the only one. “Under the presumption that any of the monsters were of a higher level than me, I also pretty much focused on avoiding everything. I know some might say that’s cowardice but I call that thinking things through. When you have the option of avoiding the battle and your foe has a high chance of killing you, it’d be smarter to avoid it most of the time.” He remembered how tense that made him whenever he saw groups of monsters. At one point, he remembered seeing a field boss but luckily it didn’t notice him.

Zoey became embarrassed by the fact that Tatsuya saw her miss so many times which was apparent to the samurai from how she was smiling awkwardly and her tone of voice. Oh dear, I said something wrong. He thought to himself as he wasn’t meaning to cause her to become humiliated. “To be fair, you were on a horse, the somewhat wild Takeo no less, when you were shooting so of course the accuracy rate would drop. In such a position as well as the fact that you’re using a beginner bow, you did very well.” This was his honest opinion. “To be honest, I don’t think I could have done any better in the same situation with my current skill level with a bow.” This was true. In the real world, in the midst of his training with the sword and in other martial arts, he decided to give archery a try. He didn’t exactly do very well and he soon dropped it to focus more on swordsmanship and such.

He lightly smiled in thanks when Zoey called his actions heroic contrary to how he called them stupid. At the same time, he didn’t really know how to act. In general, he didn’t know how to act really when he was complimented as it didn’t happen too much. Also, he was still thinking that it was dumb to not think before charging in. “Well, we’re both in the same boat, having done stuff without thinking but that’s in the past now. Let’s work together in order to move forward.” He was happy that Zoey had accepted the party request so readily. “Now then, as I can’t call Takeo again for another 20-30 minutes, I guess we’ll be going on foot. I guess that’ll be good as that means we can talk along the way. You were curious about my country weren’t you? We can talk about that on the way. Do you want to find a safe zone first and rest a bit before trying to find a way back? We still haven’t really caught our breath from being chased by the monsters like that. Or we can just start trying to find a way back to town.” He suggested.

Zoya
Words: 1013
OOC: Now it's my turn to apologize about not posting for a while. Hahaha. *feels sort of embarrassed now*