“I can already smell that gold. Maybe I’ll buy a new set of armor or even a fancy dress?” A female responded.
“Sure, Hathra. You can do whatever you want with your money when we win.” The original voice answered.
The group continued and never ceased their loud talking. Atlas and his party peered around the tree they hid behind and watched the Umbral Shadow. He’d caught sight of the approaching group and crouched down to pounce. Atlas’ warred with himself on whether to say anything, but in the end he figured it was a contest. Worst case, they’d have a three-hour cooldown for respawn.
A shrill scream pierced their conversation, and the cat leaped from the tree and landed on one adventurer. The young female hadn’t expected the attack, and the cat’s jaws clamped over her neck in an instant. A crunch echoed through the woods as the shadow lifted his head. The woman’s body dangled lifelessly from its jaws as blood dripped down its long fangs.
“That bastard killed Emily. Get him!” yelled the man.
The fighters charged into the opening and engaged the Umbral Shadow. The cat swatted at one, and the poor soul took the full force of three claws across his chest. Ragged tears lined his armor and blood seeped from the wounds. The idiot should’ve let the tank lead the fight.
They watched the fight unfold for a good five minutes. Atlas couldn’t figure out how they’d killed five of the seven targets. They looked like an army of toddlers running around and swinging wildly. No tactics of any kind were visible, and they didn’t work as a team.
“This is painful to watch,” Quelin said.
“You’re telling me. If nothing else, that means there will be one less team to worry about in this contest. I can’t see how they might come out on top.”
“I’d say that’s mean, Rag, but I think you’re right,” Gemma winced.
The cat continued to pounce around the clearing, eliminating the fighters one by one. Atlas and Quelin used their observation skills to see its pattern as they had with Black Widow. This creature’s pattern wasn’t quite set in stone, though. It had three different three-move attacks. It didn’t always use them in the same order, though. If you could remember the initial attack of each of the combos, it would be easy to counter.
Only two people remained as they watched the slaughter. The woman named Hathra stood in the back with a bow while another man stood toe to toe with the cat, daggers in his hands. The animal lunged forward, and the assassin dodged to the side and sunk in both blades. Blood dripped down the shadow’s side, but it only glared at the fighter. He gulped before the animal turned and bit into his chest.
The woman screamed and flung down her bow, “I can’t die here. I’m too young to die on a stupid quest.”
She sprinted away from the fight as the cat watched her leave. It lowered itself into a pounce and launched toward her again. The wound on his neck now perfectly healed.
“Doesn’t want to die? I understand losing your stuff sucks, but we are reborn in a matter of hours.” Ragnarok said confused.
“She’s not a reborn…” Atlas started, “We have to help her. She doesn’t get to respawn.”
Atlas rose to his feet and dashed to help the woman when an arm grabbed him.
“Atlas, it’s just a game. There’s no reason to interfere until we’re ready,” Rag said calmly.
“I know but we can’t just let her die. Who knows, she may be someone important, or related to someone important in the game. It could be a big deal,” he pleaded with them.
“I’m in,” Gemma said as she stood and readied her bow.
Quelin stood to join him as well. Rag looked like he wanted to object but just grumbled they were all fools and they dashed after the shadow. They found the woman and the cat not far away. She was steadily trying to keep a tree between herself and the animal, knowing she couldn’t possibly outrun it.
Rag charged in and Atlas started with his Barkskin again. Arrows and fire sizzled through the air, and the cat howled in pain. It turned its attention to them right as Rag met him with a shield to the face.
“Get out of here, Hathra. Get back to the city. We’ll take care of this.”
“Thank you so much. I owe you all my life,” she said as she turned and ran.
“Rag watch the combos. He only has three different attack sequences.” Atlas told him.
“He does? I couldn’t find any pattern to his attacks while we watched.”
“It doesn’t use the attacks in the same pattern. The first attack tells you what follows.”
The warrior just grunted and continued the fight. Arrows continued to fly, but Gemma had trouble targeting the creature. The shadows of the trees made it difficult to get an arrow in it. Quelin had a little more luck since his fire spells lit up the area when he launched them. Atlas watched the fight unfold, ready to cast spells. The Barkskin spell was paying dividends in this fight.
Rag was taking far more hits than usual. For whatever reason, he wasn’t able to anticipate the attacks. Atlas cast two Nourish spells back to back to top the warrior off in health.
“Quelin, watch my back. I’m going in to help,” Atlas called to the mage.
He charged into the fight and immediately triggered Triple Threat. His staff thudded into the animal’s side and then spun to catch it in the leg before bashing down on its skull. He ensured he stood on the shield side of Ragnarok so the warrior could still swing his sword without the chance of hitting him.
You dealt 16 HP damage to Umbral Shadow with Triple Threat.
A wide swipe came in front of them, trying to catch both, but Atlas took that time to deflect the swing upward with a timed twist of the staff. Activating Counter,
