A large needle-like stinger had shot past Rūkasu. If it was not for Kiji he would not have been able to dodge the attack that came from behind. Rolling across the ground, whatever that had been attacking him persisted and had repeatedly stabbed at the ground. With a final roll he pushed off the ground with a handspring, summoning his one handed sword, the ashes swirled as they solidified to create a disinteresting sword.

  Skill Activate- Distinguish: Feral War Hornet

  Once a regular hornet it has now been possessed by a demon! Its stinger secretes a toxin that causes paralysis on its enemies.

  Ew bee’s… Well hornets but same thing. ~B

  Finally getting a better look at the monster, Rūkasu was in awe of the hornet. It was striped in a green and magenta pattern. Besides the fact that it was so colorful, the shocking part was that the hornet had been almost two meters long with oversized mandibles. The most worrisome part had been that oversized stinger. It was just about as long as a spear and was dripping with toxins. “I do not want to get anywhere near that thing. I have never liked bee’s. This just makes it worse.” Looking at Kiji in his HUD, he nodded at her. She knew what to do and started analyzing the hornets' attack patterns and flight paths. Resting his sword on his shoulder as per usual, Rūkasu gathered his magick into his sword as it started to glow a pale purple color. Once it had lit up completely he ran forward towards the hornet. Swinging his sword a skill activated.

  Skill: Flatline Rush- A highspeed singular horizontal slash

  The one eyed boy had moved like a blur, hoping for his blade to find purchase to end this fight quickly. Instead he had found resistance. The hornet had activated a skill of its own, swinging its stinger down and blocking the horizontal strike. The stinger had glowed a deep yellow color. Rūkasu’s skill had been pushed down towards the ground as the stinger had pushed off the blade and reversed its course, sweeping upwards. A two part combo skill. Not bad. Rūkasu’s sword began to quickly glow in a luminescent grey color as he began to activate his own skill.

  Skill Activate! Gradient Rupture- Reverse!

  The sword shot upwards on the diagonal to knock the hornet’s stinger off course. Blade met stinger and a loud clang sounded out and the impact reverberated through Rūkasu’s arm. The skill gave him a second to breathe as the hornet had to stabilize itself in the air. Grinning, Rūkasu charged forward to strike again as his sword had begun to glow a pale red as his next skill activated.

  Ashen Thrust- Pierce!

  Stabbing forward, Rūkasu had been overzealous thinking he had the fight in the metaphorical bag. The war hornet rallied and attacked with its stinger once again. Rūkasu’s sword glanced off the carapace of the stinger and had gotten a small scratch along his right arm.

  System Message! You have been semi-paralyzed. You will be unable to use the afflicted body part (right arm) for 3 minutes.

  Note- paralysis debuff can be stacked up to five times.

  You got paralyzed? You should see how stupid you look with your arm dangling like that. Eh… I’m sure you will pull through…. Good Luck! ~B

  Looking down at his arm, Rūkasu grimaced at the sight. His arm hung limp. His sword had fallen to the ground. Knowing that he had only 10 seconds to grab his sword back before it dematerialized he knelt to grab it with his offhand. As he had reached for the hilt the hornet rounded on him again with its mandibles. Jumping to his right, Rūkasu had thought that it was odd of the creature to target his arms and hands. Bastard is trying to disarm me so I can’t fight back. Shouting at the Hornet, Rūkasu was determined to finish this ugly colored hornet off. “Not today Barry B! I have more fight in me than that!” The war hornet buzzed in the air about 4 meters in front of Rūkasu as it activated another skill. Both its mandibles and stinger took on a deep yellow glow. “I get the feeling that this will be the last round! Bring. It. On.” Rūkasu knew it was going for the kill this time. He couldn’t reach his sword and did not have enough time to manifest a new one. Guess it is time to see if that skill development training paid off or not. Drawing his left arm back he began to condense his magick into the palm of his hand charging his newly created skill. He and Kiji had worked for quite awhile in the tutorial room trying to perfect the skill. I need to charge this until the last possible second. Too soon and it will be too weak and won’t reach. Too late and I will probably lose my head. A flurry of dust kicked up as the war hornet shot forward towards Rūkasu. Its stinger had been secreting its toxin more than ever and its mandibles gnashed viciously as the giant bug barreled towards him. “Boss! Target is 15 meters away! Do it now!” Kiji was screaming in his HUD. “Not yet! It needs to be closer. You know the further away the target is the less damage this skill does. The closer it is the more damage it will do and right now I am an arm short so I need maximum damage output.” Sweat had started to build up all over Rūkasu’s body. This was more intense than he had initially thought the fight would be. The magick energy in his palm had started to glow a pale pink. The “skill had yet to be fully recognized by the C.O.S. so Rūkasu had been struggling to maintain the form of the skill. There was a long way to go in his freeform magick manipulation. “ 6 meters Rū!” Rūkasu had never seen Kiji look so stressed out. He wasn’t sure if the A.I. could physically sweat but he did notice her sunken eyes were visibly shaking. “Just tell me when it is 2 meters away!” The war hornet let out a shrill screech as it sped up towards the young fighter. “Now Boss! 2 Meters!”

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  “Skill Activate! Ashen Blast!”

  Pushing his arm forward the pink energy in his hand started to violently swirl in his hand almost bursting at its seams. “Discharge!” The skill had built to an almost unstable level and fired off in the hornets direction. The force of the skill had started to push Rūkasu back slightly. Replanting his feet, the warrior braced himself the best he could. A pale pink energy wave had shot out of Rūkasu’s left hand and canvassed the hornet in a destructive blast at point blank range. When the skill had fired the hornet had been less than one meter away from Rūkasu. Looking at his points pool and status, Rūkasu saw that his magick had been drained down to less than 200 points and he still had another 2 minutes of his arm being paralyzed. Falling back onto the ground he took a deep breath and started to relax. Just as he started to relax his good eye opened wide. “Where is the kill notification?” As the words left his lips the hornet charged him once again. In a panic Rūkasu raised his good arm and shut his eye tight preparing for the worst. The worst never came. Keeping his eye shut, he looked through the ashen eye and saw a figure standing in front of him holding something. Opening his good eye he saw a young man in his mid twenties holding the stinger from the hornet in his hand. “Whoa. Thanks for the help man. Where did you come from?” “I just so happened to stumble across you a few minutes ago. I thought you had that hornet with that last attack. I did not want to steal your exp but when it did not disintegrate I decided I should jump in before it killed you.” The man had an accent that clearly was not from Japan. His hair was a bright yellow and had been sleeked back. The man had deep blue eyes and fair skin. Getting a better look at the man Rūkasu noted his clothes. He had been wearing metal armor that covered his shoulders, arms and legs. His chest was a plain tunic and he wore no helmet. At his hip had been a shoddy longsword that looked like it had seen better days. A western barbarian?

  Distinguish: Combatant (Newcomer lvl 10)

  He could not see the man's name, just his level. “Who are you? Are you a friend or a foe?” Rūkasu began to get worried. As far as he knew he was the only combatant in the C.O.S. “For now I am a friend. It has yet to be decided if we will be foe’s. Tell me something. I cannot distinguish you. Are you also a combatant?” Rūkasu’s brain had officially fried. Finding another combatant was not common in this age. He was not aware of foreigners being able to use the system so it took him by surprise. “I will be honest with you. I did not know that there were more people like me. I thought I was the only one. Small world i guess. Call me Rūkasu. Rū for short. Oh, I lied. Kiji says only she can call me that.” Rūkasu held his hand out to the foreigner. He began to chuckle. “Small world indeed. My name is Helmut.” Helmut reached out and shook Rūkasu’s hand. “If you decide we are enemies, can you do it after I take a rest? I am exhausted after all of that.”

  Slumping back onto the ground, Rūkasu stretched out under a nearby tree and relaxed a bit. His whole body ached from pushing the skill too far. He had a slew of system messages but they could wait.

  “Sure. afterwards we will settle the matter of friend or foe. Rest well for it may be your last.” Grinning, Helmut turned his back to Rūkasu and started acting as a lookout.

  Message: Kiji, if he tries anything funny you have my permission to sing that song you love so much too wake me up. I don’t trust him. This isn’t ideal but I can’t move right now. This paralysis is lingering. -Rūkasu

  Message: You got it boss! I better start practicing my song now so it sounds extra wonderful! -Kiji

  Rūkasu fell into a hard sleep. It felt restless and he still heard that same woman's voice. Same message but always too far to hear completely. “.... remember…. Stay on mission… remember…”

  A few hours later Rūkasu had woken up to Helmut still walking back and forth guarding him. Well at least he didn’t kill me and loot my corpse. That has to count for something.

  “Hey Helmut! Thanks for not murdering me in my sleep.” Helmut turned with a serious expression. “The thought crossed my mind but if i had done that then I couldn’t get any information from you now could I?” the westerner grinned and sat next to Rūkasu. “So tell me, do you also have a Main Quest in the Forgotten Cavern?” Rūkasu nodded. “I do. I was heading there when that hornet attacked me. I assume that means you do too.” “I do. Not to be too forward but would you like to make a party with me? My Kijimuna says that we would share exp and loot and it would make the quest easier for the both of us. I know we don’t know each other but I am not confident in my skills to do it on my own. Plus some company would be good.” He had trailed off looking lost in thought. “ Kiji tells me the same thing. I don’t trust you but I will party with you. All loot will be split 50/50 between us and we will have to communicate clearly. I don't want to die due to miscommunication.” Helmut nodded in agreement. His eyes began darting around. Clearly he was doing something in his menus.

  System Message! Party Invite from Combatant Helmut! Join? Y/N

  Rūkasu clicked “Y” and a new set of point pools appeared under his own that were clearly Helmut’s. Still nervous, Rūkasu decided he would make the best of the situation and be friendly but still on guard. If living on the streets taught me anything it was to always stay on guard. “Well I guess since you got the exp from the hornet I am going to loot the body since we couldn’t share the exp. Fair?” Agreeing, Helmut stepped aside as Rūkasu looted two antidote gems and a single healing gem from the hornet. He had started a collection of the gems after he had killed the Rabid dogs. If you crushed one in your hand, depending on the color it would refill one of your point pools by 100. These antidote gems cured poison, paralysis and many other ailments. “Nice! Now that that is done I suppose if you're ready we can head off. All good?” “Ja. Let us be on our way, mien friend.” Just like that the two combatants had set off to complete their first quest together.