BornAndTorn

Looking at the fight that was currently happening in front of them, they were baffled by the strange weapon, if you even call something like that a weapon, is used. 2 Rocks are smashing through the air and directed at the wolf who was currently trying to escape, after the rest of the wolfpack died. As it turned out their target was just another human. He was slightly taller than Samantha, his body was really muscular and judging by his frame alone, they were not sure who they should call the monster here. His frame was twice as big as any men they had seen before. His whole body was shining due to sweat and blood that covered it.

Without any suspense, he directed the threads and crushed the wolves head. He calmly walked up to it looking at the damage he caused before slowly turning his head around facing towards us, who have kept watching while staying as hidden as possible. We emerged out of cover and walked towards the man. There was a slight disappointment lingering in the air, that this adventure ended in seeing a mere human fight against wolves. Still, it was quite rare to see a Human NPC this far out in the Wilds. That is why they were willing to show him their goodwill and not killed him right on the spot.

" h.e.l.lo fellow brethren, what are you doing here so far away from your friends and family," Samantha said courteously but the man just stared at them without giving any kind of response

"Is he mute or something? "Eve muttered " Showing us contempt, when we try to talk to him nicely, it is no wonder humans are so inferior"

All out of a sudden an a sword made out of ice, pa.s.sed by the head of the man.

"Answer her you filthy creature" Claudia screamed at the men, whose expression has yet to change. " Answer her"

The feeling of uneasiness Samantha had suppressed earlier on, came back stronger than ever, but she did not feel any kind of dangerous vibe from this men. His face was quite strange It did have any resemblance to the rest of the NPCs that they saw. His brown eyes just kept on looking at them waiting for what kind of action they would end up picking.

" I am not here to hurt or steal anything from you, all I want is some information, afterwards we will just go, n.o.body has to get hurt here." Samantha tried to persuade, the unknown men, even if she had to threaten him in order to reach her goal. But to no avail the men did not move on an inch, did not react to any of their words.

" We are you trying to negotiate with a monkey?" Just kill and move on. Eve said with a sweet smile on her face. She was ready to attack if Samantha gave her a sign.

"Why are you contemplating about such an easy decision, that is so unlike you Sam?" Without waiting for the decision, she began to throw a windblade at the men.

That marked the moment, where they saw the men react for the first time, the man was showing a disappointed expression on his face. After the wind blade hit him, without even any attempt of dodging, a little bit of blood was spilling out of the small wound. Nearly at the same time, many small yet sharp ice particle hit his flesh and left many small holes all over his torso. Even after the 2 attacks. .h.i.t him the man did not move.

Claudia and Eve began to laugh and pointed their fingers at him.

" Look he is so afraid he can not even move right now and he could not even dodge such a weak spell. Come on, will ya at least show us some pitiful screams full of agony, we want to be entertained here" Claudia said with a gaze full of contempt.

The men opened his lips for the first time, but they were left dumbfounded to hear a language, they had never heard before. The man was pulling the rocks to himself in a composed manner. While Eve and Claudia were busy daydreaming about the upcoming fun. Samantha made a shocking observation, that they did not pay any attention to before. A normal NPC gets nearly cleaved in half when the wind blade connects but this one did not even try to dodge like the others. A slow yet mighty attack left only a shallow wound on his body. After the men had finally grabbed his rock again, a slight smile became visible on his face.

Without any kind of warning, as Samantha just barely managed to cast an ice-wall to shield the daydreaming eve. But before she could start the offensive she had to cast another Ice-wall to save her Sister from an attack that came straight from above. The trio realized that this would not be as easy as the expected it to be. So the began to focus, the man was currently just 2 meters away from them. After pulling one rock away, he used the produced force to dodge the next wave of attacks that were targeted at his previous spot.

They are currently working in a formation, Eve uses her wind spells to keep the movement of the enemy in check, while Claudia is trying to use her magic in pincer attacks to corner the enemy, while Samanthas job was to attract the attention of the enemy and to keep him busy as to provoke mistakes. It is a really strong tactic against creatures relying on their instincts, but they were not fighting an animal.

He kept on dodging every attack that came at him, after setting up another pincer attack. Samantha used her magic to create a solid layer of ice so that he loses his footing. Claudia and Eve combine their magic, they speed the mana small ice particle up by empowering it with wind magic. While his escape should have been impossible he simply smashed one of the rocks into the solid layer of ice, while throwing the other rock in front of him he used that rock as a solid surface to jump on and used the force of the other rock to escape the attack.

It was only a question of time before they would find an opening to exploit, but before they were even able to find it, something unexpected happened. The men once again used an overhead attack, to try and attack Eve, but Eve having blind trust in her teammates began to throw the next wave of attacks without even trying to dodge and the shield was erected right over her head. But the man did not even pay attention to the trajectory, because his true intention was the rock he had thrown to Claudia. Having seen through his feint, Samantha hurried and managed to create a thick ice wall in front of her sister, blocking the attempt to get rid of her sister. But only after hearing, a shrill scream and the sound of a human skull shattering, did she realize that she walked right into the trap that the men created.

At first, he waited and tested out which ability each one of us has then he began to "fight" in our formation to see who has which job, then he just waited till we reached a false sense of security, before viciously taking advantage out of the gap he found. As Eve was feeling safe, behind my ice- wall he pulled the first thread back to himself and then pushed it back with his foot creating a straight trajectory that killed Eve on the spot. Without wasting any time the men closed in on Claudia, throwing both of the rocks in a half circle at her. Samantha decided to use her magic to block both of them but did not expect that this attack was another fluke, as he pulled both threads back and lunged himself into melee range that way.

Then he threw two strong punches onto her ribcage, instantly piercing her heart. She was dead on the spot and he used the weight of the rocks to dodge the attack from Samantha by propelling himself backwards.

On Samantha"s face was no sign of worry, it was the total opposite a feeling of elation became visible as she tied her long hair into a bun." I have to thank you, for getting rid of those 2 nuisances. Besides you fooled me quite well, you are not an NPC you are a player that is trying to beat me in a fight. The normal NPC here is way too stupid to even hurt a single one of us after all. The challenge comes in handy I have to admit it was pretty boring not having any decent compet.i.tion for a very long time. She waited for the other person to state his name, so they could begin fighting earnest but the man did not react again.

Just staring at her, he waited for her reaction. But she just stared back at him, after all, its tradition that the challenger attacks first. The minutes pa.s.sed without anything happening. Until the man began to walk up to her, holding out his hand to shake hers. She was perplexed what was he trying to achieve by doing that. She punched his hand away, without thinking too much about it. Afterwards, he went back to his previous spot and waited for her reaction.

She realized that he was only trying to wish her luck for the upcoming duel. So she felt a little ashamed for jumping to action way too quickly. The men stared at her and for the first time, a genuine smile appeared on his face. Moving forward he began to run towards her, swinging his rocks around. So you want to see how far you will come just by relying on that melee skills of yours. You are quite an interesting fellow. She created hundreds of thick icicles and launched them at the men. The men tried to use the rocks to smash the projectiles but some of them ended pa.s.sing through and dealing some serious damage. It was the first time, the man spat out some blood.

But the man did not care he began to run at her once more, she created the same magic attack once again, but this time did the men try to keep on moving and destroying them one by one while trying to come closer to her step by step.

" Your train of thought is not bad, but there is one critical flaw in your plan, it only works if I am only able to create it only once. Saying that the next wave of icicles came closer to the man, forcing him to back off again in order to dodge the onslaught of projectiles currently targetting him.

"No matter what you do, I will always be able to stay out of your reach by keeping you distanced, so please use magic, even though I have no clue how your body was able to reach such a level, it alone will never be enough to beat me." That her usual way, she crushed the pride of every single person fighting for her hands. She let them try everything they could come up and showing the how wide the gap between them really is.

But this kind of psychology had no effect on her enemy, he continued to sprint towards, she answered his futile effort the same way she did before. But this time the men did not wait for her to activate her magic before he threw his rock straight into the air.

" Nice try, but I do not need my hands to cast ice-walls to shield me, but what she did not expect was that the rock was pulled back by its thread smashing only 1 meter in front of the men. The men began to sprint and threw the other rock into the air with all his force. He jumped on the rock currently located right in front of him and jumped over the next attack wave. He covered a long distance with the jump and used his moment to pull his stepping stone up with him and smash it down with his full force onto Samantha.

Even though Samantha was stumped by the creativity, she did not panic and activated the next wave of sharp icicles and launched it at him, who was unable to dodge in any way now. After the bombardment hit him, he was finally close enough to actually damage her. This achievement came at a steep price currently his whole body was a mess, His blood was covering the whole place, Samantha would have never thought, that he would survive, a whole wave of her attack with his body alone. But her enemy did not wait and closed the gap of 10 meters in a flesh, even though he tried to throw several rocks all those were blocked by her with ease, On the other hand, he was pierced by several icicles again. It was a wonder, that the body was still working. After standing face to face with her he began to throw punches and kicks at her, but all she had to do was create a layer of ice under his feet to make those attacks useless.

" A sigh escaped her lips, as much as I respect you for your unyielding spirit and tenacity. It seems like you are not good enough to be my man. Goodbye." She began to prepare a sword out of ice in her hand, its mere presence was chilling to the bone. The men threw the rock one more time aiming for her face, she dodged it with ease by sidestepping it and even after pulling the thread back and moving as close as possible to her she dodged it with ease by moving her head slightly. Feeling victorious, she began to look into the face of the men to savour the moment he realizes that there is no hope left. But she did not see the hopelessness she expected, she saw a cheeky grin. The stone came back with full force, but the men did not dodge he used his head to take the impact and then send it into her direction. She had no room to dodge, all she could do was create a small shield of eyes to block that attack. But that was to no avail the rock pa.s.sed through the shield just barely and went straight at her head. The impact did not kill her but made sure that she was unconscious.

The men turned his back at the battleground, gave one last glimpse at the strong beauty he was just barely able to beat. He moved into the forest, as far away as possible from the battleground. The beauty was shaken awake by her comrades that came after a long time. At first, she looked utterly confused, but upon realizing what happened, a smile appeared on her face. She looked really happy, even though none of her companions could understand why. After a while, Samantha told them the whole "truth" she found out. They were all complex why he would fight for her hand, yet not give him her name, But they were not worried after all, if he really was interested in her, he would appear in front of her sooner or later again.

For them it did not matter whether they won or lost the fight, it was the enjoyment of their journey.

And the victor was currently busy collecting enough samples to finally earn a t-shirt.

They would meet each other again in the future.