15 15***The Raccoon Dogs

*

Home

The moment mom dropped me off at home from the hospital I made a beeline for the kitchen cabinet for the bread and stopped at the fridge for some chicken sticks, Mom posed at the door. I told her everything that happened to me on our way back, and she had long since cried out her lungs and eyes for the day, so she was leaving me to my own devices for now.

Crash was practically hammering on death's door by the time I made it to the vet. And thankfully, it took them only to glance at his condition once before they were off with Crash as fast as they could.

He had some broken ribs, and two of his legs were broken as well!

The worst of it though was some heavy internal bleeding.

Though, Crash's case was stable now, so I felt a little better.

I on the other hand only had bruises so I was let off with some aspirins and an ice pack

All in all, the worse case scenario was avoided!

Although, my mom did look like she was planning on quitting the game because she was still online when this happened, (and yes Cenus was shocked when he heard that she played as well) but with the help of Miss Robinson (surprisingly enough), I managed to convince her not to.

After my quick snack I ran up the stairs, well more like half ran half limped due to bruised ribs, and went to the terminal, the gateway to my sanctuary. I just wanted to wash this day away into the sea of cyberspace and be done with it!

'It's over seven hours, or over a day and a half in game since I died. Angus will really be pissed now.' I thought to myself with a light chuckle. With that thought in mind I put on my head gear and turned on the terminal.

*

-thirty minutes later-

Hobside Village

"Nylon where the heck have you been!!!" A voice called out behind me as I was entering a Pastry Shop. And that voice seemed to be coated with distress stuffed fill with and lightly sprinkled with what seems like worry.

....

What? I'm hungry okay? I used up most of my stamina to get here and now my hunger and fatigue are teaching the limit.

Still though, it's good to hear her voice again.

As I was turning to greet her she ran over to me with something on her back. It looks like a body but I can't really tell as it's about to de-spawn.

"Hey Angus, what's that on your back?" I ask when she stops in front of me.

"You!" she replied.

"Wait what?! You've been carrying my body all this time?!!" Well... I don't know what to say....

"Well? What are you standing around for?! Hurry up and take the damn thing!!!" She shouted, snapping my attention back to her.

"Uh...yeah, sure.... thanks?" I say, taking my expiring body off of her. The moment it left her shoulder the body disappeared in a shower of blue sparks and I got back all of my stuff, well most of it. I lost some of my exp. points, and I'm just realizing that I still don't know what to do with them.

"You wouldn't believe the hell you put me through!" Angus exclaimed after my corpse left, "Everywhere I turned on my way to and back from the Beginners Area there were bandits. Everywhere!!! Those little buggers are vultures! They all get attracted by the dead! And why? Because they're to flipping lazy...."

On an on she went, grating my tired ears. But her complaining was more than welcome now after what I went through. Far be it from me to tell her to stop.

As Angus continued her rant we made it to our little storage spot, finding it, and its contents, still in good condition, to my relief. Also, while she was guarding my body, Angus decided to rent a cart with the compensation and prize loot that she got for contributing to the defense.

Using this we packed up all our stores and made our way back to the village... with Angus still ranting of course. Only this time, I was using the posts I missed to effectively ignore her.

"And that's not the worst of it! The first six hours were the easiest. But after that, you started to de-spawn! I had to have at least one hand on your body at all times to slow it dow....."

"Halt!" A voice shouted from what seems like everywhere, effectively cutting off Angus' endless ranting and stopping us in our tracks. Great, what is it now?

"All merchants wishing to pass this forest must first pay the toll fee." The ominous voice continued. What toll fee is he talking about? In all the game plays I've seen you only have to pay to enter large towns and cities that are game built. Either this a new update or its an attempt to rob us. If it's the latter, they're not doing that good of a job.

"But we aren't even merchants!" Angus yelled to some random direction.

"Don't bother try lying. What would you be doing with that cart of goods if not to sell it!" The voice echoed again. Now I know this is a heist. For starters, if this was the game, it wouldn't have stopped us cause we aren't merchants. And even if that happens then it would use our game data as confirmation, not the presence of a cart.

"Who are you guys anyway?" I asked, feeling bold yet weak kneed at the same time.

*rustle, rustle* The leaves rustled as people (players I'm assuming) came down from them. I heard five thuds and estimated five players now surrounding us.

New Mastery Acquired!: Detection Mastery

Nice! I was right! And another mastery is added to the plate!

The notification went off as five players moved from behind the trees and bushes of the forest and into view. One player stepped out farther than the rest. I'm thinking he's the leader and the voice we heard, judging by the pride that's practically rolling off of him right now.

All of them were wearing cloaks to conceal their identities. Despite this however, I had a feeling he was smirking at us. Angus seemed to have the same thoughts I have cause she's already drawing two of her daggers, an annoyed snarl on her face.

"My name's Zord and we are The Tanukies!" He told us. And by the way he said it, its almost like we were supposed to know them. By the way, what's up with that name?

"Why did you name yourselves The Raccoon Dogs?" I asked, causing an already confused Angus to turn to me with an even more confused look plastered across her avatar's face. The others were pretty much the same. Heck even I'm confused, only I'm confused about why an anime nerd would turn to this. It's an insult to all anime nerds in the world if they do something like this.

"What are you talking about?" Their leader, Zord I think he was called, exclaimed, breaking the silence, "We are named The Tanukis, not The Raccoon Dogs!" It was then that I realized that this guy has never even watched One Riece (in sub at least) before or he would know this.

I contemplated whether or not I should either have a little fun with him or just tell him from now. And seeing as our stuff was de-spawning... I chose the latter.

"Tanuki is Japanese for raccoon dog." I said, stifling a laugh that threatened to escape from my mouth for no reason in particular. Maybe its because of his reaction to the news.

"Shadow!" Zord exclaimed, "How many times must I tell you not to mix anime and gangs, you dimwit!" At his voice one of the hooded figures, Shadow I'm assuming, shrunk away in fear.

"Sorry boss. It's just that when you asked use for the name of our gang in-game the first name that came to mind was The Raccoons, but that would have sounded lame so I chose The Tanukies instead." He explained. I won't lie though, that name fits them well, being bandits and everything.

"It doesn't matter now. Attack them and steal all of their loot!" Zord said all of a sudden, sending his men into attack mode! They all readied their weapons and came after us all at once! This is just overkill!

"Hey Angus, what's your level right now." I asked as we got into defending positions.

"Fourteen, you?" She quickly shot at me. Wow, how is her level so high!

"I'm at level 5 right now, but I still think we can win this." I said after observing the battle field and our opponents.

"How? We're surrounded five to two and judging by the essence of these guys, all of them are at least over level 20!" she stated, looking at me like I grew three extra heads. Well she's right, if you look at it like that, winning is impossible. But this game doesn't use regular programming. I can use this to my advantage.

"Yeah your right. This could be nearly impossible. But if you hear me out you might see how." I replied. I then proceeded to telling her my hypothesis, ensuring to have some Body Reinforcement essence flowing through me while I was at it.

"Oh, I see. Your more of a nerd than I first took you to be." She said after fully understanding my intention, drawing two of her six equipped daggers from her belt.

And really, that's how you view my idea. Well whatever.

"Tanukies, attack!" Zord shouted, causing them to rush after us the moment I was done talking! I felt an attack come right for my head! I sensed it, but it was so close by the time I did that there's no way I could dodge it normally....normally being the operative word here.

"Eh?!! Where did he....oof!!!" By using Body Reinforcement throughout my body I temporarily increased my agility by 50%, giving me enough speed to barely duck below the incoming attack!

BASH!!! The moment I dodged, I retracted my essence and focused it into my right arm, which was positioned for a strike, and punched my oppressor in the gut sending him flying back a few feet! That punch was just about the equivalent of my Shield Bash so it didn't take up a lot of essence so I can use it for a long fight. The damage done was minimal compared to it though due to my Unarmed Combat Mastery still being low and the only weapon I have are some level 1 gloves and boots which only give me one extra damage point each, but the message got across anyway.

"Listen up...uhm, whatever-your-name-was-again! You might be stronger than us, but we aren't going out without a fight!" I said at their leader, bravery and adrenaline pumping through my veins.

This is gonna be epic!