「Punisher」What's Your Name?

As the burst of red energy approached, I took aim at the direct center of it and fired my gun. The aura that I built up exited my gun as a dense purple ball that collided violently with the red stream of magic. A pocket was formed in the center of Bane's attack as my bullet forced its direction to split.

"Shit!"

The bullet I had fired was very strong, but I could tell that it was not going to keep the red stream of magic split for long. It was an odd sensation to be able to perceive so much and calculate timing so well. It must have been the improvements to my mind stat that were doing this. Whatever remained of Bane's attack was not going to be enough to kill me, but it would fucking hurt, that's for certain.

I turned and dove to get behind a tree that was to my left, hoping that it would be enough defense to keep myself from sustaining any heavy injuries. The bullet was eventually consumed by the red energy, and the remainder of the attack cut through the forest, leaving a massive trench in its wake. Several trees were torn from the ground by the attack, including the tree I dove behind.

I had been fortunate enough to sustain very little injury from that attack, but there was no telling how often it could be reused or what the cooldown was on it. I also did not know the full extent of the other two, so I knew that there was a high probability of failure if I were to engage them in a fight right now.

"Fuck, you win this time."

The blast had already blown me so far away from them that I had a really good head start if I wanted to book it. I stood up and ran, trusting in my agility to put enough distance between myself and that group. I checked behind me every six seconds to see if I was being followed, but it looked as though my pursuers had given up the chase after a couple minutes. The remaining twin was the only one who tried to follow me, but he eventually gave in. 

In the distance, I heard the twin shout, "You're dead; you hear me! Dead!"

I paused and fought with myself internally about responding to the guy. Eventually, I gave in and decided I'd play around a bit.

I shouted back, "What's your name?"

He responded, "Fuck you, I'm not telling you my name!"

"Just tell me!"

"It's Walter!"

"Fuck you, Walter!"

"Hey! Fuck you! What's your name?"

"Joe!"

"Fuck you, Joe!"

I laughed at the exchange we had. I was going to shout Punisher instead of Joe, but I realized that would have sounded dumb. I don't just tell anyone to call me Punisher. Right now, the only ones who call me that are Ronan because it was my old gamer tag and my wife because… Of reasons.

Now that I was safe, I turned my attention to the notification that I got after killing whoever the fuck that Martin guy was. I continued at a fast pace, but my mind stat was high enough to let me dip and dodge around trees while still being able to read the window.

Notification

Achievement: Survival of the Fittest

Congratulations! You have killed someone of your own race! For this achievement, you have received the following benefits:

Title: Survivor

+10 Mind

+5 Spirit

"Ah, that's sick. Another stat-boosting title. Not as good as some of the other ones, but it's still alright."

There would probably be titles and achievements for all kinds of different accomplishments that players have. It looked like whoever accomplished something first would get a massive stat boost, and there were smaller titles like this that were given across the board.

I wondered what the first murderer could have gotten for their achievement. They probably got something similar to what I got from the first blood title.

"Let's just hope I don't run into whoever could have gotten that."

I stopped running, feeling as though I had forgotten something. I looked down and noticed my radio was no longer hanging from my belt. I froze as I realized that Ronan was heading directly for where I was about ten minutes ago. The radio was not transmitting his messages clearly to me, so there's no telling what he heard from my end.

"Shit, with the radio gone, I have no way to contact him! I've gotta find him fast!"

I checked the cooldown on my skills. My Legendary Marksman skill only had four minutes left on its cooldown. If I found Ronan, I should be ready to support him. I don't know how powerful he's gotten since he killed the boss monster of this world already, but I know that if my agility was any lower, I would have died to that Bane fucker.

I turned and started running back to the easy, but I made sure I didn't go back in a straight line to where I had just fought. It would be best if I went around stealthily and scoped out the area from a distance. Hopefully, I'll be able to meet up with Ronan before anything happens.

"The worst-case scenario is that Ronan reaches them, and I find his location because of the noise they make fighting. Ronan should be a fuck ton stronger than me by now; I hope he can hold his own."

I traveled for several minutes before reaching an area populated by the sludge beetles from before. There were a couple of the larger branch-covered bear creatures in this area as well. The fact that they were alive told me that the group of players from before had not been in this area yet. I was back in their territory, but this time I was going to be the hunter.

I pulled out my pistol and started to charge energy into a single shot. I learned that if I held onto it for thirty seconds, I could continue to expend aura energy to hold the shot without having to fire yet. It was a waste of aura, but it allowed me to keep my strongest bullet loaded in the chamber longer.

Ronan is being hunted; I need to be prepared.