Sparring

The Training Field was in the southwestern area outside of the village. At first, it was just filled with the leftover stumps and shrubbery from the players' wood collecting efforts. The only ones that used it at that point were the melee players that had nothing better to do, but now there were a few surprisingly well-made targets set up by the bow users for target practice. Nowadays, many different players frequent the area, regardless of their playstyle.

It only took Loran a few minutes to reach the Training Field and, as he expected, the area was nearly abandoned thanks to how early it was. Making his way over to the archery targets, he set down his excess equipment, readied an arrow, and began lining up a shot at the target. His first shot went laughably wide, completely missing the 3-foot wide target.

'Yeah, that tracks…' Loran let out a short huff before pulling out another arrow.

Loran was a decent hunter, but his ability as an archer wasn't anything spectacular; now that he had spent the last week not even touching his bow, his already meager skills were beginning to slip. Luckily it had only been a week; as Loran continued taking shots more began to hit the target, and after gathering his arrows, the next round of arrows all hit the target with increasing accuracy.

Loran's mind began to wander off as he fell into the repetition of firing and retrieving his arrows, the dull *TWANG* of the bowstring making the process almost meditative.

'I guess that's enough,' he eventually decided. Around two hours had passed, his arms, back, and fingertips now sore from the prolonged use, and the target he used was in even worse condition. Loran decided he would grab some leather from The Workshop and repair it later. 'I think I'm catching up to Soze by now...maybe.'

After collecting his arrows, Loran turned to the other pieces of equipment that he brought.

[NAME]: Spined Pick

[QUALITY]: Common

[TYPE]: Tool/Weapon

[DURABILITY]: 150/150

[STATS]: 25 Pierce Damage

[AFFINITY/REQUIREMENTS]

STR: E/6

DEX: D/8

[DESCRIPTION]

A piercing weapon made using the antlers of a Spined Deer.

Loran made this pair of weapons after managing to get his hands on some pieces of antler from the other hunters, trading it for one of his better stone knives. He didn't tell Soze, but Loran actually had been planning to hunt again over the next few days and had made these as a close-range option for if he ran into a Spined Deer or some other predator. Since he was a part of Soze's party now he wouldn't go out alone anymore, but he wanted to get some practice in with them, just in case.

Loran was slightly worried that the 7-inch spike wasn't long enough to reach the Spined Deer through its antlers, but he had wanted to try something different than just using it as a spearhead like the other hunters. 'Besides, the spear might be a better weapon, but the pick can also be a tool,' he assured himself.

Loran was about to go through some attack motions but realized there was a large crowd of players not too far away, having been too focused on his archery to notice them before now. Curious, he made his way over to see what was gathering so much attention. As he approached, he saw a group of players fighting in the center. At first, he thought there was some kind of problem, but after looking around the crowd, he saw Alexx looking rather excited.

'He probably knows more about what's going on than me,' Loran figured, making his way over to ask about the situation. "Hey, Alexx!"

"Oh, hey, what's up?"

"Honestly, I was going to ask you," Loran said, gesturing towards the fight, "What's all this?"

"Oh, they're sparring."

"...Sparring? With real weapons?" Now that he was closer, Loran could see that the players fighting had numerous wounds on them, two were using spears while the other was using a pair of stone axes. On further inspection of the crowd, many of them were also injured.

"It's fine," Alexx brushed off, "Zed makes sure to stop whenever someone gets to around half HP."

"Zed?"

"The guy who's been kicking everyone's ass so far."

Turning his attention back to the fight, Loran realized that although there were three people fighting it was actually two-on-one, and the lone fighter was winning. The lone spear fighter, Zed, was easily avoiding nearly every attack the other two threw at him, and the one or two attacks that did land were only scratches when compared to the deep cuts that Zed left in them with his spear. Loran looked around at the other injured players. "Did he seriously fight all these people? There's over a dozen!"

"Yep," Alexx said, shaking his head in amazement, "the first few guys tried going one-on-one but they couldn't lay a finger on him. After that, they started going at him two at a time and now he's actually getting worn out."

"This guy's a machine," Loran muttered, looking at Zed's stats.

[NAME]: Zed

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 5

[EXP]: 400/600

[STATUS]

{HP}: 72/100

{SP}: 100/100

[END]: 10

[STR]: 10

[AGI]: 20(+10)

[DEX]: 10

[PER]: 10

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 5

[SKILLS]

[AGILE] Lv.10

(Passive) Increase the AGI by 50%.

'I guess it sort of makes sense,' Loran considered, 'his AGI is pretty high, that gives him a bit of breathing room to avoid their attacks. Still… those stats aren't enough to just brute force his way through this, his skill is real; and what the hell is that concentration?!'

Fighting against a series of players with minimal injury was certainly impressive, but still understandable. What shocked Loran more was how Zed was doing it. Each attack was being dodged by less than an inch. Zed was diving straight into his opponent's attacks and dodging just a hair's width away to constantly be on the attack. Loran had seen other people do this, it was typically the most efficient way to dodge, but that was in other games and usually with their pain sensitivity close to 0%. Seeing it here in NEO, where the pain was felt at 100% and death was a real threat, Loran couldn't decide if this guy had mental fortitude that could shrug off bullets, or if he was so insane that the danger just didn't register to him.

Soon the fight was over. Zed had finished his spear-wielding opponent by once again lunging nearly into the path of his opponent's attack. While this attack only managed to give Zed a small cut along the side of his neck, Zed's own attack landed directly in his opponent's shoulder. From there, the ax fighter didn't stand a chance, not only losing the numbers advantage but also losing out in attack range. In a matter of seconds, Zed used a sweeping attack to throw his opponent to the ground before stepping on his chest and holding the tip of his spear to the ax fighter's throat.

"Next?" Zed asked between heavy breaths, pushing his brown hair out of his eyes.

A number of groans and cheers could be heard from the surrounding crowd, and a few items exchanged hands as players had apparently been making bets.

"H-he seriously wants to keep going?!" Loran sputtered.

"Hahaha, you said it yourself man," Alexx laughed, "Zed is a beast. I think he said he'll stop once he hits half HP like everyone else, what is he at now?"

"He's only lost about a quarter so far," Loran said, shaking his head in disbelief, "still, it looks like he'll have to stop early."

"Yeah, the show's over."

Despite Zed's call for a new round, no one stepped up to replace the previous two fighters. So far he had defeated a total of sixteen different players, and they only managed to deal Zed a collective 28 points of damage. By now, everyone recognized that fighting Zed was a bad idea.

"Anyway, I'm hungry," Alexx said, "wanna go get something to eat?"

"I guess I could use a snack, and we have time before we need to meet with the others."

"Others? Oh, Soze got you to join the party?"

"Yeah, he convinced me," Loran said as the two began to leave.

"Awesome, so I guess you'll be-"

"Hey, you two!" Suddenly Zed shouted out from close behind them and, more shockingly, thrust his spear between where they were standing.

"Whoa!" Alexx jumped to the side, knocking a few players over.

Loran spun around, taking a combat stance with his Spined Picks.

"You two, fight me," Zed said while flashing a winning smile, it might've even been convincing if it weren't for the numerous cuts on his body and the blood dripping from his spear.

"I think there are nicer ways to ask people for things," Loran said sarcastically.

"...Please?" Zed asked, cocking his head.

'...Well, I guess that clears things up, this guy is actually insane,' Loran thought.

"So are you in?"

"Sounds good to me," Alexx shrugged.

"Alexx! You know we can't afford to get hurt right now, we have a hunt tomorrow!"

"Oh, right."

"Come on, just a quick spar?" Zed thankfully stopped pointing his spear at them and was now resting it on his shoulder. "You guys look way more fun than anyone else here."

Someone in the crowd, one of the previous fighters, yelled "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Loran was also curious. "What do you mean, more fun?"

"Well, I've heard plenty about how the 'Tree Killer' here has the highest STR in the village, and you've got those weird weapons; seems like fighting the both of you would be a lot of fun!"

Loran just stared at Zed as he considered the situation. In all honesty, he also wanted to have a sparring match at the moment; not only did he share Zed's sentiment that it sounded enjoyable, but being able to get some real combat practice with his new weapons before tomorrow's hunt sounded like a good opportunity.

"Loran, are you sure we can't do this?" Alexx asked in a low voice.

Turning to look at his friend, Loran saw Alexx staring daggers at Zed, his fists clenched in preparation for a fight. It was the angriest Loran had ever seen him.

"....We fight to first blood, take damage and you're out," Loran said.

As if waiting for him to speak, Alexx immediately moved with a burst of speed throwing a short, compact punch at Zed's chest.

Zed easily reacted to the attack, both blocking the punch with the shaft of his spear and leaping back to cushion the blow. Even so, Alexx's punch carried the tremendous force of over 60 STR, and while he didn't suffer any damage from the attack the spear was easily snapped in half and Zed was launched about 20 feet back. The people in the crowd evaded the flying body, and Zed was able to land on his feet.

Looking up at his two opponents, Zed's grin grew wider. "I knew you guys would be fun!"