020 Giant Wolf

James just stared at the notification for a few seconds. He was conflicted; was he ready to make to have more people enter his life? While he trusted Talon, he did not see him as a full fledged friend yet.

He looked up and saw the twins trying their best to fight against the wolf. They were now able to defend against the wolf thanks to his spell. He knew he could help them out but still hesitated.

The young lady looked at James from time to time. She sent her brother a message in their party chat.

[- Brother, why hasn't he joined our party yet? He is just standing there. If he did not want to help out why did he use that weird spell earlier? -]

Her brother quickly glanced at James as well.

[- He looks conflicted. I can tell he does want to help but something is holding him back. Also take a note of his name. He might have some trust issues. -]

The sister was confused, [- His name? -]

She got distracted and looked at James's character name.

"Blaise?!" She lost control and let her inner thoughts out in the open.

Her outcry snapped James out of his thoughts for a second.

The wolf saw that she was distracted and took the opportunity and directly attacked her.

[Leach Defense!]

The girl was bracing for the attack at the very last moment her brother appeared in front of her. He took the brunt of the damage and was sent flying into his sister. They both came rolling over and came to a stop right in front of James.

This time their HP did not drop as much as last time. The bonus defense points made the attack only drop the young man's HP by only and 1/8th.

James felt ashamed, he knew he could be of great assistance but he has not yet officially joined their party.

[Damn it! Forget my feeling for now. I need to dive straight into it; sink or swim time!"

All three players got a notification.

* Ding, player Blaise has joined the party. *

James took a quick look at their names so he knew what to call them.

.

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Party Members:

1. Karma (Assassin) - Level 18 --- HP: 460/525

2. Destiny (Assassin) - Level 18 --- HP: 450/540

2. Blaise (Spell Weaver) - level 3 --- 250/250

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.

The twin's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

It was Karma's turn to blurt out the first thing to come to mind, "Your only level 3? How did you manage to make it to a level 12 zone?"

James got all sheepish and asked in a worried tone, "Am I too low of a level to join you?"

Destiny gave a light laugh, "Do not mind my brother. He is just surprised."

Karma recovered from his shock, "*Cough* Ahh. Sorry about that. No your level does not matter. The hidden class you got was [Spell Weaving]?"

The trio was in mid conversation while battling the giant wolf. It was not very efficient since they were all distracted. The twins only used basic attacks and James was just keeping his distance and occasionally running away from the wolf.

"Yes. If you could keep it a secret I would really appreciate it."

The twins nodded at the same time like they were connected.

"Naturally it is only fair. You could have left us for dead. I have never heard of a spell like the ones you are using. Does you class have something to do with new magic?"

James was still hesitant to share information about his class so soon, "You could say it is something like that."

Destiny sent a private message to her brother, [- It don't seem like he is very trusting does he? -]

[- I can understand. He had so many bounties on head. We are lucky he was willing to help us. Let's treat him as an ally for now. -]

"Blaise, we should get serious now. We know you have your worries. We will keep your information secret. How is your mana, I can guess you have to keep your leaching spell channeling the whole time."

"I have plenty of mana potions so it should not be a problem."

"Good! Destiny let's go!"

Destiny brandished her daggers and ran at her brother. He prepared for her arrival. He linked his fingers together and lowered his body to the ground.

When his sister was close enough she used his hands as a launch pad. As her foot touched his hands Karma had threw her high into the air heading over the wolf.

The wolf stopped its advance and turned to where Destiny was heading.

As soon as the wolf turned away from Karma and Destiny began their attack.

Above James's gloved hand there were two spell icons dancing around a large wisp of mana. Just as the twins attacked one of the spell icon was replaced with another.

[Leach Strength]

[Tendon Cutter!] Two sharp daggers cut across the wolf's hind legs causing a [Crippled] effect. The skill stopped the wolf in its tracks.

[Cross Chop!] Destiny landed beside the wolf and swung both of her daggers at the wolf's neck. They formed a trajectory that left an 'x' shaped wound on the back of the wolf's neck.

- 32, Crippled!

- 67, -42

[Leach Defense]

Two sets of damage numbers and a status effect flowed above the wolf's head.

They had dealt more damage with those attacks then they ever had outside of stealth attacks. The twins both looked at their weapons, they were glowing orange.

They both saw the notifications; they knew Blaise had buffed them.

"Sorry about that", James apologized, if I had known you would stun the wolf I would have deactivated the agility leaching spell instead of the defense one. We could have done more damage."

The twins exchanged another set of private messages.

[- Brother we just dealt 138 damage. What madness is this? We didn't even use our stealth bonus nor did we crit. He said we could have done more damage on top of that? -]

[- I am more impressed about his timing. He didn't swap the spells out until the last minute before our attacks. He set it up so we would maintain our defense until we attacked then proceed to rebuff our defense after our attacks finished. -]

"It is no problem Blaise. We did not inform you about our plan."

Destiny's age slipped out for a moment as she was a little star struck, "You are amazing. Are you a pro-gamer? I've never heard of your name before."

James felt his cheeks blush. "No this is the first game I have ever played. I had special circumstances in my life before now."

"You're a natural."

The wolf was finally about to move again.

"We can do this! Only 3,724 more HP left to do! Blaise trust your gut like last time!"

The brother-sister duo jumped back into the fight.

The auras on the twins and the wolf's bodies were constantly changing. The twins controlled the tempo of the fight. All James had to do is determined the best spells to swap out.

As he is now, he can only use two of his spells at once. His teacher failed to tell him that there were other limitations he had to be mindful off as a [Spell Weaver]. The number of spells that you can simultaneously control is dictated by your level...

[Tendon Cutter!] Karma went in to cripple the wolf once again. This time James swapped the spells out too soon.

The agility leaching spell was not active so the wolf was able to adjust its position enough to minimize the incoming damage and counter-attack at the same time.

"Crap! I missed one leg!"

-20, Crippled!

- 65

The premature spell swap caused Karma to fall short due to the decrease in movement speed.

Since the wolf could still partially move it went in for another attack on Karma.

Just as a paw was about to swing down to crush Karma a fireball hit the wolf in the chest and knocked it off balance. A massive wolf paw landed just to the left of Karma's head.

- 46

His sister who had already approached the wolf picked her brother up and prepared to retreat. She pulled a small black ball out of her pocket and threw it to the ground. A smoke cloud instantly formed and the twins retreated to safety.

Before James could apologize Karma spoke out, "Don't sweat it, you are doing well so far."

The twins proceeded to reengage the wolf. This time, Karma slipped into stealth. He took a second to make sure the glowing aura was not visible while he was in stealth. [What a relief, If the aura did not conceal along with me I don't know what we would do.]

Destiny started a head-on confrontation with the wolf. She was slowly directing the wolf to the place where Karma moved to. He was prepared to lash out like a viper.

Destiny turned out to be very acrobatic. One second she was standing straight up the next she would dodge the wolf's massive claw swipe by doing a backbend. She would follow it up with a kickup so that her feet would swing over her core and she would flip back up to a standing position.

James was amazed at these two twins. He could tell they went through a lot to be able to fight like they do at such a young age.

The wolf had lunged out to Destiny so she bent her body to the left. As the wolf went past her she grabbed the wolf's neck scruff and jumped onto its back.

[Serrated Blade]

- 24, Bleeding

* Bleed - 6 *

She stabbed the wolf's back directly behind her. The wolf wanted Destiny off its back. It tried to throw her off but she had other plans; she used her dagger, which was still in the wolf's back, to steady herself.

[Hidden Strike]

Karma appeared out of nowhere. He stabbed the wolf in its chest when it was trying to buck his sister off its back.

- 108 * Crit*

* Bleed -6 *

Destiny cartwheeled off the wolf back and James shot a fireball at the wolf's face.

- 46

After Destiny landed the twins dashed at the wolf's hind legs from different sides. Destiny crashed into the left leg and Karma attacked the other

[Tendon Cutter]

-20

* Bleed -6 *

The wolf fell to the ground due to the combination attack of the twins.

[Fireball!]

Right after the twins finished their attack Karma grabbed Destiny's hand and swung her back into the wolf.

She arrived at the wolf's side right after the fireball hit the wolf. As the smoke cleared two glowing dagger blades sliced into the side of the wolf.

[Cross Chop]

- 46

* Bleed -6 *

- 90 * Crit*, -42

As the fight raged on James was getting more and more comfortable with fighting. He kept his distance and any time the wolf tried to move in on him the twins would stop it.

The fight continued on for a half of an hour; the wolf's health fell all the way down to 542/4000. They were almost there.

The fight did not always go so well. The twins occasionally took damage. Karma had to escape into a nearby tree to heal using health potions at one point. Destiny was down to half health. While Karma was in the trees the wolf got past Destiny once and James took a deadly blow. He had lost nearly half of his HP in one go.

Seeing that James was in trouble Karma quickly rejoined the fight and crippled the wolf giving James enough time to retreat.

Rather than healing up with his HP potions; James opted to replenish his mana with mana potions. He was using a considerable amount of mana between his two channeled spells and his fire balls.

"We are nearly there!" James exclaimed in excitement.

"Let's not count our chickens before they are hatched, Destiny are you ready for another engagement?"

"M'hmm, let's get this done!"

The twins dashed towards the wolf once again.

It was preparing for the final clash, all of its claws were glowing. When the twins were nearly in position James had thrown a fireball.

It shot out and flew between the twins. They could feel the heat of the fireball on the side of their faces as it flew by.

Both Karma and Destiny took out a smoke bomb and threw it at the ground in front of them.

The bombs blew up releasing a small mountain of smoke. Taking the opportunity, the twins both vanished into stealth as the smoke screen grew bigger and bigger. The wolf jumped backwards to get out of the smoke.

When the smoke cleared it could not see the twins anymore. All it could see was James several meters in front.

With no other targets in sight the wolf sprinted towards James.

While in stealth Destiny had jumped into the air with the assistance of her brother once again. One twin stabbed downward in the air while the other stabbed sideways into the body.

[Hidden Strike] They both called out.

Just when the twins had landed their attacks on the wolf's side and back a fireball made contact with the wolf's head as well.

- 112 * Crit *

- 106 * Crit *

- 78 * Crit *

Everyone's attacks had landed critical hits. They took off nearly half of the wolf's remaining health points at once!

*HOOOWWWWLLL*

The wolf had cried out in distress.

After her attack, Destiny landed on top of the wolf's back near the neck. The force of her landing made the wolf lose balance and fall to the ground. It was sliding towards James.

[Fireball] [Cross Chop]

-46

- 62, - 58 * Crit *

Karma had vanished into stealth and approached the wolf while it was skill sliding across the ground.

[Hidden Strike]

- 80

The wolf's body came to a stop a few inches in front of James. It had died with that last round of attacks.

All three of them had the same notification.

.

* Ding *

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Player has gained 8,452 base experience points.

Player has received an extra 1,000 experience points for killing an elite!

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Both Karma and destiny leveled up once.

* Ding, Player leveled up to level 4. Gained 2 attribute points! *

* Ding, Player leveled up to level 5. Gained 2 attribute points! Player hit a milestone, gained 1 skill point! *

* Ding, Player leveled up to level 6. Gained 2 attribute points! *

* Ding, Player leveled up to level 7. Gained 2 attribute points! *

* Ding, Player leveled up to level 8. Gained 2 attribute points! *

"Wow killing elite mobs give tons of experience points. It is much faster than killing normal monsters. *

"Yup! Everyone on the leaderboards and other members of the top guilds level up in one of two ways. The first is killing elite or higher monsters and the other is having other players pull stupid amount of monsters to one person who then takes the last hit." Explained Karma.

Destiny hopped off the wolf's corpse, "We tried to kill a couple of elites but the top guilds stole them from us. We died a few times due to the bullies."

James frowned, "Are all large guilds like that?"

"Most of them are, there are exceptions" Karma shrugged. "Apparently the trick to quickly leveling up is to land the final blow on strong monsters. The fewer people in the group at the monster time of death the more experience points are gained."

"Are elites always killable by parties containing only three people?" James wondered.

Both Destiny and Karma laughed at James's ignorance.

"No silly, especially now-a-days. Elites are equivalent to violent monsters thanks to you.", Destiny teased. "Besides, in the past small parties had to find the right elite to take on. Each monster type has their strengths and weakness. If a party found an elite that they had an advantage over they could kill it with two or three people."

Karma jumped back into the conversation, "A violent tiered monster used to take a large number of players to take down. The only successful kill of a violent today was by Above the Heavens. They had 60 players of all kinds of classes and they barely survived. Violent monsters typically appear 15-25 levels above their respective zones. So if you are in zone 10 the violent monster could be up to level 35."

James's jaw almost hit the floor.

"The two of us would have died if it was not for you." Karma gave James a small bow, his sister followed suit. "My brother is right, thank you for helping!"

The twins asked him to accept their friend requests in which James accepted.

"Great! Now we can party more often. I bet you are regularly a hard man to find since you've managed to dodge the major guilds until now!"

"I had help at that time but now I am currently on my own" James was blushing at Karma's praise.

"No matter! Let's collect the loot!" Destiny was excited to see what the wolf would drop.

Karma, who was the party leader, selected the option to look the wolf's corpse.