Active Combat Skill
MP Cost: 6
Cast Time: 1.5 seconds
Requires: Fire Affinity F
Launch a concentrated bolt of flame at a target. Damage scales with Intellect.
Ren grinned.
The Cinderpod had given him permission. Kestrel had provided the missing paperwork.
Plunder Firebolt F?
[YES] / [NO]
Ren selected [YES].
[Plunder successful.]
Acquired: Firebolt F
Compatible affinity detected: Fire Affinity F
Plunder Skill Slots: 1/1
Firebolt F stored in Vault.
Another notification followed.
Target Effect: Sundered
Kestrel’s Firebolt F has been temporarily disabled.
Duration: 24 in-game hours.
Ren stared at the sundering effect for a moment.
Stonebird had spent the next several minutes trying to figure out why his Lunge no longer worked. Ren had left before anyone could connect it to him.
Kestrel wouldn’t get that chance. Twenty-four Earth hours locked out meant forty-eight inside Pantheon. By the time Kestrel could log back in, Firebolt would have returned long ago.
Ren looked at the fading motes.
Interesting.
Winning against a player left questions. Killing one erased the evidence.
Redjaw roared again.
Right. There’s still a giant wolf.
Ren closed the Plunder window. He had wanted Firebolt, but Burrow was far more useful with a growing crowd of players chasing the same wolf. It would keep him alive, at least.
The fight had spread along the creek.
The hidden-quest holders were doing exactly what they had agreed to do, though none of them looked happy about it.
The Guardian had two bounty hunters occupied near the water.
The Mage had roots wrapped around another player’s ankles instead of Redjaw’s.
The Ranger kept firing at anyone who tried to move north.
The duo was worse. Or better, depending on perspective.
The curved-sword woman slipped around a Guardian and cut behind his knee. When he turned toward her, an arrow from her partner struck his exposed shoulder.
Neither needed to call the other.
Ren watched for half a second.
They’re definitely better than most players. Definitely not their first full-dive game.
Redjaw crashed through another wall of briars. The wolf was moving north, but slowly.
Too many players were following. Someone threw a rope over one of the briars around his neck. Another player looped the other end around a tree and three of them hauled on it.
Redjaw jerked forward. The rope snapped tight, bending the crown beneath the pull.
Ren’s quest window flashed red.
Warning
Redjaw’s return has been interrupted.
"Oh, come on."
Redjaw pulled again. The tree shook, but the rope held.
The Guardian saw it too.
"Rope!"
The curved-sword woman was already moving.
An arrow from her partner struck the rope. It frayed, but held.
Ren activated Burrow immediately.
MP: 25/50
The ground swallowed him, and he passed beneath the players between him and Redjaw, surfacing beside the tree.
One of the players recognized him.
"Vagrant!"
Ren drove his spearhead into the frayed section of rope.
The first strike cut halfway through. Ren pulled the spear back and struck again.
The rope snapped, Redjaw surged forward, and the three players hauling on the rope stumbled backward into the mud.
The loose rope whipped through the mud as Redjaw spun around.
For one deeply educational moment, Ren found himself standing directly in front of a Level Thirteen Rare wolf.
Redjaw’s eyes locked onto him.
Ren froze. Cold sweat ran down his back.
"Um... You’re welcome?"
The wolf lunged.
Ren dropped into a crouch and covered his head as Redjaw jumped over him and crashed through the briars toward the Hollow.
Ren looked at his palms, then his HP bar. Still alive.
He laughed and followed.
Good wolf. Don’t kill the one who’s helping you.
Behind him, the bounty hunters reorganized.
"AFTER IT!"
"North!"
"Don’t lose my fucking gold coins!"
Then another voice cut through the shouting.
"VAGRANT!"
Ren looked back.
A Ranger was pointing straight at him.
"He’s the one helping it!"
Most of the players kept chasing Redjaw. Five didn’t. A Swordsman turned toward Ren. Two Rangers stopped on the bank. A Mage raised his staff.
An arrow struck the ground beside Ren’s boot.
"Kill him first!"
Guess they disliked losing it twice.
The Mage started casting.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, but I have a wolf to follow."
Ren bowed theatrically as he activated Burrow.
MP: 20/50
The ground swallowed him just before another arrow reached him. Someone shouted his name again. Someone else shouted something considerably less polite as the soil closed overhead.
Rude.
Ren kept moving north underground.
By the time he surfaced, the creek was behind him. He brushed dirt from his face and started running north again.
The hunting horn sounded behind him.
More voices answered farther away.