Chapter 286

Defense Specialization and Tsukimi

“Phew…I’m somehow…managing . Thank you, Tsukimi . ”

Mai was riding on top of Tsukimi, who was now about three meters in size, as they ran through the wilderness .

She and Yui had always fought side by side and covered for each other . And so she was not used to being on her own . Because of this, she tried to stick to wide and open areas where she couldn’t be ambushed .

“…! Another player . ”

She could see three other players in the distance . While you could not form parties, if players from the same guild were lucky enough to bump into each other, it was no surprise that they would cooperate in order to survive until the end .

Perhaps they knew who she was, because they all held their weapons up and started to move towards her . They did not run away, as it was well known that Mai and Yui could be dealt with as long as you could dodge their attacks .

“Tsukimi . Here we go…! ‘Power Share,’ ‘Charge’!”

Once Mai was close enough to the players, she got off of Tsukimi and gave the order .

Tsukimi surrounded Mai in a red light, and then the bear started to charge towards the three players .

“Tsukimi! ‘Bright Star’!”

Tsukimi reacted to Mai’s voice, and it’s fur started to glow brightly . And then a light green circle of light spread out around Tsukimi .

In spite of how pretty it looked, it caused immense damage . And the player who happened to be close to the center was erased in a flash .

“Oh! What!?”

“You-you’re kidding!”

“‘Flying Attack’! Tsukimi, ‘Tear Apart’!”

They had been more worried about Mai, when Tsukimi suddenly showed such unexpected destructive power, and they were stunned for a second . Mai took advantage of that and went on the attack . The remaining two players were not able to react in time, and they too vanished into light .

“Haa… What a relief . Thank you . You sure are strong, Tsukimi . ”

Mai patted Tsukimi on the head, and the bear growled happily and lowered its posture . Then Mai got on its back and they continued onward .

In spite of what Mai said, she had only just gotten Tsukimi recently, and its attack power wasn’t that high . Its STR was higher than anything else, but still not strong enough to kill in one hit .

“It’s a good thing we have ‘Power Share’…!”

‘Power Share’ was a skill that allowed Mai and Tsukimi to share their STR . Normally this would have meant that Tsukimi would have helped raise a player’s ability, but it was the opposite with Mai and Yui . As they had incredibly high STR, they were the ones raising Tsukimi and Yukimi’s stats . However, that meant that skills that sacrificed strength for a wide area of effect, would now be able to turn into an instant-kill attack that also covered a wide area .

“I wonder if Yui is still alive… Ah, a message… It’s from Yui!”

Mai made sure that there weren’t any players or monsters around her, and then she read the message .

‘Mai . I’m somehow managing to survive, but it’s really hard without my big sister . So, I want you to look at the map . Maple’s location should be on it . Can we meet up there?’

Mai checked the map and saw that Maple’s location was indeed displayed on it . She didn’t understand why, but she would be easy enough to find .

“Yes . I can do that…”

‘Yay! Alright, we’ll meet up in front of Maple . Don’t die, okay?’

She read the reply from Yui and then made Tsukimi run again .

“Let’s go…Tsukimi! ‘Star Step’!”

Tsukimi’s footprints began to shine brightly, and a light surrounded them both . It was a simple skill that made Tsukimi run faster, which was a huge difference, especially compared to walking .

Any monsters they met on the way were trampled and thrown into the air .

“Tsukimi! ‘Vertigo’! ‘Destroy Mode,’ ‘Double Strike’!”

Tsukimi’s skill caused a momentary stun . And this was lethal when it happened in front of Mai . There was a dull ring as the golems and orcs in front of her were blown away . As they did not take long to annihilate a group, May and Yui had killed a very high number of monsters .

When she had no choice but to run through a forest, Mai would hold onto Tsukimi as it climbed a tree and then jumped from branch to branch .

It was shocking how something so big could move so lightly . And like that, Mai acquired mobility .

“Ehe . I’m so glad that I got you, Tsukimi…”

She then landed on a tree branch that was close to her destination, and it was there that she waited for Yui to contact her . Just then, she saw a white bear that was glowing with a pink light traveling on through the trees just like they had been doing .

“Yui!”

“Sister! What a relief! How are things going? Were you able to kill a lot of monsters?”

“Yes, thanks to Tsukimi… What about you?”

“Yukimi has been so helpful too! I even beat quite a few players!”

As they had the same kind of monster and raised them the same way, Yui could do everything that Mai could .

“Don’t use any of the skills by accident . We’re not allowed to be a party now…”

“That’s right . Okay, let’s go to where Maple is . It looks like she is still in the same place . ”

“Does it never disappear from the map…? That must be really hard for Maple . ”

They continued to move through the tree branches as they got closer . According to the map, she was in a prairie .

But they discovered hell .

There were no traces of any prairie now . The only thing that was there was a vast ocean of purple poison . And from this toxic swamp, bloomed flowers in an eerie assortment of colors .

As for the monsters that jumped into it, they were clearly different from the ones Mai and Yui had been fighting . They all looked very strong, like giant dinosaurs .

And all of them were impaled by the sharp vines and rocks that shot out of the ground . Their bodies were then entrapped and repeatedly damaged .

Poison, sleep, paralysis . And continued damage . These things continued and the bodies piled up .

It would have been sheer madness had the bodies not disappeared into light .

“Is-is Maple inside of all that…?”

“It…looks like it . But we can’t get close to it either… Maybe we should just leave her alone…”

“Yes… I agree… We can ask her about it later . ”

They looked away from the scene that was more terrible the longer they watched . And so they climbed back up the tree and searched for a different place to hunt .