Victory is mine! I is best! The Blood of the Enemy’s prize soaks my horn! I have taken all that the Enemy treasures! Snowball stood upon the corpse of the late Aragor, basking in the moment of victory.

Snowball quickly regained his senses though, the Enemy stood before him and he had no time to relax. The Enemy was standing unusually still though. Why Enemy not chase me? I is here! Snowball’s muscles twitched in anticipation of a trap, the Enemy was tricky after all.

Contrary to Snowball’s expectations, however, instead of charging straight at him the Enemy spoke to him. “Why?... Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

Snowball shrieked at him in anger. How can he not know? He is Enemy! Enemy must be attacked!

Suddenly Snowball felt the atmosphere around him change. It wasn’t the tenseness of battle it had been moments before, but an aura of imminent danger and death. Snowball couldn’t help but shiver.

“It seems you have become complacent with your position in the food chain. You seem to have forgotten who is the predator and who is merely prey.” A dark mist seeped out from the Enemy’s body and spread across the ground as an ominous miasma.

Snowball couldn’t help but back up a few steps. Even though nothing happened to the vegetation the mist encompassed, Snowball felt with a certainty that only instinct could give that to enter the black mist was to die.

The Enemy crouched lower and readied himself to pounce. “Well, how about I teach you… Lesson number one.” Snowball felt the claws of dread tighten around his beating heart. “Run!” And Snowball ran. He ran as if his very existence depended on it as the Enemy chased him.

Limbs from trees flashed by as Snowball raced through the forest. He barreled through the undergrowth as if it wasn’t there, his small size allowing him to squeeze through otherwise tight spaces in the desperate attempt to lose the Enemy.

Snowball started to hope he had been able to lose the Enemy when he heard no evidence of being chased. No branches breaking, no crinkling of leaves, not even the sounds of other wildlife… Wait a second.

“Lesson two. Fear.”

Snowball bolted at the noise, his paws tearing the loam apart in its desperate attempt to find traction before finally moving. This time Snowball had no doubts about whether or not he was being chased as the Enemy no longer hid his own movements. Mocking laughter echoed around him as he dodged and weaved around the trees.

You have been afflicted by Aura of Misfortune!

Snowball got a bad feeling about the message from the All-Mother so he made an immediate left turn by jumping onto the side of a tree and using the solid trunk as a platform to make the drastic change in direction possible. “Ha! Is that all you got?! I’ve been using that trick since I first got here!”

Snowball risked a look behind him only to see the Enemy crouched on the side of the tree trunk just as he had been a second ago. The large cat lunged off of the trunk towards him with claws outstretched. Snowball panicked and veered out of the way as the cat landed just where he had been moments before.

Snowball continued running when he saw the manic grin on the feline face. “Lesson three!” Snowball would have been paralyzed with fear at that moment if his entire being hadn’t been focused on running. “Die!” Suddenly an orb of darkness narrowly sped past Snowball’s face and impacted a tree in front of him.

Snowball felt the chill of its passing but what was really frightening was when the mass of shadow splattered onto the tree a black tentacle sprouted instantly from the mess and wrapped around the tree.

Snowball sped past the occupied tentacle as realization dawned on him. The projectile wasn’t meant to kill him, it was meant to immobilize him and leave him completely at the Enemy’s mercy. The terrified rabbit pulled up dregs of motivation he didn’t know he still had and ran faster.

No matter what he tried though, Snowball couldn’t lose his aggressor. The Enemy was merely toying with him. As soon as the Enemy got bored with the game Snowball knew he would die if he couldn’t change things.

Suddenly a familiar scent hanging in the wind caught Snowball’s attention. Two legs! Snowball knew that if the Two legs were this far into the woods they were likely adventurers. Snowball knew that there was a pretty good chance that the adventurers would likely try to kill him, but they were just as likely to kill the Enemy as well. That would give him a chance to live, and no matter how small a chance it was, it was more than what he had right now.

Without a second's thought, Snowball veered into the direction of the Two Legs. As if sensing his plan, the Enemy started shooting more of the shadowy spheres at him. Snowball jumped off of every tree he could in his path in an attempt to make his path as erratic as possible. Despite his best efforts, however, the Enemy still managed to close the distance.

The Enemy soon stopped spewing the deadly projectiles and focused more and more on closing the gap. Snowball was panicking as he could feel the hot breath of the Enemy on his heels. Snowball heard voices ahead of him though and hope soared in his exhausted body

……

“Aagh! I can’t believe we lost him again!” GrammarKnotsee shouted in frustration. “I was hoping the potions of tracking might help, but the merchant didn’t bother mentioning that you needed the tracking skill for it to be effective. Damn cheat!”

M3rlin had been following GrammarKnotsee for a few hours now and he had to admit that this had been one of the better groups he had been involved in since he started the game. Still, though, he was nervous about their current situation. He didn’t like how this rabbit was behaving and his experiences with a similar event in the past was making him a bit twitchy.

GrammarKnotsee was too focused on the goal of finding Snowball, and InCrudible was standing in front as the designated tank in case they bumped into trouble so they couldn’t see M3rlin’s odd behavior. However, the Elven Druid that was their designated healer had been walking alongside him was less preoccupied.

She looked at M3rlin with concern before asking the obvious question. “Hey, M3rlin. Are you okay? You look a bit nervous.” At the Elven Druid’s words both GrammarKnotsee and InCrudible turned to look back at him, which didn’t help ease M3rlin’s current feelings.

M3rlin took a deep shuddering breath to try and calm himself before replying. “It’s nothing really, no need to worry.” He tried to put on a convincing smile but it came off being forced.

The Druid put a comforting hand on his shoulder “Look, you don’t need to worry about being judged for a bad opinion. If something affects you or the group, feel free to tell us. You won’t be judged harshly for it.”

M3rlin hesitated for a moment before nodding and taking another stabilizing breath. “Thanks, Flowerpower. Your right. Something HAS been bothering me. I’m not so sure we should be doing this quest. The way this… Snowball… has been behaving is very unusual. I can’t help but think of the last time I ran into an unusual mob. It was actually before the update. Right before the update, in fact, it was just before they announced the update.”

M3rlin shook his head. “I was grouped up with a random. Complete asshole by the way. We were on a quest to kill a few Shadow Stalker Panthers and had been lucky enough to see one respawn right in front of us. The guy I was with killed it with a surprise attack. It was pretty simple really, but Datazz1337 came up with the idea to spawn camp it. 10 minutes later and another kill and it seems like an easy finish to the quest. I took the next kill with a fireball and an oil flask, but that’s when things got weird.”

“This particular mob had seemed to have a much stronger reaction to my attacks than most other mobs did. It actually seemed to be in a lot of pain. I brought up the thought to Datazz but he blew me off, saying that lines of code didn’t have feelings or something like that…” M3rlin hesitated again.

GrammarKnotsee raised his eyebrows. “Go on. There’s more to the story isn’t there? That hardly seems like something that would make you this scared.”

M3rlin nodded. “Yea. I think at the time, the panther was somehow able to hear us after he had died because as soon as Datazz started bad mouthing the panther he got a notification saying he had gotten a nemesis. It turns out if someone hates you enough it triggers some sort of flag. The effects allow you to sense the other and increases the pain settings by 10% for attacks from your nemesis.”

M3rlin shivered at the memory. “Once the panther respawned, things were completely different. Instead of standing around and than aggroing on someone like a normal mob would have, the panther immediately dodged Datazz’s surprise attack and ran into the trees to hide. It used tactics a mob wouldn’t normally use and ambushed Datazz from above in the trees. The panther than literally ripped the guy limb from limb. It took a full minute for the screams to stop. When the panther turned towards me, I thought I was screwed. I still don’t know why he didn’t kill me.”

GrammarKnotsee exchanged looks with Incrudible before speaking up. “Well, I find it hard to believe something like that happened, but I can tell just by looking at you that at the very least YOU believe it happened. We’ll take your thoughts into account and be careful. Got that everyone? Don’t badmouth Snowball. This is just a simple quest, we don’t want to trigger this… Nemesis system.”

The group nodded in unison and M3rlin seemed to calm down at the additional rules of their plan. They were about to continue moving when they heard the sound of something shrill scream in the distance. As one the group paused. It was unlikely to be a fellow player this deep in the woods, so that left only the option of some sort of mob.

A minute later they heard the odd scream again. It was closer than before. As one the group readied their weapons. Whatever was making the sound, they weren’t going to be caught off guard. A few minutes they could hear the sounds of crashing limbs as the creature charged straight towards them.

GrammarKnotsee was quick to take charge. “Crud up front, Flower stay back and heal, M3rlin stand by me and take care of the damage. I’ll try and slow it down whenever I can.” No sooner had everyone darted to their positions than a black and white blur exploded out of the undergrowth.

Instead of directly attacking them, however, the black and white blur proceeded to keep circling them. The trees shivered with the force of impacts as the blur seemed to bounce from trunk to trunk without losing speed. GrammarKnotsee focused on the movements as hard as he could but couldn’t figure out what it was.

Flowerpower came to the rescue with her superior eyesight as an Elf. “It’s two separate creatures! I think the black color is some sort of large cat!”

GrammarKnotsee snapped out his plan. “Crud use a quake to trip them up! M3rlin, Throw a fireball at the cat! I’ll freeze whatever is in front!”

Crud channeled one of his favorite abilities.

Quake Hammer: Strike the ground with enough force to shatter the earth and trip up your foes.

Crud lifted his hammer above his head and as he brought it back down, he shouted out one of his favorite catchphrases since he had made his character. “CRUD SMASH!!!”

You have been afflicted with Aura of Misfortune!

Critical Hit!

Instead of the earth-shattering boom that InCrudible expected to usually happen, there was a loud *Splort* and InCrudible reflexively closed his eyes as he felt a few drops of something warm and wet splash into his face. InCrudible opened his eyes to see the results of his attack.

The ground wasn’t riddled with cracks and fissures. Instead, it was littered with blood and gore. At the very epicenter of the Goresplosion lay the head of his hammer. Poking out the sides of the underside of his hammer, were 4 legs and a set of rabbit ears. Crud’s eyes were drawn to the right where he saw a massive black panther staring forlornly at his hammer.

GrammarKnotsee’s voice snapped InCrudable out of his daze. “M3rlin! Now! He’s stopped!”

InCrudable turned back to see what was going on. M3rlin though made no move to attack. He was pale-faced and shaking like a leaf. GrammarKnotsee turned as well when no attack was forthcoming. “M3rlin, what’s wrong? He’s right there!”

M3rlin shook his head violently. “No! No way! It’s him! It’s totally freaking him!” M3rlin quickly stashed his wand in inventory and took several steps back. “I’m NOT getting on his bad side!”

InCrudible stared at the large panther in confusion before realization dawned on him. He pointed at the cat and turned to M3rlin. “This is the big cat you talk about in your story just before? He’s the Mister Smarty Pants kitty?!”

M3rlin nodded vigorously. “Yes! Although he didn’t have a name when I last met him, I recognize how he is openly displaying human-like emotions!”

InCrudible turned back towards the cat. Indeed, it was staring at M3rlin with a single raised eyebrow, as if saying. ‘What? Is that a problem?’

“A name?” GrammarKnotsee muttered to himself before analyzing the panther before him.

Ebony

Level- Scaling [Unique]

Vessel of the Trial of Shadows

GrammarKnotsee gaped at the results. “I can’t believe it! It’s really you! Your the guy that was talking in zone chat back in the village!”

Ebony’s gaze shifted over to GrammarKnotsee and smiled, exposing an intimidating set of teeth. Now that GrammarKnotsee had a better look at it, he couldn’t help but notice the massive size of it. Its head was almost as big as his torso, and it had some sort of odd looking band on its ear. It seemed to be some kind of earring with complex lines and sigils etched into the surface for some unknown enchantment. It reminded GrammarKnotsee of the bands that scientists would put on the legs of birds as some sort of tag to identify individuals for study.

The Panther’s gaze shifted back down towards InCrudible’s hammer and the unfortunate creature caught beneath it. It let out a long sigh and had a look of regret on its face. Before it stood up and turned away from the group.

“Wait!” Ebony turned to face M3rlin who had spoken up. M3rlin hesitated at the intensity of the gaze. He was a good 30 feet away from the cat, and everyone else was between him and the cat but it still unnerved him. Nevertheless, he gathered his courage and continued. “I-I’m sorry for spawn camping you a while back, I didn’t know you were different from the other mobs… D-do you hate me?”

Suddenly the cat’s features became indistinguishable from the shadows and it sank into the ground until it completely vanished. The next instant, the shadow of a tree reached out and touched his own shadow and it boiled upwards and outwards taking on the form of the cat standing before him in less than a second. M3rlin froze with fear as the cat’s own muzzle was a mere foot from his own face.

Even as he felt the hot breath of the cat blast over him, he didn’t move an inch. After several tense seconds of staring, Ebony let out a snort of exasperation and rolled his eyes before walking past M3rlin with the lightest shoulder bump against M3rlin’s side. Due to the cat’s massive size though, the light bump still sent M3rlin stumbling a few steps before regaining his balance.

“I’ll get stronger! Just you wait! One day I’ll get strong enough to beat you in a fair fight!” M3rlin shouted at the panther’s back. The panther snorted again, this time though it seemed to have an air of playful derision? As if saying ‘Yeah, right. Good luck with that!’

There was a long pause as everyone took a moment to soak in everything that just happened. Flowerpower decided to break the silence. “Umm, so I guess we completed the quest? I think that’s Snowball that Crud smashed with his hammer.”

Everyone turned to see that Crud hadn’t moved an inch and in fact had yet to pull his hammer off of the bloody corpse. Upon lifting the hammer, there was indeed a bunny shaped pancake stuck to the bottom of it.

InCrudible grimaced with disgust as he carefully peeled the corpse off his hammer with two fingers. “Crud think his hammer need good washing back in village.”

As if breaking a damn the tension broke away and everyone burst out laughing at the scene. Things got a little bit crazy towards the end, but when all was said and done, they managed to complete their quest and all was right with the world.

The only person not completely absorbed in the moment was GrammarKnotsee. Today’s events confirmed that the story M3rlin had told earlier was indeed true. GrammarKnotsee didn’t know why that seemed unusual to him, but his intuition had never steered him wrong before.

“Hey, GrammarKnotsee. You want to join us for a drink at the village to celebrate?” InCrudible’s voice broke into GrammarKnotsee’s thoughts. “Huh? What? Oh, uh… a party? Sure. That sounds like fun.”

Flowerpower glanced over the usual look of concern on her face. “Are you alright? You seem a bit distracted.”

GrammarKnotsee waved away her concern. “Don’t worry about it. I was just thinking about the encounter we just had with that panther. It just seemed weird is all.”

Flowerpower smiled. “I know right? His fur looked so fluffy! I wish I could have pet him, but he was so scary!”

The group chattered amicably as they made their way back towards the village. Happy that a long day of effort was able to pay off.