In the boreal forest of John’s home country, Lansbe, one could find bears.

Actually, in most of the central part of the country that contained the capital and the economic hubs, one could find bears. There were black bears along the Great Lakes, roaming the southwestern border with the US, and Grizzlies, a bit further north. Hell, one could even find polar bears at the banks of Hudson Bay at the northern coast of the province where the arctic ice brought them down south.

Appropriately, there was plentiful knowledge on how to deal with these natural behemoths. In bear country, hikers often brought deterrents like sprays or made noise to keep the timid beasts away. Upon contact, travelers were advised to stay calm and back away slowly, trying to be gentle, and never running or provoking.

If all else failed and one got chased – other than praying, becoming devout if necessary – one was supposed to run downhill. Allegedly, the powerful hind legs of bears, longer than the forelegs, made running at on a decline nigh impossible because of the resulting forward center of mass.

Of course, the Elite Tainted Raccoon wasn’t a bear – no member of the Ursidae family was venomous, or so aggressive, for that matter – but it was close enough. It had been enough for some forum posters in the past life who had hunted other mobs of similar anatomy.

With the roaring of the elite raccoon behind him, John sprinted towards the ramp, coughing out some purple fumes. Luckily, he was on a hill, and probably the largest hill for a hundred kilometers around.

‘Cleanse’

/23

[The target has been cleansed of their poisoned status]

Dedication took a strained breath. That cleanse had cost far more than normal: the elite status and higher level of raccoon had made it difficult. If he had still been level three, the cleanse would likely have not cast.

The ground rumbled as the elite monster chased after John. It roared under the pain of it’s wounded hind leg and dorsal hump. Still, its immense natural speed made it that even with the wound, it could keep up with John.

“Where’s he going?” Radiation mumbled. The pair, monster and man, was running towards the edge of the landing.

“Man, I don’t know,” Dedication replied hastily. But he was already moving after them. “Follow him, though!”

John reached the ramp to the sixteenth floor, a bit more than two hundred meters in 17 seconds flat. Fortunately, the other mobs were scarce along the path. He slowed down his aching calves and disappeared from view.

The tainted raccoon was still after the player, reaching the edge moments after him. If it hadn’t be injured, he would have been meat by now.

But its horrible advance slowed the instant it reached the steep ramp, set at forty-five degrees. It ground to a halt, slowly negotiating the slope. This was especially because of the huge wound in it’s back and legs muscles.

John smiled and raised the barrel of his gun upwards, the crimson-red tip within sharing his brimming excitement.

-23

The bullet smashed itself against the raccoon’s snout, opposite the previous laser burns. The hypergolic contents within expanded and mixed upon impact, splashing burning-hot liquid across the raccoon’s face.

-2

-2

-2

A series of flame damage ticks roast the snout and blackened the fur, causing it to roar in response.

John shot the next round as soon as he could, a penetration round.

-44

The bullet dug into the elite monster’s cheekbone, fracturing it and causing a huge flesh wound to the surrounding structures. The alchemical mixture dribbled into the wound amplifying the fire's damage.

-4

-4

[The target has ignited and is receiving serious burns]

The two Skarl members appeared from over the edge of the seventeenth cliff. “God!” Radiation exclaimed as she witnessed the flames and roasting flesh of the raccoon. “How did he do that? To a monster like that…” She raised her arms ready to cast another Beam.

“Stay, back,” John shouted, watching the mage in the corner of his eye. The mob could possibly aggro on her due to its inability to run downhill.

The raccoon roared and frantically waved its paws, trying to beat out the fire on its snout. But the self-contained fuel-oxidizer solution couldn’t be smothered. It shrieked again and leaned forward with its head cocked sideways to shield its vulnerable face.

‘Rapid-Fire’

A flurry of rounds exploded out of John’s pistol as he backed up.

-12

-14

-13

The ursine monster advanced bent over, its head nearly touching the sloped ground to brave the incoming gunfire.

-15

-13

-12

The shots weren’t very well-placed, but there were so many of them. With John’s higher dexterity and practice, he was able to pump out a bit over four rounds per second, a total of fourteen in the spell's duration.

-11

-16

-9

The beast was getting close, the bullets doing little against its thick bristles. It bellowed deeply in annoyance.

-12

-11

-9

The spent bullet casings ran down like raindrops, rolling beside the thief’s methodically backpedaling boots.

-7

-8

As the seconds ticked down, Rapid-Fire ended and the plumbic fountain dried up. John immediately discarded the magazine and turned tail down the hill at best speed.

The same instant the suppressive fire ended, the Elite Tainted Raccoon rushed forwards, doing its best to catch that damn annoying thief.

“Beam him!”

EM Radiation, watching in astonishment, snapped to attention and chanted. Magic power gathered in bright pinpoints within her hands, condensing into the Focus Beam. At the same time, the thief completed an extremely practiced running reload.

\8

~3

~9

~16

The noxious fumes trailing from the raccoon’s mouth were dispersed by its mad dash, allowing a clear shot on the behemoth’s back.

~18

~22

The raccoon ignored the light and continued after the thief. It could resist the spell’s pain as long it wasn’t on a sensitive place like the eye. It lunged after John when they neared the sixteenth landing.

‘Pounce.’

Using the refreshed skill, John pounced off the slope, landing with an elegant roll on the craggy landing. Behind him, the raccoon missed it’s swiping blow and nearly lost its balance, only stabilizing itself on the flat ground. It would have certainly rolled if the slope had been any longer.

[You have been poisoned.]

However, he had engulfed another whiff of poison. An unpleasant feeling arose in his lungs and he coughed uncontrollably.

-3

It really would be near impossible to deal with the Elite monster without a priest or an abundance of antidotes. “Shit,” John cursed, spitting out some blood. Dedication was out of range for an immediate cleanse.

The raccoon was aggroed back on him. It approached and swung, broad strokes at the thief’s core.

John dodged and ducked and sidestepped the huge strikes as best as he could. Any of those blows on an unarmored class like a thief would be enough to shatter the bones and cripple his mobility. Years of experience with larger foes kicked in as he expertly avoided the blows.

-3

John spat out more blood as the venom withered the lining of his alveoli. Between the exhaustion of the movements and the necrotizing poison in his lungs, his stamina plummeted. He somehow kept up the dodging game, even returning several sweeping blows with a stab or pistol shot until Dedication made it down the ramp.

‘Cleanse.’

/30

Dedication immediately dropped to his knees, gasping. That cleanse had cost even more health due to the time taken before treatment.

John ducked underneath the next swing, noticing an opening. He held his breath and, with renewed vigor, stabbed the raccoon in the eye, just above the burnt flesh.

-34

The critical damage to the eye permanently blinded it, spilling the fluids outwards copiously. The monster swung wildly in rage, hitting nothing. The thief was long gone by that time, high tailing it to the next ramp.

‘This is going to take a while,’ John thought as he ran, tired but confident.

The Elite Tainted Raccoon, after the barrage of attacks, was still at more than half health, chasing him furiously. They just didn’t have enough DPS to kill it in a short period of time.

Indeed, it took another four minutes, three ramps, three cleanses, and two rotations of Rapid-Fire, before the massive monster eventually swayed and collapsed. It had had enough of the constant burning, the hurting of its wounds, the sting of the pistol, and the non-stop laser scorching.

In the last slivers of its health bar, it had made a furious offensive. It knew that even if it survived the direct fight, the wounds would cripple its ability to survive.

However, John, over the course of the fight, became accustomed to this specific monster’s attack patterns. Even after the mad sprints and vicious fighting, he managed to evade the raccoon’s ultimate tantrum.

-25

A final shot to the right between the eyes concluded the raccoon’s miserable life of eternal kiting.

[You have slain an Elite Tainted Raccoon]

[You have gained 2160XP]

The fighting didn’t end immediately though, the skirmish having aggroed a few fodder mobs over its duration. Heavy combat ensued, tearing at the party’s resources.

Finally, as the last mobs fell to the ground, so did Dedication and EM Radiation, panting.

“Damn, it,” she cursed between heavy breaths. “These fights are exhausting.”

“Yes, they are,” Dedication panted, putting his formality on pause. “Damn exhausting.”

Radiation gave Dedication a look, but he shrugged it off. She had already broken the supposed formality barrier ages ago.

“By the way, John,” EM asked quizzically after panting for a few seconds. “How did you know that it couldn’t run downhill.”

John, who had been recovering sat on a rock nearby, took a swig of his canteen and looked up. “You’re wrong about a lot of things –”

That garnered a look from Radiation.

“– but at least you can tell a bear from a raccoon.”

There a brief silence.

“John…” Dedication muttered awkwardly. He was from Lansbe too, more experienced with the outdoors than the city-bound thief. “Bears can run downhill just as fast as on any terrain. That’s one of the worst myths to tell someone about bear country.”

John squinted at Dedication, analyzing in confusion. “Is that so?” he finally coughed out, inwardly cursing the validity of random forum posters. “Clearly, it can’t run downhill with a crippled leg.”

“Well… I believe most quadrupeds would struggle with that,” Dedication pointed out.

John squinted harder as if seriously considering the proposition. He gave it up. “Ah, it’s dead – that’s what matters.”

And dead elite monsters gave a lot upon death. John and the Skarl pair pillaged the corpse, collecting a mound of monster commodities. The most interesting single article was an [Elite Tainted Raccoon Heart] that would fetch a pretty sum in the market, a very lucky drop.

John stashed the item in his inventory and rose from the ground dusting himself of.

Boom!

A nearby explosion caught his attention. A plume of hot gases expanded upwards, over the edge of the thirteenth landing.

“What’s that?” Radiation exclaimed. "Players?"

John knew what it was, the animation and the sound, but hadn’t expected it, at least not so early. “Friends...” he muttered.

…

‘Fireball’

\13

The pyromancer Selene grimaced the mighty spell feasted on her blood cells. In return, her recruit fire staff congealed a powerful ball of swirling gases. It was a medium intensity fireball.

“Die!”

-45

[The target has been burnt in the head, injuring its senses.]

The explosion detonated in direct proximity of the Tainted Raccoon’s head. Blast procs staggered it as fire procs set the poor critter ablaze, crippling its sensory organs.

-2

-2

Warrior Helios swooped in from the side, seizing the moment. Fully armored, with just an exposed face, the offensive melee class engaged. His humongous greatsword was like a vehicle as it swung down on the little tainted mob.

-23

‘Sweep’

His blade glowed with the customary blue tint and rocketed forward again, a horizontal spin this time.

-36

[Your target, the tainted raccoon has started bleeding.]

-43

The broad stroke cut into not only the first raccoon but also sliced another foe, a tainted rabbit nearby.

-3

[You have slain a Tainted Raccoon.]

[You have gained 68XP]

The first tick of the bleed killed the raccoon and Gram immediately switched targets to the rabbit. His blade heaved forwards, cutting it without retaliation.

Meanwhile, Jodie’s straw-blonde locks seemed to hover under the effects of her intense magic casting. Her target was another tainted rabbit, readying to attack twenty meters away.

‘Ember.’

/3

The maximum intensity wisp of fire shot forward in 1.136s, compared to the 1.3s Standard of the maximum intensity of the spell.

-23

/3

-25

[The target had been ignited by your Ember.]

/3

-23

A string of maximum intensity basic spells pelted the rabbit like a hailstorm, dealing massive fire damage. Starter Pyromancers skilled enough to really spam Ember had some of the highest sustained damage of any ranged class.

Jodie’s typically pleasant features twisted into an odd sort of smile as the critter turned into a dancing torch. Pyromancer, while a magic class that hurt a lot to use, also had the highest thermal damage of any class, and thus hurt to most to fight.

[You have slain a Tainted Rabbit.]

[You have gained 45XP]

[You have slain a Tainted Rabbit.]

[You have gained 47XP]

Gram and Jodie finished their respective mobs near simultaneously, the tainted bristles tumbling to the rough tainted landing. They continued onto the next mobs.

On the battlefield that was the twelfth landing of the nameless hill, two players fought waves of higher-level mobs. The flames rose up, casting her carmine robes even redder and amplifying the pure color of the blood across his armor.