Mei stared as fish streamed through the river, swimming peacefully.

All of them ignoring the bait she tossed into the water. Mark and Umuton didn't seem to be faring better either.

"Hey Mark," she called out.

"Hmm?" Mark turned over.

"Are you sure we are even using the right bait? Maybe the fish here don't even eat stuff like this," Mei voiced her doubts.

"It went a bit better the last time." Mark wiggled the bait in the water in a bid to attract fish. "It was boring as heck, but we still caught about ten after an hour!"

"Maybe they learnt their lesson. Ai fish?" grumbled Mei.

"I don't think Ai fish would be designed to learn lessons. That makes no sense." retorted Mark.

"Eh."

As the two conversed, Umuton seemed to have had enough. Without someone to talk to directly, staring at fish avoiding all the lures started to get on his nerves. He stood up and tossed his fishing rod aside. He did a pose, making a throwing spear materialise in his hand from his inventory as he stood proudly.

"Um, what are you doing, Tom?" asked Mark.

"If the fish refuse to bite, it is time to take matters into my own hand, umu!" the skeleton declared proudly.

He walked towards the water proudly with his spear in hand and jumped in... only to be swept away by the currents. Sadly, bones were too light to resist the flow of water.

"Shit, shit, shit!" he yelled as he tumbled downstream, his spear swept away.

"Oh, there he goes." said Mark.

Eventually, Umuton managed to grab onto one of the bigger rocks. He then climbed onto it and jumped on shore. Water gushed out of his armour and splattered all over the grass, along with a few fish.

He stared at the fishes that flopped on the ground.

"Tom, I think you need to go tumble down a few more times," smirked Mark as he walked over to pick up the fishes.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." grumbled the skeleton.

He took out another throwing spear and began trying to spear one of the fish from the riverbank. The fish were slippery and quick to dodge however so he didn't have much success. Watching him, Mei felt the urge to join in.

"Can you lend me one of your spears? I want to try too!" she asked.

That definitely looked more fun than sitting down and wait for fish to bite for someone as impatient as her.

"Sure." said the skeleton as he passed one to her.

They began stabbing at the fish from the shore. It was hard to tell if the fish were just good or dodging or if the duo were just terrible at spear fishing because no fish were hit after two minutes. Mark got bored of watching and didn't feel like trying to fish anymore, so he walked to the side and began starting a fire with nearby branches.

But after a while, it became apparent that most of the fish were straying to the other side of the river, completely out of reach.

"I have an idea!" the skeleton shouted.

He took out a pair of armoured leggings, wearing it hastily over his tattered jeans. He then filled them with metal ingots and nuggets.

"That should keep me weighted down..." the skeleton slowly stepped into the waters.

This time, he wasn't swept away. Umuton began stabbing at the fish on that swerved to the other side maniaclly. Without the protection of being able to simply stay on the other side, a few fish were skewered onto the spear in a way that reminded Mei of kababs.

He ripped them off the spear and tossed them onto the shore and began spearing a few more, gradually building up a pile. Mei started at the struggling and bleeding fish and couldn't help but feel a little pity for them. They flopped helplessly and gasped for air, blood censored pink flowing out of their wounds.

"I think we should end them quickly... They seem to be in pain..." she said, slighty unsure.

"Who cares? It's just a game!" answered the skeleton as he speared more fish.

Mei couldn't help but regret blurting out what was on her mind. She couldn't help but find what she said silly. She put down her spear and headed over towards Mark and-

Whoosh!

An arrow shot out of the blue and struck Umuton's helmet, making him stumble. A small dent was left on it as the arrow fell into the currents of the river.

-846

"IIIII CAAREEE!"

An beautiful elf walked out of the bushes into view with a nocked wooden bow, her face clouded with rage.

"SCUMBAGS! I held back from INTERFERING... like how he told m... nature's survi... BUT THIS?" her expression contorted into the most agitated face Mei had ever seen. "YOU TREAT THE LIVES OF INNOCENTS AS A GAME?"

"Woah, calm down lady! That's not what I meant!" Umuton began waving his arms frantically.

Not being used to getting targeted with so much hate, he panicked.

"DIE!"

With incredible speed, the elf somehow shot almost a dozen arrows in less than five seconds. Umuton scrabbled frantically, but weighed down by the ingots and the current, he failed to dodge most of the arrows. Mei saw huge damage numbers rise from Umuton as his health bar dropped to less than a fourth.

The elf realised her quiver was empty as she had been using the same stock of arrows for weeks. She began taking out bundles of arrows and stuffing them into her quiver.

Taking his chance, Umuton kicked his metal filled leggings off and stuffed them into his inventory. He then leaned back and let the currents sweep him away, his body tumbling down swiftly.

The Elf stopped and prepared to charge after the tumbling skeleton but seemed to remember something. As she turned her gaze in Mei and Mark's direction, Mei realised to her horror that they would be targets too. She had been so stunned by the burst of anger that she forgot to do the logical thing: running away.