Edited By: Tyhuko, 1jayds

True Identity

Chapter 21 - Untreated Injury

Once again, Amos used [Call Of The Wild], but this time the howl sounded more desperate than before. In response, 5 wolves came out of the darkness this time to aid their leader.

I wasn’t all that concerned about the extra wolves, until I saw how they split up, I started to panic. Amos had sent the 5 wolves to attack Iris, while he dealt with me, this completely countered our strategy. This way Amos would be able to focus just on me with no disturbances.

Wolves are indeed intelligent creatures….

…

The series of events unraveling before us was frightening. I would have to fight Amos alone, but that wasn’t even the scariest part. Iris would have to face5 wolves all at once, the most we’ve fought alone was 3 wolves at once. Killing 5 wolves by yourself would prove to be a difficult feat to accomplish.

I didn’t even have the chance to think about helping her, As I had my own danger in front of me. Amos was clearly challenging me to a duel he was sure he could win. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe it was true either, but at the moment my determination was overwhelming. When I thought back to when Iris had to fight the alpha wolf by herself for 5 whole minutes, I felt that my pride and bravery was now in question.

If Iris can survive five minutes by herself against this thing, so can I, or so I thought….

“AHHHHH!”

I let out my battlecry, taunting the boss to make the first move. Wolves are very prideful creatures, so they react immediately when their authority is challenged. I plan to use Amos’s pride against him in every way possible.

“GROWL!”

As the Boss came rushing at me, I watched his movements very closely. The alpha wolf’s movement speed was clearly dominant, but on this terrain, my versatility was superior to his. I could twist, turn, and even change directions better than him. I had to use these differences somehow to my advantage... but how?

|35|

[20]

“Argh!”

When Amos came close, I tried copying Iris’s tactic of rolling to my left. I’ve seen Iris use this tactic once so I thought I would easily be able to do it, just like her. Unfortunately, my timing was way off, Amos clipped my right shoulder with his razor sharp claws. I quickly reacted to Amos’s attack, using my axe to chop down on his front leg.

As I tried to make distance between us once more, the pain in my right shoulder intensified to a whole new level, I was already injured from the wolf bite from before, but now Amos’s claws hit me directly in the same spot. What was once a sharp stabbing pain, was now violent torturous agony, that wasn’t just felt in my shoulder, but throughout my entire body. I momentarily stopped, when I saw a bright red system notice appear before me.

[You have suffered a serious injury that must be treated immediately. - 10 health every 20 seconds until treated, more severe symptoms will develop if injury persists.]

I immediately redoubled my efforts and quickly moved out of the Boss’s attacking range, I couldn’t possibly take anymore unnecessary risks. Taking a quick glance at the injury on my right shoulder, I saw the bandages were torn apart and the wound was split wide open, bleeding profusely.

It’s no wonder I’m losing 10 health every 20 seconds. Heck I’m actually pretty lucky, with this kind of wound I should be losing 10 health every 10 seconds… but let’s not jinx ourselves here. The sight of the wound made me want to throw up, but I didn’t want to show any weakness to Amos so I tried to put the pain in the back of my mind. Didn’t work so well….

Looking towards Iris, I saw that she having a hard time as well. She had already killed 2 of the wolves, but took some serious damage in the process. I didn’t check her situation for long but instead put my full attention back on the problem in front of me.What had to be done was clear, I needed to kill the alpha wolf quick or else we would both die.

“GROWL!”

Amos noticed my weakened state and planned to use it to his advantage. The alpha wolf charged and then leapt into the air towards my location. His actions were so swift that I didn’t even have time to react. Suddenly Amos’s claws started to glow red while he was in mid leap, he was readying [Sharpened Claws].

Frantically thinking of what to do, I decided to go with what worked before. In desperation, I threw my axe at the Boss, hoping that it would interrupt [Sharpened Claws] like before.

[40]

The axe cut right into the left side of Amos’s neck and [Sharpened Claws] was interrupted.

Thank God!

Recovering from my shock, I quickly rushed towards the alpha wolf in order to retrieve my axe.

|Miss|

Running up to the Boss, I dodged a bite Amos aimed with his sharp teeth to the left and tried to pull the axe out of his neck. But to my surprise, the axe wouldn’t budge. It’s stuck!

Suddenly, Amos jerked his body and I was thrown into the air with my hand still gripping the axe. The axe then abruptly came out of the wolf’s neck and I landed on his back. It took me a second to realize what had just happened, but I came to my senses quickly.

“GROWL!”

Amos tried to fling me off his back by jerking his body back and forth but I refused to be dismounted, I gripped onto his fur as tight as I could. I was in an extremely favorable position right now, this is the only place where Amos couldn’t attack me. Realizing he wouldn’t get me off his back with his actions, Amos started to run in a circle and rolling on the ground as much as he could. Due to all the movement, my shoulder was feeling intense pain. It was extremely hard to hang on but I managed to do so, it was as if I was riding a bull. Yeehaw!

After holding on for who knows how long, I was starting to lose my grip and soon I would fall off. I then decided to take a big risk. I let go of the fur in my right hand, now only gripping his fur with my left hand. I quickly grabbed my axe and cleaved it down on the alpha wolf’s back.

[80!] [Enemy stunned for 2 seconds]

Within the 2 second stun I tightly wrapped the thick fur around my left forearm and gripped it firmly with my left hand. Now it would be nearly impossible for me to fall off. When the stun debuff wore off, Amos furiously tried to get me off by jumping up in the air or by running around like a mad man but my grip was so firm that I clearly wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

[40]

[36]

With my axe still in my right hand I started to cleave Amos’s back with all my might. If this continues, I’ll be able to kill the Boss in no time.

Suddenly another red system announcement appeared before me.

[Injury has not been treated. Movement Speed reduced by 50%, Attack reduced by 50%]

The system announcement worried me, but I tried to ignore it for now since I needed to concentrate on the matter at hand, killing the Boss.

[23]

[18]

As I was striking the alpha wolf, I quickly noticed that my axe felt significantly heavier and my damage was much lower. But nevertheless, I continued my assault on Amos, now he only had about 150 health left. But since the last system announcement, my body was now feeling bitterly cold and extremely tired. It wasn’t long before the next system announcement appeared.

[Injury has not been treated. -10 health every 10 seconds, Movement Speed reduced by 75%, Attack reduced by 75%, Consciousness severely impaired]

I immediately felt the effects of the impairments, my consciousness was frequently slipping in and out. But I still continued to attack Amos with all my might.

I ha...have... to ki-kill hi-m.

[24]

[22]

[19]

Suddenly my vision started to fade. My grip loosened and I fell off the back of the wolf, crashing into the cold snow. As my consciousness was fading, I could faintly hear slashing in the background and Amos howling in anger. Then everything when black and I lost consc....

…

*Moan* “What happened?”

I opened my eyes trying to see what was happening around me, but my eyesight was all blurry. I desperately tried to remember what happened. Damn, I’m dizzy. When my vision started to clear up, I was surprised at what I saw.

Staring ahead I saw Iris above me, her face looking down at mine. Wait, why is she above me? I then realized that my head was resting on her lap and I immediately tried move away in surprise.

“AH FUCK!”

I tried to jerk my body away but when I moved, my body spasmed forcing me to endure extreme pain. I was sore everywhere, it felt as if sharp needles were pushing in all throughout my body.

“Don’t move, you’re hurt.” - Iris

I couldn’t move even if I wanted to! Realizing that I couldn’t move anyway, I had to accept Iris’s order, at least until I could actually move.

“Alright, thanks.”

After that, we stopped talking to each other and everything became silent. I turned my head to look at my right shoulder and it was wrapped with bandages again.

“Did I die?”

Iris shakes her head.

I looked at my level just to make sure that I didn’t die and to my surprise, I was now level 16. Rather than losing a level from dying, I gained a level. What the hell? I turned my head in order to look further to my right, the pain in my neck hurt but it wasn’t unbearable. With Iris’s help I was finally able to turn farther to my right, I saw the alpha wolf lying on the ground with its blood soaking into the snow. I must have gained a level from killing the Boss.

“Stats”

Title: Livin’ On The Edge

Name: Axle

Level: 16 Class: Warrior

Health: 100 / 183* Mana: 100 / 190*

Stamina 100 / 186* Attack: 75-77*

Movement Speed: 100* Fame: 155

Honor Points: 1

Author's Note: * means impaired states

Hmm, my stats are coming along nicely if I say so myself. Looking at my stats, besides seeing the impaired states from my injuries, I felt satisfied. But when I looked at my skill list, I almost had a heart attack, I acquired 2 more skills! I immediately open the skills in order to read the details.

Skill Name: War Cry

Skill Rank: Novice

Skill Level: 1

Skill Experience: 65%

Description: Using war cry taunts the enemy and increases the morale of your allies. Other effects may apply when you level up this skill.

Skill Name: Axe Throw

Skill Rank: Novice

Skill Level: 1

Skill Experience: 75%

Description: This skill is a long range attack and has a 40% chance of interrupting skills. Percentage will be increased as you level it up.

Author’s Note: Adventurers can learn new skills from experiences, teachers, or spellbooks

Hell yeah, my second attack skill! Now I don’t have to rely on [Skull Splitter] all the time.

After a little while longer, my body started to feel much better. I was still in excruciating pain but I didn’t want keep lying on Iris’s lap for much longer. I got up to my feet and started to lose my balance, as I tried to take a couple steps. Iris tried to help, supporting me, but I gestured with my hand saying that it was fine. Damn AA’s 97% realism is no joke, you can even lose consciousness.

After a little bit more, I regained my composure and could somewhat walk around now. I slowly walked towards the dead wolf on the ground and noticed that the loot was besides it. The loot was leather pants, a plate chestpiece, a shield, a ring, and 30 gold coins. The shield and the ring both glowed a greenish hue.

I picked up the loot one by one and started to identify them.

Item Name: Protector of Ice [Tier: Basic]

Type: Leather Pants

Durability: 125 / 125

Stats: + 30 Defense, 15% resistance to ice

Requirements: Level 15

Item Name: Breastplate of Relentless Might [Tier: Basic]

Type: Plate Chestpiece

Durability: 175 / 175

Stats: + 50 Defense + 15 Stamina

Requirements: Level 16

Item Name: Guardian of Frost [Tier: Grand]

Type: Shield

Durability: 200 / 200

Stats: + 100 Defense 10% Ice Resistance

Requirements: Level 18, Strength at least 100

Item Name: Ring of Elusion [Tier: Grand]

Type: Ring

Durability: 100 / 100

Stats: + 15 Attack, + 20 Movement Speed, 5% chance of evasion

Requirements: Level 16

No spellbook huh. Well that’s a disappointment, I kinda wanted to obtain that [Night Vision] skill, it would help tremendously with fighting in the dark. Or even that [Call Of The Wild] skill but I don’t exactly know how it would work when I have no followers….

But even if there wasn’t any spellbook, I couldn’t complain much. This ring is a great drop, not only does increase attack and movement speed, it also has a 5% chance of evasion! This ring was the perfect match for me. Whoever had that ring would gain some serious buffs. I can only hope that RNGesus is favoring me in this roll.

I took the leather pants and Iris took the plate chestpiece. Even though we were both warriors, Iris wore plate armor to increase her defense and stamina while I wore leather armor to increase my defense and movement speed. So deciding on who got those two pieces of equipment wasn’t that hard to decide on. Then we both looked at the shield and I suggested an idea.

“Let’s see if Garan wants it, he’s a tank and he’ll need a better shield. I bet we can even sell it to him for a good price.”

Iris nodded.

I took the shield and stored it in my inventory.

Finally, it was time to decide who got the ring. I nervously rolled for it, while praying to the RNGesus to help me.

[45]

[72]

…

Author's Note:

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