The husky haired man looked at her with unhinged eyes. He was down to his last amount of mana which he wondered how he would use to combat her, but then decided to take another bite from his reserve mana plant which was in his jacket. Shami noticed him making abrupt movements and immediately flew right at him. The newcomer was just about to relish in the fruit until Shami’s bird like claws struck him by the shoulder, piercing his flesh. The pain caused the man to unintentionally squeeze the mana plant until it got crushed.

This was a miscalculation on his part, but even so, he tried to lick the juices on his palm to salvage any mana boost he could get. Shami’s animal instincts could predict his malicious intent and she began to fly through the forest, gliding around and bombarding the man’s body against the trees. Since her claws were wedged deep inside of his shoulder blades, the experience for him was akin to having 6 hooks grating your flesh as they tossed you against obstacles. The man’s hands were battered against the trees and rocky structures, tearing parts of his clothing and covering him with dirt and leaves.

The juices had been soiled so he could no longer do the licking he intended. Shami wished to drag this out as long as she could, but then suddenly, the newcomer struck the ground with his feet and began to drill everything that stood in his way. His legs left a trail of deep foot holes and began to stop the momentum of Shami’s flight. He became heavier for her but still the process had messed up his shoulders. As soon as she was slow enough for him to grab, he pulled down her legs, grabbed her hips and gave her a brutal body slam on the ground. If Shami hadn’t tasted pain before, she would surely taste it today.

The impact had probably busted her back and she screamed out in pain. Tanatswa heard her scream and shouted out, “I will fucken kill you bastard. Don’t you dare hurt her!” He quickly rose from the ground and began to pursue them, making huge strides that made the ground thunder. As he tried by all means to catch up, the newcomer began to do his worst on Shami. With his mana at a really low point he decided to use his fists to end her.

He punched her in the abdomen, face, chest and even raised her head close enough so that he could head butt her. Her face got scars and she began to nose bleed as well as bleed from the mouth. The newcomer could hear the thuds of Tanatswa from afar, but was consumed with so much rage that he began to choke her. His hands felt like weights, pressing against her neck and she began to struggle with her breathing. The man then uttered to himself, “What the fuck are you doing, we need her. Why would you kill her when we agreed to keep her for pleasure purposes, no, no, we keep the girl and kill her man.” The choking’s intensity began to subside and then Shami, who saw this as an opportunity to strike back, morphed into a combination of a python and a cobra.

Her bird like shape dissipated and she then spat venom directly at his face. The man’s left eye was fully exposed at the time and the poison, which seem rather acidic, began to alter and burn through man’s eye. Shami slid away as the man rolled in pain and felt internal anguish at her near death experience. She reverted back to her human form and retained her scars and injuries from the savage attacks she got in bird form. She was panting and feeling the emotions overcome her, but the man who was on the ground began to enter things with his eye. She was certain that he was probably doing an xp purchase to boost something, but what was he going to boost? The man then purchased the percentage increase for one of his stats and soon enough, he stopped agonising and rose from the ground.

The eye that had been poisoned began to heal and any swelling had dissipated. She was horrified by his quick recovery and thought that he was going to come and strangle her. The newcomer then told her, “So you can also turn into a poisonous serpent, hmm. Your ability seems to be way too dangerous. If it weren’t for the mithridatism, I would have been a gonna, but it seems like I can just inoculate myself from my thoughts. You gotta love this place, right sweet buns. It’s pretty convenient when you want it to be.”

“Why are you fucken doing this? Don’t you see there is no point in fucken fighting your kind you piss of shit. You almost choked me to death you psychopath.” she said, feeling a bit light headed.

“I see you want to stall for time whilst your lover boy comes to your rescue. We had agreed to leave you for later, but I don’t think we would want to fuck a violent woman who can spit poison, not that your poison will have any effect on us anymore unless you have something terrible prepared for me. You see, I think in under 30 seconds he will get here, but I could break your neck in 10. I guess we will have to find a defenseless woman who doesn’t have a potty mouth instead.”

The newcomer quickly dashed at her with an intention of breaking her neck. Her life bar was halved and she was pretty battered, but she still had a little mana left. Before the man who seemed to be addressing himself as ‘we’ could strike Shami, she morphed into one of those wolves she had encountered in the Ethereal Woods.

The tables were then turned and she then pounced on him, over powering his domineering physique. She mauled his chest and then took a bite of his right forearm. The man used his free left hand to strike her on the head as well as chest. The blows she got were devastating, but the same could be said for the bite he got which rendered his right arm useless as lots of blood trickled downwards.

He then in an effort to just end her violence, gave her a gut wrenching suplex which made her land on her jaw. At this point, Shami was wrecked and she felt tremendous pain. As the man rose up to give her the killing blow, Tanatswa bumped into him and hurled his body away. The actual collision for Tanatswa was painful because it was as if his body had collided with steel. The newcomer was knocked back, with one arm left to his arsenal. He checked his bleeding arm and roared in anger.

Tanatswa quickly looked at Shami and became extremely stressed. She had reverted back to her human form but she had blood all over her body, was stripped naked and her lower jaw looked dislocated. She was failing to talk and it seemed as if her speech had been impaired by the damages of her injuries. She began to cry, but in a manner that didn’t allow for her to do so effectively. With how she looked, he had no reservations about killing this stranger, rather, all the vile and sadistic things imaginable became open to him. He then charged at the newcomer, angrier than ever and had only one thing in mind, destroying him.

The newcomer’s now limp bleeding arm was applied pressure when he ripped apart his jacket and tied a nose with it to stop the bleeding. Even at such a disadvantage the man didn’t dare run but used the last remnant of his mana for his attack. A wave of light came from his direction and went on to strike Tanatswa. Tanatswa jumped over it, but whilst in mid air, the newcomer another wave which propelled Tanatswa upwards, just above the treetops. The newcomer then used this chance to run after the bag which was full of the mana plants.

As Tanatswa did his air time, he felt pissed having been caught in the guy’s attack, but also realised that the current level of damage those attacks were giving him were just slight pain. It was either the current attacks used little mana and were barely a hindrance because of that or that the level of attack needed to kill the Hydra required a lot of mana. The truth was he needed to anticipate the waves and then find an opening to strike him. After crashing on the ground, he immediately rose up and bolted towards the newcomer. The newcomer’s running was a bit restrained due to him dealing with the pain of his bleeding hand, but he surely weathered through the pain to reach his goal. The man finally found the bag and proceeded to pick it up from the ground. Just when he had gotten a hold of the bag, he got a hard kick that landed on his face. The newcomer dragged his feet as he took in the strike but managed to be lucky enough that one of the mana plants fell before him. He pick it up and rammed it inside his mouth. He didn’t waste time began to chew. Tanatswa got in a knee to the face and a left hook that sent the man flying, but as soon as the man’s mana had resurged, the level playing field had changed.

The shield lights that were deployed seemed to have more intensity and were moving like projectiles fired from his body. Tanatswa tried to dodge, but when he would avoid one, another one would strike him. This time it was no longer a revolving door that was hitting him, but a reinforced boulder. Each deployed light always unearthed large amounts of soil from the ground, demonstrating how destructive the power was to the environment. Tanatswa was bombarded by hit after hit and finally, a shield light that seemed way brighter than the others was deployed at him and he immediately lost ½ of his life bar. The power was like that of a tidal wave made of all sorts heavy objects, rampaging him.

Tanatswa was literally blown away by the difference of power and dreaded what would happen to Shami if he failed. It was no longer just them versus the world but them versus other highly capable players. He wished his ability would be of more use to him in this situation now more than ever, but the only time he got it to work was when his enemy hurled the tree trunk that he managed stop. As he picked himself from the ground, the newcomer became afraid. Apparently those attacks had completely depleted his mana and he would have to get another bite to finish him off. With a battered bleeding hand, hand to hand combat didn’t seem ideal so he quickly bolted.

Tanatswa knew that if the newcomer got a hold of another plant it was game over for him. Probably the guy wanted to rape Shami and then later kill her for xp once he had enough of her. These morbid thoughts all streamlined in his mind as he charged at the guy, but then he stopped when he realised it was too late. The newcomer had taken another bite and this time, it looked as if he was charging; golden and purple miasma covering his body. This meant that he was preparing to use his deadly attack to defeat him once and for all. He figured he would have to jump over it and then kick his ass, but when the guy directed his hand elsewhere, he quickly realised that he was targeting the incapacitated Shami.

“It’s either you stay there and take the full brunt of my power or I will just kill your girlfriend. I think by now you know how fast my ability as when it comes to striking it’s intended target. So if you oblige me, I will let her live. A life for a life.” he said, panting and also showing signs of discomfort towards the pain in his bleeding arm.

“That’s a raw deal. There is no guarantee that you’d even keep you end. I am pretty sure you’re a sick fuck who wants to abuse her, but I won’t allow that. I won’t let people like you live.” he said, quelling his rage so that he wouldn’t act rashly..

“People like me? Well aren’t we all the same suicide victims who have come here to this so called paradise to indulge in violence for the sake of reaching the top? If you’re smart you should know, killing other players gives you a faster level increase. You could toil your way with slow progress or get with the program and get ahead.” he said with a smirk.

“So that’s it, we are all just a bunch of random people for you to kill so that you can get ahead. I don’t think people who think like you should live Goshem. “ he said, tightening his fists.

“Well, I guess you’re going to have to stop me because I intend to use both of you to reach at least level 5.” he said, carelessly forgetting his condition.

“But you said if I just stand here and take your attack you would let her go, you actually never intended to do so!”

“My my, aren’t I incapable of meeting my own end of the bargain, oh well, kiss your fucken slut of a girlfriend goodbye. I hope what lies beyond Goshem is pure hell for her.” he said, breaking into laugher.

The newcomer fired away and Tanatswa began to bolt after the blast. As he did that, his enemy prepared to attack him from behind so that when he was met with failure, he would just finish him off with ease. Shami’s body was incapacitated and his speed wasn’t enough. He felt a sense of uselessness, a deep desire to have the upper hand in this situation but alas he could never live up to this occasion. He couldn’t do so for his dreams back on earth nor was he managing to do anything now. To have to lose the girl who was not only his first but was also someone he really wanted to get to know, was unbearable thought. Tanatswa pleaded with the universe, desired to have the strength to win the day. He wished to have the refined skills to match his opponent.

Suddenly, his mana bar became active and he noticed the way he was running had become way better. He felt like he was flowing through time and he soon enough outpaced the shield light and carried Shami’s body out of the way. This was all too surreal for him and the only thing he could consistently notice was his mana bar depleting very fast. As soon as she was out of harm’s way, he returned to the destructive path of the shield light and threw a punch.

The punch which didn’t even make contact, stopped the momentum of the moving blast and it completely stopped. Tanatswa got a hold of this light which felt like hot glass and began to push it as he sprinted and returned it back to its sender with even greater velocity than before. The newcomer who only had a split second chance to prepare for all of this was confronted by his own attack which he could only lessen the blow with a shield barrier from the little mana he had left. The newcomer’s body was hit and was sent flying upon impact. The distance the body travelled in the air seemed pretty far and all Tanatswa could hear from the collision was a great cry of pain.

He wanted to go finish him off, but his zen mood quickly finished when his mana reached zero. Not only that, his ability refiner had drained him of all his stamina. He was grateful that he had managed to trigger it, but for now, he wanted to focus on treating his woman. If indeed he was going to encounter this man again, he was going to kill him, assuming that he probably survived the attack. He had the leverage of his power and he could now have peace of mind knowing that he could best him with own ability.