Author's Note: I wasn't able to get this chapter to a satisfying length in time, so I decided to split it into parts. Tell me what you think about it in the comments. If anything about the game mechanics or the skills themselves doesn't make sense, let me know.

(* *) means author's note by the way.

Also, since the polls showed that the majority wanted to keep the title of the story to Cast Out, I'll keep the title.

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In The Boundary Forest

Zhang POV

“Zhang, look out!”

Something pierced through the air, going so fast that it barely left me any time to raise my shield. Lucky for me, it was headed there already.

A loud THUD rang out as the thing crashed into my shield.

“DAMMIT!! I hate these annoying monkeys!”

We were already in the first outer layer of the forest, which also happened to be the part I hated the most.

Monkeys were up in the branches of the trees, surrounding us and making sure we couldn’t go anywhere. I’d left my [Observe] skill on as soon as we entered the forest. There were only a few of the monkeys visible, the rest were too high up. What I saw would’ve been more than enough to scare normal people back in the real world.

These obviously weren’t normal monkeys. How could they be? They might’ve only been the first guardians you would’ve had to get past if you wanted to travel between the territories, but they were still Boundary Forest Guardians.

Their arms were long and slender, and the hair on their bodies were the color of camouflage which made it easier for them to sneak around in the trees or on the ground. They stood to be 6ft tall, with strong, flexible tails were half their height.

I didn’t hate them because they were sneaky though. If it was just that, then things would have gone a lot smoother. Any monkey that came and fought with brute strength, I could’ve kept at bay. Any of them that tried to sneak up on us would have had to deal with Alexa, who would’ve been able to block most of their attacks and give me enough time to take them on, but they didn’t do either of those things.

They did something much worse.

“Incoming!” Alexa warned. The monkeys on our left had targeted Misa!

I quickly shifted her behind me, and I tried to angle my shield so that the attacks would slide off instead of taking it head on.

I deflected the first attack away from us, with a SCREEEECH! as it grinded against my shield before flying off.

I wasn’t as lucky with the 2nd. With a THUD!! it caught my shield dead-on, leaving a dent. ‘Ah crud, it better not be what I think it is!’

It exploded with a BOOOOM!!! Leaving the rest of the fragments to land on the ground with a Plop, plop, plop.

A foul stench wafted up to my nose after the last attack. I swept my eyes over my shield and what I saw didn’t just make me angry. It made me FURIOUS!

Blasted into my shield were the remains of the monkeys’ attacks.

Brown, smelly pieces.

“AAA, AAA, AAA!” The monkeys jumped up and down on the branches, laughing and pointing at what they’d done as if it were the funniest thing in the world. Above their heads were blue boxes that only people that [Observe]’d could see.

IRON-SH*T MONKEY: 1ST GUARDIAN OF THE BOUNDARIES LVL:50KNOWN ATTACKS: ARROW SH*T (PIERCING DMG), ROCK SH*T (BLUNT DMG), BLAST SH*T (BLUNT DMG, EXPLOSIVE DMG)KNOWN WEAKNESSES: FIRE, FIRE MAGICKNOWN LORE:

Unlike Iron-Staff Monkeys and Iron-Fist Monkeys, Iron-Sh*t Monkeys chose to forgo training their bodies or their skills with weapons. Instead, they took to eating the armor and weapons of fallen adventurers. Their sh*t gained properties of whatever they ate, and thus a new branch of Martial Art Monkeys was born. After generations of experimenting and training, their arms elongated to be able to throw better, and their tails hard and dexterous. This gives them an additional appendage with which to throw their favorite form of attacks. Generations ago they suffered an immense defeat at the hands of fire-wielding mage, and their hatred has been carried down even to this day.

And that’s the reason why I hated this part of the forest. ‘Damn sh*t-throwing monkeys!’

Seeing that brown filth that was now baked into my shield from the explosion, my blood started boiling.

“Alexa! Grab the NPC and make sure they can’t find you. Misa, start up the chant! I’ll keep them off you in the meantime. Let’s incinerate these bast**ds!”

“”Got it!””

Alexa spun in a circle, small silvery glints could be seen flashing from her hands as they flew towards the monkeys. Thinking that they couldn’t act in time to stop them from leaving, she grabbed Wahshi’s hand and dragged him off into the forest.

The monkeys simply blocked with their tails, the small needles falling to the ground after being unable to penetrate it. Seeing that their prey was about to escape, they quickly handfuls of their weapons (*I hope I don’t have to tell you where those came from*) and threw them—

-- “Everything in this world has sparks, and any spark can beget a flame—“

Misa stood with arms outstretched, almost as if she was daring them to try and hit her.

I knew the monkeys had heard her start to chant, because it had shocked them just enough to throw their aim off by a tiny margin. It was more than enough to spare the lives of Alexa and Wahshi though, who were able to disappear into the forest since all of the monkeys were now focused on Misa.

I smirked. I could guess what was going through their heads already. A mage! And one that was casting fire magic as well!

The last time Alexa, Misa and I had gone through here it had been night time. We’d decided that we wanted the extra challenge, so we came at a time when we knew all of the creatures would be stronger. It had almost killed us too.

Flashback

They’d surrounded us just like they did now, and I wasn’t able to see their attacks well enough to stop them from almost killing all of us. Luckily, Alexa had dropped her torch after the explosion of one of their blast attacks had knocked her unconscious. It had dropped onto a monkey that had swung itself down onto the ground early, thinking that it could get its meal in before any of the other ones got down.

As soon as the torch hit the monkey, its whole body lit up in flames! Screeching like mad and dashing around in pain, the only thing it managed to do was crash into a few trees before it died. After seeing that, Misa and I shared a predatory grin.

She immediately started chanting while running between the trees, trying to make it harder for the monkeys to hit her while I tried to attract their attention and make sure that she didn’t die before she finished casting the spell.

It was a close call. At the end there was less than 10% of her health left, which we knew because she had already started seeing dark spots multiply in her vision. The game didn’t show the health bar while you were fighting, so you could only guess how long it was until you died by the obvious signs. Needless to say, we sent most of them running with their a** on fire. Some of them stayed behind to protect the rest who were running away, but it turns out that it wasn’t a good idea for them to have tried. Their sh*t was explosive! That, plus fire, equaled the end of the sh*tty monkeys from back then.

Present Day

3rd person POV

Now, Misa stood out in the open with her arms outstretched and her eyes closed, daring them to try and stop her. The area around us got hotter, and a red ring circled the staff that she held in her right hand. Each chant made it grow bigger and brighter.

The monkeys at this point had all started throwing crap as fast as they could! Piercing whistles, crashes and explosions filled the air. None of the Iron-Sh*t Monkeys held anything back as they pelted her with sh*t, crap and turds.

MAGES ARE THE ENEMY!

Their faces betrayed that thought. Each one had a scowl, with their faces scrunched angrily as they screeched. “OO, OO, AA, AA, AA!” Slender arms went to their backs, whipping them back out just as fast, the contents of their hands already flying towards their target.

But none of them reached her! She stood in the middle of a literal sh*t-storm, perfectly unscathed.

That’s because right before she started chanting, Zhang had touched a small sigil that was barely noticeable in the middle of his chest plate, and his entire body lit up with a purple light. All of his armor exploded forth, spinning in the air to make a dome shape which protected them from the projectiles.

Pieces of his armor flew around blocking the monkeys’ attacks, all while a furious (and getting angrier) Zhang stood next to Misa in the center in a silver shirt with black leggings. Purple light blazed out from a now clearly visible lightning sigil on his chest, while electricity crackled out on his body. His black hair stood up straight, as if someone had jolted him (except that he was actually jolting himself with that ability). Each time his armor blocked something, electricity flew from the dome, striking Zhang. Each strike dealt 95% as much damage to Zhang as the attack that it blocked would have done. For someone defending himself from an attack coming from one direction, it was worthless. But for defending against attacks from multiple directions, it was better.

Its true potential only showed to those that defended others, however. While Zhang would take damage for every hit, no one else in the dome would. At least, not until Zhang himself died, or the skill’s time limit was reached.

“—the wind unfurls its secrets unto me. I entice you to rush through a new form, to run wild in this new territory—“

A white ring appeared on Misa’s staff, which grew larger and larger with each chant, until it was the same size as the red ring which encircled them.

Zhang’s face grew angrier and more strained. “Misa, hurry the hell up! This isn’t the time to speak slowly.” He yelled.

Using an ability like his didn’t come without any costs after all. But the one that Zhang hated the most, was the fact that his armor was getting sh*t baked into it from the explosions!

Misa opened her eyes and let out a terrifying grin. The white ring which encircled them, now hovered above the monkeys, with the red ring not far behind.

“—and join your brother flame in madness and wild laughter!”

The white ring glowed bright, and the red burned darkly….

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Author's Note: So what did you guys think? Was there any mistakes in grammar or spelling anywhere? I don't proofread these things, so what you're getting is the unedited result.

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