The Spined Deer was grazing in the clearing. Having just about eaten its fill it would soon begin searching for a place to rest and let its wounds heal.

*TWANG*

Suddenly, a faint, unfamiliar sound rang out through the woods, followed by the sound of something cutting through the air. The buck immediately turned to identify the source of the noise and as a result, the arrows that flew towards it were deflected by its protective spines. Having felt the impact of the arrows, the deer began to flee. Although the buck was a proud beast that would normally stand its ground, it was not so foolish as to fight against something it could not see. As the buck began to run, it quickly noticed something else that was unfamiliar.

Yang appeared before the buck, less than 20 feet away and closing. Yang raised her shield and ax, the buck lowered its antlers at her and activated its [CHARGE] Skill, increasing its speed.

"GET OVER HERE!" Yang roared.

Even as the hulking mass of muscle and bone barreled down at her, closing the distance in a matter of seconds, she stared at it unflinchingly. At the last moment, Yang dropped the Stone Ax and brought her hand up, hoping to catch one of the antlers. As the two made contact, she failed horribly, the antler's point tore through her palm creating a massive hole in the soft area between her thumb and index finger. The shield and [STALWART] took the brunt of the damage, reducing the damage by almost 55 points, but she still took 86 points of damage, nearly a third of her total HP. Yang was pushed back a few feet, coughing up a mouthful of blood as the majority of the damage came from the blunt force of being hit by such a large beast. Thankfully, the shield held, her only debuff was the [BLEEDING] from her hand, and as the antlers had slightly pierced the wooden shield Yang stubbornly continued her plan, grappling the buck with her now injured hand. With her hand applying leverage, the other antlers became stuck in the shield.

"I GOT IT! G-OH SHIT!"

The Spined Deer possessed an STR of 21, far more than enough to pull Yang off the ground, tossing her around and exacerbating her injuries. It even attempted to flop onto her, hoping to kill her with its spines and massive weight.

Still, Yang persevered and as the deer was distracted by her it was more or less held in place, so the others took their chance. Alexx dashed out of a bush 15 feet away, throwing out a spear as he moved into melee distance; as he moved three arrows flew in from separate directions. The spear went wide, missing the Spined Deer by over a foot. Thankfully, the others were far more accurate, and while Loran and Soze's arrows were deflected by the spines Yin's arrow landed in the buck's side, dealing a decent chunk of damage. Just as each of them readied and fired another round of arrows, Alexx had closed the distance. The deer didn't see the brawler's approach, its vision obscured by Yang's shield and body, and distracted from having been hit by the arrow.

"POWER ATTACK!" With a shout, Alexx launched a kick at the deer's side. While the spines did cause a few cuts, the attack connected cleanly.

Now, everyone knew that Alexx's STR was stupidly high, and everyone expected him to do massive damage to the Spined Deer. However, no one had realized his kick would deal over 150 points of damage, even more than the Spined Deer's full power Charge. They certainly didn't expect it to send the beast flying back, smashing into a tree over 10 feet away. Yang certainly didn't expect to feel like her arms were nearly ripped from their sockets as she was similarly launched into a nearby bush.

But most of all, no one expected the Spined Deer, the most dangerous creature the players were aware of, to have a massive crater in its torso from a single attack. The poor buck was now twitching on the ground, frothing red at the mouth, suffering from three [BROKEN RIB] debuffs, as well as [SEVERE BLEEDING] and a [DESTROYED LUNG]. It was dead in seconds.

~~~~~

"Ok, as amazingly well as this hunt went, we definitely need to work on our team tactics if we want to try this again," Soze said as they made their way back to the village. Having taken down the Spined Deer they weren't worried about hunting any more small animals, so the walk back was very casual. They could have been mistaken for a group of hikers in the real world, were it not for Alexx carrying the massive deer on his back.

"In fairness, I wasn't expecting the deer to get launched sideways when I took that shot," Loran defended.

Because Alexx's attack had such powerful knockback, no one's arrows from the second round of attacks had actually hit the Spined Deer. Loran in particular had managed to catch Alexx in the shoulder, taking almost a tenth of his HP with it.

"Well, that's something we should've known about beforehand."

"Whatever at least the next time will go better," Yang said, rubbing her head with her uninjured hand.

"So we are doing this again?" Yin asked, turning to look at her sister.

"Yes, you were right, this is for the best."

"And?"

"....Haaa, sorry about making such a scene earlier at the village," she said flatly.

"It's fine," Soze brushed off, "you had your concerns, and Loran was being an ass too."

"Hey!"

"You kind of were dude," said Alexx.

"...Alright. Sorry," he sighed.

"Anyway, so what even is the plan for the next hunt? Can't Alexx basically hunt these things by himself now?"

"Honestly yeah, I probably could."

"That- that doesn't seem wise," Yin interjected. While she wasn't sure if Alexx was being serious, the idea of him running off on his own and getting hurt was too easily imagined.

"Seriously, you saw what that thing just did to me right?" Yang held up her semi-functional hand. "That deer would've torn you in half."

"But didn't you guys say that this one was stronger than usual? I can probably take a normal one."

"Look, if you're this hung up on it then next time we find a small one you can try with that, okay?"

"Loran, please don't encourage him," Yin asked.

"We can't always play it safe, and we already know our bodies can handle a ton of punishment so why not take advantage of it? Besides, the EXP gain on these things isn't that great in groups."

"Can you guys save it for back at the village? My head is still spinning."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Well, she doesn't have any debuffs."

"Stop reading my stats."

"How much further?" Alexx asked, feeling very uncomfortable carrying the deer carcass.

"Less than a mile, we'll be back within an hour," Soze assured him.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that."

Hearing this the others stopped to look at Yin, her eyes shifting back and forth, already pulling out her bow. The others began readying their own weapons.

"What do you see?"

"Nothing yet, but I hear breathing, maybe growling." She strings an arrow. "I think we're surrounded."

"Surrounded huh?" Loran grimaced. Instead of his bow, he pulled out his pair of Spined Picks. "Kiting isn't an option then."

"We should run." Yang's hand was too injured to hold a weapon, so she braced her shield as she started spending the EXP she got from the Spined Deer.

"Hell no," Soze shot back, brandishing a pair of Stone Knives, "humans can't outrun animals in short distances, we'll just be exhausted when they catch us."

"But with our stats-"

"You and Alexx are too slow. Our best chances are to stand and fight." He takes a quick glance around the area. "Okay, new plan. Yin, climb a tree."

"A tree?"

"You think you can shoot accurately while dodging attacks? Even if these things can climb you should have enough time to shoot them down." Although she was considered the best hunter in the village, that almost entirely came from her formal archery training in real life. Hitting small, agile targets was one thing, but she had no experience with this kind of close-range combat. Furthermore, there was no way Yang would be willing to stick to a plan while her sister was in that much danger; even now she was starting to move away from the boys to put herself between Yin and the unknown threats. "Everyone else, form a box with me. Nothing gets between us. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Yup."

"Fine."

"Alright. Yin any changes?"

"They've gone quiet, I think they're moving closer."

"Okay....ready....GO!"