Zed was dashing through the woods at a breakneck pace, barely even stopping when he passed by the two carrying the injured hunter. He could hear shouting in the distance, followed by the crash of breaking trees and what could only be described as a thunderous bleating.

*THUD*

A deep sound rolled through the woods; a sound so powerful that Zed felt it through the ground. The sudden tremor took Zed off guard and he stumbled, falling to a kneel.

Zed grinned maniacally, it seemed like he made the right choice after all.

Going a little further forward he could see the battle taking place. Bates and six of his teammates were circling around a truly massive Mountain Goat. The goat was riddled with relatively small cuts and had arrows sticking out of it at odd angles, but this seemed to do nothing but piss it off. It looked like they were standing in a clearing, but Zed realized that the Mountain Goat had actually knocked over a bunch of trees during the fight. Looking past them Zed could see the path of destruction the goat had created as they brought the fight closer to the camp.

A few more seconds passed and Zed was finally close enough to use [ANALYSE], his grin growing wider as he did.

[NAME]: N/A

[SPECIES]: Mountain Goat

[LEVEL]: 25

[STATUS]

{HP}: 785/1095

{SP}: 917/1095

[END]: 73

[STR]: 68

[AGI]: 26

[DEX]: 21

[PER]: 25

[SKILLS]

[SKULL BASH] Lv.10

(Active: Cost 30 SP) A powerful attack performed with the head. Deals Bludgeoning Damage with attack power equal to 300% of the user’s END and STR.

[HARDENED SKULL] Lv.10

(Passive) Reduce damage taken to the face by 100%.

‘This is going to be awesome,’ he thought, feeling every bit like he was looking at a holiday feast.

The Mountain Goat turned as one of the hunters attacked it and Zed jumped at the opening. Activating [SPRINT], he leapt forward and upward, bounding off of a tree branch and falling towards the beast’s back.

As he landed, Zed swung his spear along the goat’s back leaving a long bloody gash.

The Mountain Goat reared back in pain, knocking Zed away before he could gain footing on the beast’s back.

It was a long fall down, but Zed managed to land on his feet, taking a brief moment to survey the other hunters.

At first glance the hunters seemed to be doing well, keeping their distance as much as possible while slowly working down the Mountain Goat’s HP little by little. Zed was briefly surprised to see two hunters sitting off to the side, apparently resting, but after a moment they returned to the battle as two others fell back.

‘They’re fighting in shifts and managing the aggro to keep it away from the ones that need rest. Not bad.’

It wouldn’t work as well against a group of enemies, but against a singular boss-type monster it was a good way to keep everyone at peak performance.

“What the hell are you doing here,” Bates said, approaching Zed while still firing arrows at the goat.

“Some of your boys came back to camp injured, I came to give some backup.”

“Fuck no,” he snarled, “this is our target, I’m not going to let you steal it before we can get it under control.”

“Under control? What the hell are you-” realization dawned on him. “You’re trying to tame this damn thing?! I thought you said that was a bad idea?!”

“Because I knew Loran would try to stop us.”

‘Well, that’s not incorrect,’ Zed acknowledged. “Do you even have a plan?”

“Just get out of here! I’m not about to let you and your buddies steal our spotlight again!”

‘....This little brat…’

There was no plan, or at the very least not much of one. They were clearly trying to weaken it and bring it to the camp, but to what end?

New Eden Online didn’t have a monster taming mechanic, at least not inherently. It was fully possible for a player to learn a taming Skill, but Zed knew for a fact that no one here had such a Skill. Without utilizing that aspect of game logic, the only alternative was to use real world practices, but if that was their plan then they were doing everything wrong! You don’t tame real animals by beating them into submission, you do it by caring for it. And you certainly don’t target an adult that already understands the world, but a young one that’s still learning.

‘This can only end poorly,’ Zed thought solemnly.

Bates and his team were doing a decent job wearing the Mountain Goat down, but had no plans of trying to kill it. The goat wasn’t going to give itself up, and if the hunters kept stalling then they’ll eventually be wiped out.

“...Okay, I’ll back off.”

Bates’ neck nearly snapped as he turned to look at Zed. “Wait what?”

Zed didn’t have the patience to try arguing with Bates, and he wasn’t concerned about them surviving the battle. Either they were defeated and Zed could take the Mountain Goat for himself or they would pull out a victory, which Zed would find just as entertaining.

“You want to handle this yourself? Fine. I’m going to sit in this tree for a bit. Just remember that you’re getting too close to the camp. Keep the fight here.”

Zed then left the clearing before scaling a nearby tree with a good view of the battlefield. Balancing his spear in his lap, he sat back and watched the show.

Bates turned his attention back to the Mountain Goat, if he was concerned about Zed swooping in to try and steal the kill at some point he didn’t show it in his face or in his actions. The battle returned to its previous pace. The hunters with the [TAUNT] Skill juggled the aggro on themselves while the ranged and DEX fighters continuously bombarded the beast with their own attacks.

Unfortunately, the situation still didn’t look good for Bates. Because the Iron Ants were all but impervious to arrows, most of the hunters had left behind their bows in favor of Bone Picks like Loran. As a result, only three of the hunters present, including Bates, had any ranged capability. The remaining four hunters had to get in close with melee weapons, which was quickly proving to be a feat in and of itself.

To say nothing of how dangerous getting close to the Mountain Goat was, another problem that Zed noticed was that the beast was too strong for the Tanks to manage properly. Although they could survive one or two normal attacks from the goat, without any means of sustainable healing they would die in a matter of seconds. As a result, the Tanks were forced to run and evade the Mountain Goat’s attacks and were unable to keep it in place, making it harder for the attackers to land a clean hit. Only the three ranged attackers could consistently hit the beast, it would take a long time for them to wear down the massive HP bar.

Then there was the other problem.

“I’m out!”

“Me too!”

Sure enough, the archers ran out of arrows. They each had a decent supply, but their effectiveness was limited against the thick hide and matted fur of the Mountain Goat.

“I’m on it!” Bates shouted, tossing his bow to one of the archers.

Bates ran forward as the goat turned its back to him, leaping onto it much like Zed had done before. He grabbed a handful of the beast’s fur as it began violently bucking to throw the hunter off of itself.

Bates held on for dear life, miraculously holding himself steady as he began pulling out arrows and throwing them back to the others.

Zed looked on as a small grin spread across his face. ‘Pretty tough for a whiny brat.’

The other players mostly kept their distance and recovered as Bates removed the arrows, sometimes throwing rocks or sticks to keep the enraged beast distracted.

After a few minutes passed, Bates finished collecting all of the arrows and leapt off the Mountain Goat’s back. The second he was off the melee players restarted their management of the beast. As Bates landed, the two archers handed him a handful of arrows to replenish his quiver, and the three joined the others in their assault.

Once again, Zed was impressed. Bates hadn’t taken a moment to rest since he had arrived, constantly moving and attacking. He began to wonder if Bates had taken a moment to breathe since the fight began.

Zed looked on appreciatively. ‘Our bodies have way more stamina thanks to the game, but even then it takes tremendous concentration to maintain this kind of pace.’ His smile turned solemn. ‘But I wonder how long the others can keep up?’

One of the melee hunters attacked the goat's flank, creating a deep gash that may as well have been a papercut to the giant beast. The Mountain Goat responded with a swift kick. The player tried to dodge but moved too slowly, exhaustion showing on his face. Even if they were being given time to rest, it was only a few minutes at a time, and those mere minutes weren’t enough to clear away the mental and physical exhaustion that had been steadily building. Mistakes were inevitable.

Fortunately, he had raised his shield at the same time and managed to avoid a direct attack.

Unfortunately, the power of the Mountain Goat was too much for the player’s meager defenses. Although the damage was minimized, the weight behind the blow knocked him flat on his back.

Before the hunter had a chance to get back to his feet, he looked up to see the Mountain Goat rear back on its hind legs, a bit of sunlight glinted menacingly off its horns.

If the previous attack had not knocked the wind out of his lungs, he would’ve let out a blood-curdling scream.

*BOOM*

The Mountain Goat brought down its horns in a terrifying [SKULL BASH]. The impact created a thunderous noise and shook the earth, even Zed nearly fell out of the tree from the tremors.

“NO!” Bates shouted as he looked on, too far away to do anything to save his subordinate.

As the goat raised its head, everyone in the clearing took in a quick breath as they saw the six-inch deep crater created by the attack. In that crater, half buried in the dirt was the hunter, shield over his face as had desperately tried to protect himself.

Even Zed felt his stomach turn from the sight. Human knees were not supposed to bend that way.

Bates was frozen. He never fully bought the idea that this world was to be taken seriously. ‘It’s just a game,’ he had told himself. He had played plenty of games with hyper-realistic violence. But seeing the broken body of his friend shook him, even more than the tremors did.

This was just a game…right?

Bates shivered at the sight of his dead friend and was about to tell everyone to continue the attack when Zed leapt out of his tree to attack the Mountain Goat again.

“I thought you said-”

“He’s not dead yet, but he will be soon!” Zed shouted.

Bates’ heart nearly stopped, he quickly used [ANALYSE] on his friend. Sure enough, he was still alive; his armor, shield, and END had all been enough to let him survive with the barest amount of HP and a laundry list of debuffs. The debuffs would surely kill him in less than a minute, but if they could get some medicine into him…

“Get him back to camp, NOW!”

Bates heard Zed’s shout and snapped to attention. He still wasn’t sure what to believe about this game, but there was one thing he knew for certain.

The plan had failed, and it was time to fall back.

“Get him out of here! We’re heading back to camp!”

“But boss-”

“Shut up and do it!”

Two of the melee fighters ran over to their comrade and pulled him roughly out of the dirt. The others gathered around to carry him back to camp as one of them forced an HP Potion into his mouth. The hunter was only semi-conscious but began chewing out of reflex, his jaw miraculously being one of the only intact bones in his body.

The Mountain Goat turned to the bundle of players and was about to attack, but was stopped as Zed activated [TAUNT].

Zed brandished his spear as the goat turned to face him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bates readying an arrow.

Bates was confident the others could get the injured hunter back to camp, and if he was beyond saving he wanted to be here to make sure the Mountian Goat died with him.

A manic grin spread across Zed’s face as he stared down the charging goat. “Alright big boy, let’s have some fun!”