Eliona's War 3: Lethal Healer

Ch. 25

Time Elapsed: 00:59:49

Severance stood beside Jack Coyote, gripping a handful of Vast's fur. The second they had arrived, Vast had begun vibrating like an engine. The beast didn't like other people, especially when they clumped together like flies on a turd. And there must have been turds everywhere, for players had gathered to the point where Severance wondered if he'd travelled back in time to the early days of Eliona.

"Why are there so many people?"

Jack gave him a flat look, as if disappointed that Severance even asked the question. Yet he answered anyway. "It's because this town has become the true neutral. People can freely gather here with no restrictions."

"Ah." When put that way, it made a grim sort of sense. The two other cities had become polar opposites, which meant most players only had two options to hang out now: Ascendance, or the city that was friendly to their clan.

As he took a closer look, he began to recognize different identifiers from all clans on the players wandering about. And not only that, but there were a few who he couldn't identify. Either they were part of some obscure, unknown clan, or they were purposefully hiding their affiliation.

Like the Valkyrie.

He wasn't the only one doing the observing. Several nearby players had spotted Vast, and they eyed him with varying degrees of curiosity. After all, it was kind of hard to miss a silver creature the size of a small horse. Severance kept hold of Vast and eyed them right back. He hoped none of them got the stupid idea to approach.

"On the left," Jack Coyote warned. He spoke softly, while his gaze swept the area around them with sharp focus.

Severance glanced left and had the urge to facepalm. A full team of players headed over. Their relaxed swagger said that they were unafraid of the giant silver animal rumbling like an army of subwoofers. Well, that was their problem, not his.

The tank came first, a lumbering truck of a man covered in solid metal plating. He appeared to have gone for as much defense as possible, because his armor reminded Severance far too much of the nightmarish K-792 Purge Unit: blocky, solid, and impenetrable. It was also quite ugly, like it had been hammered out of a chunk of metal by a hairy brute that only had two words in his entire vocabulary.

Behind the tank came four others. Going by their gear, Severance guessed there were two mage classes, a shade, and a wanderer, whose giant bow was kind of a dead giveaway. But even more important was the red ribbon adorning them. Most tied it around a wrist or an arm, but the girl in the shade getup had used it to tie her long auburn hair into a ponytail.

"Chosen," he muttered. Vast seemed to pick up on his unease and began to rumble even louder. His head lowered and Severance could almost feel the muscles begin to bunch together under all that silver fur. "Hold on, boy."

While he wasn't opposed to Vast tearing into a bunch of Chosen, especially if they were players, it would be better if he at least waited to see what they wanted first.

Subtly, Jack turned his shoulders towards the players. This put Severance slightly behind him, a fact that was not lost on Severance.

With a faint quirk of the lips, he moved over so he could stand at the tank's shoulder. Jack glanced at him, eyes dark and displeased, but Severance pretended to not see it. If things got messy, then he would fight. He didn't need to hide behind a tank.

"Well, look at this," the Chosen tank drawled. He tilted his head, looking first at Jack, then Severance, before stopping at Vast. His gaze lingered on the vastlhidan before returning to Severance. His lips curled up at one corner. "I thought I saw a familiar face."