Trials in Mythica

Chapter 4: Ripples.

It was a few hours before the Teacher as he wanted to be called, finished telling Tris about the history of the swords. Meanwhile they had been doing some light sparring and he had been teaching Tris a few tricks here and there. Also he knew of some ways to increase your levels even without fighting. Though that means less skills obtained, and one of these ways was what they were practicing right now. They were sitting in the Lotus position in a clearing in the forest, despite the danger that the Forest could give them.

Apparently the system would reward them for trying something like this. They had been meditating and Tris had felt his levels increase bit by small bit, but he was just using this to rest. After regaining his strength he intended to go sell all the loot he acquired from killing those wolves earlier.

He was in danger. That was how he was currently feeling, but the Teacher was in even greater danger figuring he was with his back to the darker parts of the Forest. And it seems Teacher was aware of it, judging by his next words.

"Focus, young one. Open your mind to the energies that permeate this world. Don't think of it as a game, instead think of it as an entirely different world."

"I've been trying Old man, but my sense of danger just keeps increasing. Shouldn't the denizens of the forest have discovered we meant them no immediate harm.?"

"The danger you feel, is not from the Forest. I feel it too, even stronger than you do. Its coming from the village. They are the ones in danger."

Tris opened his eyes. How could this man already know how to feel all the way from the Forest to the village.

"I don't understand, what do you mean by they are the ones in danger...?" Tris asked.

"Well... You know the guy you provoked, the one with all the fur!?"

"You mean Cramer right ?."

"Yes. Well he's at—".

Teacher stopped talking suddenly and started glaring at a part of the forest.

"Tris, head back to the village right now. I'll catch up when I can, and be careful on the way." He said

"I thought you wanted to say something now." asked Tris.

"Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it when I get back."

Tris sensed something was off with the way Teacher was acting. But seeing the look of alarm on the teacher's face he didn't argue anymore and stood up and started heading back to the village.

"One more thing Tris, listen to your swords. There's an intelligence in them. It would do you good to be attentive to their needs."

"Whatever teach... Whatever."

BOOM ! 

He jumped up a tree and zipped off at a very fast rate. Astonished at the speed he was going at, he decided to check his player window and see how far his progress had come and how many levels he had accumulated.

Tris gazed astonishingly at his player window. It read level 21. Now this was more like it. With this he knew he was ahead of so many other players. Though there were people like Teacher that he knew would always be ahead of him, he decided to not give up. Besides, he had a reputation to keep. If some of these players knew his avatar in the just concluded/obsolete game released by Warp Corp., they wouldn't let him continue and would come hunting him instead.

While thinking and ruminating, he had gotten to the outskirts of the Forest. And he started smelling smoke. Smoke like a house was burning, well at least that was how the senate building in the real world smelled when 'The Unreal Syndicate' bombed it. But this one was more pungent. The air reeked of smoke. It was too thick.

Suddenly his instincts started warning him. He activated a series of his new skills under the Enhancement skill tree. Activating [Oculus] a skill that sharpened his eyes he looked ahead, but the foliage still affected his vision. Well he would have to wait till he was fully outside the Forest. With his "Spidey sense" on full alert, he increased his pace and within a few minutes burst out of the forest proper.

What greeted him was a sight to behold in its most gruesome entirety. A column of smoke like nothing he had ever seen before rose into the air. Everywhere he looked, fires burned. Houses were on fire, wails could be heard and the sounds of fighting was pervading the air. Thankfully enough, the experienced gamers in the city took this as a leveling field and just cropped up levels very fast.

Knights were swinging their swords, Archers were pulling their strings and firing their arrows, Rogues and Assassins were flitting in between the enemy like shadows on steroids. Healers were doing their best too, helping out where they could and the Mages were even more magnificent in doing what they do best; support. The synergy and the way they all worked together as a single unit was very surprising to Tris, considering these people were not familiar with each other.

But above all this, what surprised Tris the most was the enemies they were facing. It was as if the denizens of a great Canadian Forest had descended on the city. Dozens of Wolves, foxes, two tailed foxes, even Direwolves and werewolves were attacking the city from every direction that he looked at. Every form of canines ever recorded, every type of lupines were attacking the people.

Blood was being spilled, packs were being decimated and all in all it was a very gory scene. With determination in his heart, Tris walked on, at first slowly. But surely his pace increased, before long he was a speeding Bullet, a rushing train running down the hillside. Just before he smashed into the first line of attackers he jumped high and activated [Titan's Smash] and then he landed within their midst with the force of a maelstrom.

BOOM!

Monster bodies flew everywhere, and a large crater was formed where he landed. Well this time, he decided to get some exp points using just his fists only. Dashing off again, he went searching for where clusters of monsters were slowly whittling away the defenses and everywhere he landed, he created craters and freed the defenders. Then he would move on to the next cluster again.

Unbeknownst to him, a certain pair of familiar eyes watched him. It traced his path through all the destruction and through all the gore. This time things would be different, this time there would be pain and suffering and he had come prepared. These were not the eyes of someone with pity. These eyes had seen so much, these eyes had seen the destruction a particular human had caused on his own personal pack. These eyes belonged to Cramer.

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A/N.: Please guys, I apologise for the slow updates. I've got some issues to deal with and I'm working towards paying off some debts I owe. So no much pen time for me, so to say. Till next time guys. Don't worry I won't stay long this time. Enjoy your Christmas.