New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The gigantic black wolf broke through barrier after barrier of ice, making his way to his prey. Violette was panicking.

Even if this was a game, and she knew it, the prospect of dying would weaken anyone apart from psychos and highly trained players. And she was none of these.

As the alpha broke the last wall separating them, fear overcame Violette, and she froze. The time came to a crawl in her senses, as the looming black wolf's jaws opened, aiming to gobble her whole.

She could see every droplet of saliva flying out in slow motion as the jaw opened wider and wider. It was nearing, inch by inch, her heart beating faster and faster.

Then, from the corner of her eye, she saw something moving even faster, coming at the wolf. To any normal human being, all they would see was a blur.

Astaroth was using a newly gained skill from his meld with Luna, that let him reach her faster than anything he could do normally.

The skill was called Traveling Roots. It allowed him to pass through the root of trees, as long as they touched each other, to reach somewhere fast.

And since they were in an old and vast forest, the trees around these parts had intertwined roots. That allowed him to lunge into a tree and practically teleport to where Violette was.

The travel through the roots sped him up the farther he went. So when he popped out at the tree beside Violette and the alpha, he was travelling almost ten times faster than normal, piercing the sound barrier.

With a sonic clap, Astaroth drove his shield forward in a shield bash, colliding into the black wolf's head. The damage number that appeared made his heart skip a beat.

*-110'500!*

But a damage number also appeared above his head.

*11'050*

His already low health dropped even lower, making it dangerously low. His health was now under five thousand points from his previous close to sixteen thousand.

And that amount had already been a quarter of his health. Melding with Luna made him extremely resistant, but colliding with trees on his back had chewed away at his health.

The black wolf's head deformed slightly, as his head snapped sideways, taking on a weird bend. Then the force kept going sideways to it, dragging its body.

It launched the alpha sideways, sending it barreling through the forest like a runaway train. White chased after the black wolf's form, while Astaroth stopped near Violette.

"Are you okay? Can you still fight?" he asked the trembling girl.

It took her a second to snap out of her daze. Blood had drained from her face, and she was sitting on the ground, seemingly paralyzed.

Astaroth understood she wouldn't be doing anything more for a while.

"It's fine. Rest here. I will end this quickly," he told her, before ordering Genie to guard her.

The wolf nodded her head, and Astaroth ran after his improvised projectile.

By the time he reached where the alpha had stopped, White was already in battle with it. The weakened black wolf was having trouble keeping up with White.

It seemed rattled and confused. Astaroth figured that a hit to the head at Mach one should at least give it a minor concussion. It surprised him that the shield bash at that speed didn't instantly kill it.

That impact would have destroyed anything weaker. But the fight wasn't over yet, a testament to that wolf's resilience.

He joined White, tag teaming the alpha, until the last of its health was ripped away from it by White and his jaw. After ripping out the alpha's throat, White howled to the sky.

This howl caused all the dire wolves that were fighting Genie to stop. They then backed away, fearful of the enormous wolf in front of them.

Since their alpha was dead, their chances of winning had reached zero, and their survival instincts kicked in, beckoning them to flee.

And so flee they did.

Astaroth heard from afar the quick yelps from the dire wolves, as they ran away, tails between their legs.

'This should buy some peace to the village for a while.' he thought, as the meld ended, and his form reverted to normal.

He and White walked back to where Violette was, making sure no enemies were left, before sitting next to her. Astaroth unsummoned White and exhaled loudly.

"That was a fight that could have gone wrong quickly. I'm sorry I put you in danger, Violette," he told the girl, looking at her from the corner of his eye.

Violette shook her head vigorously.

"No! I'm sorry I froze! You wouldn't have had to use such a damaging ability if I kept running!" Violette responded, feeling like she was the reason Astaroth had almost died.

She had seen his health plummet when he impacted the alpha, and for a second, she had been scared he would die because of her. The penalty of death here would have been tremendous.

The alpha alone had given them sixteen thousand Exp points, but then, the fifty wolves would have also been counted on the death penalty. This would have meant hundreds of thousands of Exp in penalty!

Astaroth reassured her he was fine, and that he wouldn't have died, anyway. He was planning on melding with White if his death came too low, to regenerate it quickly.

That assuaged her guilt, if ever so slightly. Both of the players rested on the forest floor, letting their adrenaline levels go down and their health go up.

After resting, the duo picked themselves up before leaving the forest. They wouldn't be back in these parts for a good amount of time, and a tinge of sadness enveloped their hearts as they left it behind.

'I will come back someday. And I will make sure that the anger-prone king gets his due.' Astaroth thought, as he looked to the future.

He marched with Violette toward the great city of Sunpeak, where his friends were waiting for him. He had the coordinates, so he pinned them on his map, giving him the direction to go.

'It was time I explored the rest of the game, anyway,' he thought, as they walked away from their starting point.