Noctis Noir

The forest that was normally quiet had its fair share of noise that day. Gaylord ran for his life as he was chased by a wolf. At that moment, he deeply regretted wandering off on his own when his companions were moving to another area.

Wolves inhabited the dense forest and normally hunted in packs. Gaylord was lucky enough to attract only a single wolf. Defeating it under normal circ.u.mstances would have been easy, but ever since Aries became an inhospitable world, the monsters had become increasingly difficult to defeat. Surviving alone in the wild required evading combat.

Perched nearby on a large tree branch were two players, an archer and a knight. The archer was none other than the actress Ileanna, who took a break from the entertainment industry and lived in Aries to wait out the uncertainty of her career. She didn't expect to get addicted to Aries and its PvP scene.

Li Yuan, the knight, was someone she met in a battle royale mini game. They formed a temporary alliance and found out that their makeshift strategy successfully wiped out their opponents. Since then, they stuck together as partners and climbed to the top of the PvP ladder.

Ileanna was busy fixing her long and wavy platinum blonde hair when she heard the glorious screams of the Hot Spicy Crabs guildmaster. She spotted Gaylord from the distance.

"Should we help him?" Ileanna looked at her partner.

"Nah. He can take care of himself," replied Li Yuan. He continued to lie down and bask under the shadows of the leaves.

"I can't do this!" Gaylord shouted.

"He looks like he's dying." Ileanna pointed at Gaylord who was trying his best to fight off the wolf.

Li Yuan paused to observe the poor Spicy Crab guildmaster. "He looks like he got it all under control."

"Help! Somebody please!" Gaylord pleaded.

"I can't bear to watch and hear his screaming anymore." Ileanna drew out her bow and arrow. She concentrated and landed a clean headshot on the monster chasing Gaylord.

"YES!" Gaylord shouted out of elation. Unfortunately, it alerted even more monsters. It wasn't long before he was surrounded by several wolves. "Oh no."

Ileanna shook her head in dismay. "Idiot."

Li Yuan yawned. "You should just leave him alone. Let the evolutionary law of survival of the fittest do its thing."

"Think of this as target practice." Ileanna jumped to another tree to get a better view. She readied three charged arrows coated with poison.

"Alright, but if he gets you harmed, he dies."

Ileanna shot the arrows, all of them a direct headshot. As she silently celebrated her beautiful headshots, she failed to notice a large bird flying towards her.

"Behind you!" Li Yuan tried to warn her, but it was too late. Ileanna fell to the ground and landed beside Gaylord. She cursed as her hair got messed up from the fall.

"Are you an angel from heaven!?" Gaylord exclaimed when he saw her.

"Don't get distracted!" Ileanna shot an arrow from the ground. It passed near Gaylord's right cheek and hit the wolf behind him. She drew a sigh of relief. "That was a close one..."

"You almost killed me!"

"Boy, you'd already be dead by now if I hadn't shot any arrows earlier! Now, do your part and help me kill all these wolves or I'll feed you to them."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Gaylord readied his staff. Then, he suddenly recognized her. "Wait, you're the actress Ileanna! Oh my god. Can I have your autograph?"

"CONCENTRATE!" She shot two arrows that almost grazed both his cheeks. Both arrows landed on wolves behind Gaylord.

"Yes, Ma'am!" Gaylord drew his sword and slashed at the enemies.

A wolf leaped and almost jumped on them. At the last minute, a flying sword hit the wolf and pushed it out of the way. Ileanna immediately knew where the sword was from. She looked up and saw Li Yuan chilling and giving her a thumbs up.

"Are you coming down or not?" she asked.

"How about we switch places?" Li Yuan suggested.

"We're doing 'that'?"

"Yeah. 'That'."

Gaylord was confused. "Huh? What's that?"

Li Yuan and Ileanna both used the skill Flicker. For a few seconds, they disappeared from sight and reappeared at a few meters from their last position.

Flicker was an ability that was available in the PvP skill tree. It could only be earned by purchasing the skill using battle points from the special NPC that sold it. Not all PvP skills could be used in regular fields, but Flicker was one of the few that could be used. Maxing out the skill greatly reduced mana usage. With a mana usage reduction buff, the skill could be spammed almost endlessly. Using it on bosses doesn't throw off the aggro, but it certainly does for regular monsters.

Gaylord became dizzy as Ileanna and Li Yuan appeared and disappeared like a game glitch. Li Yuan soon appeared behind Gaylord and attracted all the wolves to him. Ileanna ran up the tree trunk while charging her bow and jumped, spraying a rain of arrows on the wolves. Jump shots had the highest critical damage, but were extremely hard to execute. When paired with the right critical boost equipment, it did massive damage. This was Ileanna's specialty.

Ileanna jumped from one trunk to another, sending a rain of arrows on the enemy while Li Yuan kept all the enemies on him and used Defense Break. After a minute of fighting, all monsters in sight were slaughtered.

"I'm..." Gaylord stood still.

Ileanna landed in front of him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm in love!" Gaylord held her hands. Immediately, Li Yuan hit him with the back of his sword. Gaylord dropped to the ground, unconscious.

"I think you hit him too hard," Ileanna said as she poked Gaylord with a stick.

"Oops." Li Yuan carried Gaylord like a sack of potatoes. "Let's find a safe area to rest."