Take Down Chapter 51: On The Path To Level 3

All too soon you had completely defeated all of the crickets and walked back to Greystreak, who had his shadowy arms crossed across his body.

“Are you mad or impressed. I can’t tell because you have no face,” you asked sassily as you popped a hip out, the high split showing off your thigh as you awaited his reply.

“I’m not in the habit of giving compliments without cause.”

“Yes, Greystreak, I’m aware.”

“-and I’m impressed.”

“You what?!”

“How long have you been practicing?”

“I have no idea? A few hours maybe?” you replied, genuinely stumped at how long you had been in the game.

“Even more impressive,” Graystreak said nonchalantly, “so now what?”

“Keep grinding,” you replied before dropping your hand and spinning away, “I got a lot of work to do.”

“You even know the gaming terms,” he deadpanned.

“Don’t roll your eyes,” you chided, turning and wiggling your finger at him.

“How did you know I rolled by eyes, I don’t have a face?” he asked, following after you.

“I could hear it in your voice,” you replied.

“You could hear an eye roll?” he asked dubiously.

“Yes. I have skills,” you replied playfully. “and I think I’ll fight a few more field monsters then head to level 3.”

Greystreak didn’t say anything but just followed after you, standing back and watching as you took ona giant centipede then a few large snails.

“Why did they even bother with the snails?” you asked as you walked back to him, the burst crystals from the snails still evaporating in the distance, “they were easy.”

“Maybe you were supposed to start with them first before taking on centipedes and crickets?” he mused.

“Well. I feel like I’m ready for level 3 now. Let’s go.” You turned away, heading for the path that lead to the next level up.

The boss that blocked the way to level 3 was a black fox with two tails and you sized him up from a distance.

“Can you take it on?” Greystreak asked from behind you.

“I think so? I just need to do combo hits,” you remarked, “I’ll see if I can activate ‘move’ while I’m executing ‘spin’.”

“Go then,” Greystreak encouraged.

You nodded and stepped forward, walking close enough for the engage sign to pop up.

“Ok. Focus. You’ve fought before, you know what to do now,” you thought as you walked in a slow arc to the side of the fox.

Its ears flattened to its black head and it bared its teeth at you, yellow eyes watching your every move as its twin tails swished menacingly before it suddenly sprang at you.

“Move!” you shouted, slow motion activating for you as the fox lunged towards you.

“Oh shit! It’s fast!”

The whips appeared in your hands but you had to jump up and to the side to avoid being snapped with its teeth as it shot past you.

Forcing the skill faster, you swung the whips, but only just clipped an ear as it passed you and landed. Unfortunately your skill ended then and you had only just called for ‘move’ to activate again when the fox was already coming back at you.

“Shit! I need to up my game here. This fox isn’t giving me a break.”

As you struggled to get the upper hand, jumping over the fox and slashing at it randomly, Greystreak watched nervously from the sidelines. He hated this. Why did you insist on fighting things.

“What the fuck does this have to do with Goha?! All we need to do is take the AI out of the picture then her life is no longer in danger yet she STILL insists on wasting time.”

Meanwhile you had struck the fox enough for its health to have dropped to 75%.

“I have a long way to go!”

“Spin” you called loudly, dancing the purple haze around the fox then calling for ‘move’ immediately after your dance skill had ended- jumping over the fox and striking it directly down the middle of its back.

“I did it!! Keep doing that, go, go, come on!”

“Spin!” you shouted again, dancing around as the purple haze enveloped the fox then faded out, “move!” you shouted a few seconds after and landing another solid hit, this time you feeling stronger.

The fox let out a loud shriek and its health bar dropped to 20%- the colour of the bar flickering from green to yellow.

Sweet beaded on your forehead as you called for that same combo 2 more times.

As you landed the last combo- flipping over and throwing your arms out to slow your rotation as your feet hit the ground- you were surrounded by a tonne of brilliant crystals.

“I did it!!!” you hollered, landing lightly before dropping down onto one knee, your laboured breathing forcing you to take a second to collect yourself.

Greystreak was beside you in an instant and he knelt down and held a potion out to you.

“Here. Drink. It’s a health potion.” 

“You shouldn’t take Migata’s items without asking.” you panted.

“He would kill me if I let you suffer in low health,” he replied, “now drink it, you stubborn ass.”

You shrugged and reached a shaky hand out for it.

“I can’t fight you there,” you replied. 

Weakly, you opened the potion and drank it, feeling much better once the liquid touched your tongue.

“Ok. Let’s go to level 3,” you said, standing up.

“Woah. Hold your roll. You’ve been at it for close to 7 hours now,” Greystreak said, “you need a break. No. I need the break. I’m teleporting us back to level 44.”

“Hansuuuuu,” you pouted, “please? Come on. Let’s just do a little more?”

“No. And I’m not Hansu,” he said firmly, “we’ll come back tomorrow. You need to rest and go and do something else for a while.”

“Fine,” you pouted, “let’s just see level 3 first.”

“Ok, we can get into level 3, then we’re leaving,” Greystreak said firmly, following you up the path that led to the next level.

This one was different from the other two levels and you noticed immediately that it didn’t have the open fields you were used to.

“A woodlands level,” Greystreak mused, “so. Weasels, Foxes…”

“Deer!” you pointed to one that was slowly walking though the underbrush. You took another step forward and a sign popped up.

[NEW SKILL UNLOCKED]

“Oh! Thank god! I’ve got a new skill!” you said excitedly, “that will help heaps. I’m gonna be meeting stronger and stronger opponents along the way.”

“What’s your new skill?” Greystreak asked.

“Good question,” you said, swiping your menu open so that you could inspect your latest move, “ooooh, this one sounds good,”

“What is it?” Your assistant asked again, leaning in to have a better look.

“Interested now, huh?” you teased.

“No,” he said, looking away to feint disinterested, “but tell me anyway…”

<<< Take Down Chapter 50: Stellar Improvements

Take Down Chapter 52: Addicted >>>