Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Nip It In The Bud

He watched a group of five people fight a [Vinesnake]. A man holding a sword and shield was facing the monster. Suddenly, his shield started glowing silver, and he used it to slam his shield into its head. The forceful blow looked like it completely knocked the snake out; it fell on the ground, limp. Not even its tendrils were moving.

The man jumped on top of it, and held it, keeping it in place as the archer walked up and shot an arrow at it from near point-blank range. The rest of the group was just standing around, watching, ready to jump in and help if necessary.

Emm counted four arrows before one finally hit and pierced the monster's skull. They cheered, and the archer immediately ran off.

Emm had seen other people do the same thing. Every time a [Vinesnake] was successfully killed, the person would rush back towards the Guide, have a quick conversation, then run right back and rejoin their group. Shouts and screams filled the forest, coming from monsters and humans both.

They were leveling up. She must've been instructing them about what choices to make with the [Skills], [Stats], and [Classes].

Emm picked dried blood from under his fingernails while they walked through the dimly lit wilderness. Not much sunlight was coming through the thick canopy.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk to her or level up to 2?" he asked.

"Not yet."

"We'd be safer if you did. You'd get a [Skill] like him." Emm pointed back at the guy with the shield, in the distance. "It looks really useful," he said.Michael started flapping his arms and made chicken noises at him.

Emm flipped him off. "This is serious!"

"Oh, calm down. I will if we need it," Michael said. "I promise, okay?"

Emm looked at him suspiciously.

The only reason I can think of is that he's trying to get a different [Class]. What's wrong with [Rogue]–

A fresh pair of snakes burst out of the treetops and assaulted them.

Both went for Michael, fast. He threw himself to the side, narrowly dodging both of their lunges. He recovered with an elegant roll and got out of the way.

This gave Emm enough time to judge the distance and step back into a safe space. "Hey!" he shouted and poked the left one, getting its attention, while Michael climbed up a nearby tree. His frizzy black hair disappeared into dense growth in a matter of moments.

Realizing it could no longer catch Michael, the second [Vinesnake] gave up on chasing him and coiled around, joining the first to go after Emm, the now closer target. He faced off against the pair of monsters. There was no point in trying to grab their mouths. Even if he got one, the other would still be free to mess him up. Instead, he prodded at them lightly and conserved his leftover stamina. The snakes attacked again and again, but their bodies were too short to reach him.

He swiped his spear at them in a lazy arc– and narrowly avoided a bite to the face in response. The monster's long body had extended to its fullest and its jaws snapped closed just inches in front of him. It scared him so much that he almost fell on his backside in panic.

Was it pretending its range was shorter just to bait me?

They weren't completely dumb. Emm recovered in time and took another few steps away from the hissing snakes. His hurt leg protested, and he felt wobbly on his feet. He could taste bile. Holding back two of them was trickier than he expected. They came at him from two directions, and their ranges were different. If that hit had landed, he would have been in big trouble.

Funnily enough, the monsters were also trying to distract him. They were coordinating, attacking in one-two combos. The first would hiss and leash out at Emm, making him flinch, and the other would follow up with a more dangerous attack.

He avoided them and landed a few grazing thrusts.

Michael was in position. He launched a flurry of precise stabs, and the first snake died shortly after, helplessly screeching in pain.

The other monster realized what was happening. It turned away and started to retract, trying to go after Michael.

Emm didn't let it. For the first time in that fight, he hacked at its body using all of his strength. He did good damage to it and got back into his fighting stance. Ready.

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The snake went after him again, more frantic than before. It was surrounded on both sides, overwhelmed, and didn't know what to do. Emm kept thrusting at it. It was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Michael stabbed it from above. But after a few blows, he stopped, his knife sticking out of the [Vinesnak]'s body. Firmly pinning it to the tree.

"What are you doing?" Emm screamed as he cut the monster again. A glancing hit. "Finish it off!"

"The acrobats are never the real stars of the show," Michael explained. "We're just above clowns, in the public's eyes. They think we're boring. Filler acts. The real stars are the lion tamers, the magicians…"

He took a metal lighter out of his pocket and flicked it. A warm glow illuminated his face in the dim, muted daylight. His dark eyes shined orange, reflecting the flame.

"...The flame breathers," he finished and shoved the lighter inside the writhing snake's wound. He used his other hand to stretch the wound open as wide as possible.

At once, all of its mouths shrieked in pain. The scream was worse than anything they'd heard before, loud enough that Emm's instinct was to cover his ears. The sound made him intensely uncomfortable, like nails grating against a chalkboard. Grating against his brain.

He took advantage of the snake's distraction and acted. Without a second thought, he dropped his spear and closed the distance. He grabbed its head and pushed its jaws closed, ending the horrifying screech. Its skin was unnaturally cold to the touch.

It trashed around wildly, hard enough that Emm wasn't sure he could hold it still for long. Slippery, too.

Michael was still burning it. Their gazes met and Emm saw pure determination. Whenever the flame went out, he had to flick it on again.

Emm nodded at him and decided to just roll with it. The monster had to be close to death, which meant they were safe. As long as more of them didn't appear out of anywhere, of course.

It took over a minute for it to finally die. Emm couldn't tell whether it was from the internal burning or just blood loss.

Michael stared blankly for a brief moment– inspecting his status– then tossed his head back and burst out in laughter.

He stopped, took a deep breath, and blew fire into the sky.

Emm's eyes widened. He could feel the intense heat on his skin, even standing far below. It was like Michael's mouth was a flamethrower, the flame extended over three feet in distance, shooting off sparks of fire in all directions.

Eventually, the stream of fire stopped. The air smelled of smoke, and was full of embers that slowly fell.

"Holy shit," Emm said.

"I just got [Pyromancer]."

"I can see that," Emm said. "Congrats. The Guide… isn't going to like that."

"No," Michael said grinning and landed next to Emm. "I don't think she is. My Intelligence and Wisdom are both on the low end. But I've been dreaming of this my whole life."

Emm was curious about something else, though.

"Did you hit [Level 3]? How much XP did these give?" he asked.

His new friend's grin went away.

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