Sword and Claw

Book One: Chapter 24

"No!" Maxor cried.

Sora screamed while falling down toward the Craten's mouth. She wasn't screaming because she was falling. She knew this would be it for her, once the creature eats her.

Maxor jumped and caught Sora in his arms before the creature's tongue touched her. "Got you!"

Both of them hit the floor, rolling till they stopped. They got up and saw the creature held up all its tentacles over the berg.

Oh, no! Sora thought.

The Craten roared and wrapped its arms around the ship. The berg shook as the monster pulled the ship toward the monster's mouth.

"It's going to swallow the whole ship!" Maxor shouted.

Sora spotted a coral spear and picked it up.

Coral spear-ATK+5

She stared at the tentacles until an idea popped up inside her head. "We need to strike the tentacles!"

"What?" Maxor asked.

"If we attack the tentacles, it should hurt the beast!" Sora wasn't sure, but she knew all NPCs and mobs took damages when she attacked their targeted spots. If they wore armor, their defense points would lower the player's attack power points. But the Craten doesn't have any armor on. With zero defense points, it should be vulnerable.

"Okay, let's chop this thing into squad salad!" Maxor charged to the back sail and slashed the tentacles around the spar.

Sora dashed toward the center spar and poked her spear into the other tentacle. This better work or we are all dead!

Craten

HP:80

HP: 60

HP: 40

Yes! As Sora suspected, no matter where you attack the monster, it will always take damage anywhere on its body. So she kept poking the tentacle multiple times.

Craten

HP: 0

Sora received 10%

The creature roared while removing its tentacles off the berg. It crumbled apart into sparkling blue data and vanished in the rain.

Angus fell down and caught on the edge of the ship. He pulled himself up but stopped when Sora pointed her spear at his large chin.

"You wench!" Angus shouted.

The foxgirl smiled. "You raided the wrong ship!"

She poked her spear at Angus's esca, and he suddenly dissipated.

Instant kill!

Angus defeated!

Sora received 11%

The remaining fish folks stared at Sora.

"Anyone else wants to join their leader?" Sora asked.

The fishfolks stared at each other and dashed off the ship, diving back into the water.

Quest completed!

Sora received 20%

Quest completed!

Sora received 50%

Sora leveled up!

Everyone cheered, shaking their weapons at the clearing night sky as the stormy winds faded away.

Sora opened up her character status.

Sora

Fox

Barbarian

Female

Level: 02

HP: 20/20

Attack Power: 10

Defense: 15

Mana: 100/100

Abilities:

Rage- Attack power increases up to 10 and player strike all nearby targets ruthlessly for one minute. 10 Mana Cost.

Charm- Target will become attracted to player without attacking for three minutes. 10 Mana Cost

Gold: 0

Equipment:

Chain mail- DEF+5

Gloves-DEF+5

Boots- DEF+5

Coral spear-ATK+5

XP: 16%

Reaching level two still wasn't a strong level, but it was better than nothing.

Maxor approached her. "Way to go, girlfriend! You saved us all!"

Sora sneered at him. "Girlfriend?"

Maxor laughed. "You are a girl, and a friend too."

"If I was a boy, would you call me your boyfriend?"

"Does man friend count?"

Sora shrugged with a giggle. What a funny NPC.

From the crowd, Vahr walked up toward Sora, wearing a hood over his frog head. "What is your name?"

"I'm Sora."

Vahr turned to the wolf. "And you?"

"Maxor," the wolf thief answered.

Vahr grinned. "Both of you have impressed me very well. You fought those fishfolks with no mercy. My sheik will be thrilled to see you."

A reptile sheik was like Arab leaders in the middle east. Unlike the mammal kingdoms, the reptiles lived in separate tribes in their territories, each ruled by a sheik lord. Small of their tribes were big and small, but they never warred against each other. Their common enemy was the mammals because they believed they were the rightful rulers of the game world.

In the game lore, Zyborian was once ruled by dragons, until a mysterious cataclysm wiped them out. Then the mammals evolved and took over the reshaped world. The reptiles believed they came from the dragons' blood, but few grew in numbers to outnumber the mammal race. To survive, they mitigated on the other side to live in their own tribes. Sometimes they would enslave helpless mammals for pleasure and entertainment. Indeed, they were racist reptiles.

Sora crossed her arms. "What if we don't like him?"

Vahr pointed his fat finger at Sora. "You better watch your tongue in my chief's present. He doesn't take too kindly to those who disrespect him." He turned to the crew. "I want this deck cleaned up immediately. After you finish, put the slaves back into their cells!"

After the frog walked away, Sora turned to Maxor. "Thank you for saving my life."

Maxor smiled. "I think we can survive if we stick together."

Sora nodded. "I believe so too."

Having an A.I companion will help Sora survive until she could find the hacker. Wherever they were going, she would need all the help she could get.