New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

As the howl reverberated all over the forest, the Syndicate agents surrounding them suddenly halted in their tracks.

The agents could feel wave after wave of mana crashing into their chests as Alex pumped as much mana as he could into his voice alone to make them feel threatened, and the agents couldn’t continue their reckless encirclement.

The hair on their arms and napes rose, as their senses screamed at the danger washing over them.

Even the members of Alexander’s group felt a chill as the mana washed over them and the howl hurt their eardrums.

Only David, Kary, and Kujaku seemed unfazed by this display of power, which two of them considered ironic and one considered a pointless show of dominance.

’Just blasting mana into them wasn’t enough?’ Kary asked in the group chat.

Alex looked at her with an apologetic smile.

’What would have been the point of just that? They need us to think we are beasts. Would beasts simply flaunt their mana?’ he replied, trying to make a point.

’Yes,’ David answered simply , matter-of-factly.

He had seen many beasts inside New Eden, especially the more powerful ones whose territory someone was encroaching, simply blast mana at the intruders to dissuade them from continuing any further.

There was no point in howling, growling, or chest-thumping at other animals when a simple show of the power gap scared away most lost animals or wandering persons.

Of course, that was when said person was lucky enough that the beast wasn’t hungry, and they didn’t end up straight into the predator’s gullet before realizing the error they had committed.

Alex wanted to refute David’s answer, but he had also seen the phenomenon while travelling from the Ash Elf kingdom to the rest of the continent. Of course, most of the time, he simply hunted down the beast in question, earning himself some juicy exp.

But the matter at hand required a more forceful approach, in his opinion. Something that not only made the approaching agents aware that they knew they were coming, but also make them cognizant of the power difference.

Sure, Alex didn’t know what awaited them toward the north, or at least he hoped it wasn’t what he thought, but for now, the current closer forces were their priority.

He still wondered whether or not the illusion magic would dupe them, to be honest.

But from their lack of movement since he had howled, he knew they were hesitating.

That was a start.

’What now?’ he asked.

Kujaku was also waiting to see. She couldn’t hear the men communicating, nor could she see them directly.

All she knew was that they had stopped before reaching the edge of the clearing.

’We wait,’ she replied.

Kary frowned, as did David and a couple of others, who felt waiting was a bad idea.

’Shouldn’t we use this chance to strike them preemptively?’ she asked.

’And risk whatever is outside our detection range decides to act on our action and kills a couple of us before we can react?’ Kujaku replied.

She was afraid that the little monster from earlier was what awaited them to the north, even though she doubted that little shit had the patience to lie in wait for an ambush.

Unfortunately, even if that thing was indeed impatient and arrogant, something had controlled it until now, and she knew whoever or whatever had that power could probably still bend the monster to its will.

She just wasn’t willing to take a chance with the lives of her remaining men, and it was out of the question to risk the lives of those she had been contracted to escort in and out of China.

It went against her principles to have a client die on her. She would not tolerate failure from her men, let alone herself, and her father was sure to use it as an excuse to force her under his control once more.

’Not after I’ve fought so hard to get out of his shadow,’ she promised herself.

Kary warned them in chat that the agents had started moving toward them again, albeit much slower than before, their caution apparent.

’I guess we’ll find out soon enough if your magic works or not,’ David teased.

’For everyone’s sake, I hope it does,’ Alex commented.

His gaze had turned serious again as he started sizing up the challenge of the approaching foes.

’Twelve enemies, although much weaker than me. We have David, Kary, and Violette, who I know can deal with more than one enemy aside from me, but have no idea what kind of skills they have awakened.

’It’s safe to assume at least one of them will have some form of crowd control skill, if they were expecting to catch us. They might also have someone who can burst some damage if they were expecting a fight. Maybe a tank or two, with some support classes?’

He worked his tactical knowledge to the max, trying to figure out what kind of threat the agents posed to them. He refused to let anymore people die today.

It wasn’t long before someone approached close enough to the edge of the clearing for them to see some eyes peeking at them.

The illusion wolves lowered their stances and started growling at the intruder, Alex making an impressed face at the detail of this illusion.

’Is she controlling it manually? Or is it automatic to reflect our intentions?’ he wondered.

But he could hardly waste time thinking about this now. He would have to ask her later.

The man eyed them for a while before retreating back toward his group, and the agents stopped moving once more.

They still couldn’t hear them, even though they were now much closer, and Kujaku assumed they were using a form of text-based communication like they were.

But Kujaku wasn’t completely unarmed for a situation like this, and now that they were closer, she could use another of her men’s abilities.

’Takeo, read their minds. Find out what they are talking about,’ she ordered.

One of her smaller agents closed his eyes, clearly reaching for something telepathically, and he soon frowned.

Although any texting app on the neuro-phones required the user to think, meaning he could usually hear the sent messages, his telepathy came back blank.

’I can’t, ma’am. Something isn’t right. I can’t even hear base-level thoughts coming from them.’

Kujaku frowned at his answer.

’Nice try, you sly foxes. But you can’t fool me,’ a voice echoed in everyone’s head.

A single thought crossed most of their minds.

’Fuck.’

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