Chapter 22: Bite My Shiny Metal Hammer
As his peripheral vision caught two shadows moving towards him, Raphael instantly cursed himself as he rolled forward. He had grown far too used to the tank style of gameplay, as this was the second time he had reacted in a slow and dull matter, as if nothing could threaten his health pool. This was one of the things players had to get accustomed to with time, as changing one's character meant an entirely different style of thinking and fighting.
His shoulder connected with the ground hard, the pain shooting through his whole arm, but the momentum of his body was enough for him to somehow finish the motion. His roll ended with him raising himself into a low crouch, his hands reaching for his two weapons. Raphael gripped the hammer and dagger, as his gaze landed on the two shadows that had barely missed him and just skidded to a halt nearby.
[Cave Wolf]
(Beast)
Level 1
HP 75/75
'Mother of all ducks, what the hell are cave wolves doing out in the middle of a forest? Is the damn game trying to call me a caveman or something‽' Raphael complained to no one in particular.
The two wolves had bared their teeth and were shifting their positions so that there was one on each side. Raphael flexed his shoulder a bit, testing out whether there was any injury, but fortunately he had not even sprained it.
With a shift of his right boot backwards, the Thief put his weight into his dominant leg as he sprinted towards the nearest wolf. His left hand was holding the dagger in a reverse grip, while the hammer in his right hand was lowered and hanging towards the back, swaying with his body.
Despite the unexpected situation, Raphael was now wearing a relaxed expression, his reflexes kicking in after the initial blunder. He could hear the second cave wolf clawing at the stone road, somewhere in the rear, as it made its way towards him, but he decided to ignore it.
The wolf in front of Raphael had not stood idly. Quite the opposite, once it saw the human attack, it had immediately dashed towards him too, dribbles of saliva dropping out of its open maw.
When the two adversaries were within a couple of meters from one another, the wolf's four legs tensed and it launched itself into a fearsome jump, aiming for Raphael's exposed neck.
Coldness glittered in the Thief's amber eyes. The moment he saw the wolf jump out, he made a rapid couple of steps to the wolf's right side, his feet stomping the ground. Sliding forward, he lowered and shifted his body as much as possible. The hammer that had been dangling behind his back came to life, as his right hand shot to the side in a beautiful arc, his shoulder fully extended.
Carrying the momentum from both his body and the Thief's strength, the heavy weapon crashed into the oncoming wolf, shattering its jaw and throwing its whole body into a spin.
Raphael realized he did not have time to finish the first kill, the second wolf closing in on him. He stood up and turned towards it, but it was too late. The shadow collided with his lanky figure, the wolf's claws digging into his skin as they both tumbled.
Raphael hit his head a few times before they stopped. His vision went black for a fragment of a second, before clearing up again. A mouth full of teeth was descending upon his neck, as he struggled to lift the hammer still gripped in his right hand.
At the very last moment, he managed to forcefully shield his throat, the wolf's fangs sinking into the blacksmith's hammer. Raphael's right hand let go of the handle and clamped around the wolf's upper and lower jaw, his vice-like grip disabling the most dangerous part of the beast.
Raphael yelled unintelligibly as his dagger stabbed at the wolf's side. His first few blows were blocked by its ribs, the metal chipping away at the sturdy bones. His third strike finally hit home, as the dagger plunged deeper, injuring the beast's insides. The wolf whimpered, its claws ferociously scratching at his chest, but Raphael continued plunging the rusty dagger, until its body slackened.
Raphael shoved the dying cave wolf to the side, finishing it off with a clean cut to the throat before standing up. His blouse was almost destroyed, blood flowing down its tattered front. The wolf had not stopped struggling throughout the whole fight, its claws slashing across his chest multiple times.
Slightly unsteady, Raphael forced himself to turn around, his blurry vision frantically looking for his other enemy. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally found it, laying on the ground close to where he had left it. It seemed like the only hit had been a critical one which had extinguished its life.
"Ha-ha, that'll teach you not to mess with me, damn monsters!" Raphael laughed, as he kicked out, his foot connecting with the nearby cave wolf's underside.
The Thief was understandably upset, mainly with himself, as this fight had gone very wrong. His instincts of playing as a Paladin kept getting in the way.
In his previous life, he had actually planned to start out as a Thief, but had decided against it after reading how weak the class was in the game's forums. Years later he had realized that he had been very foolish - most of the ramblings of those players were correct, but only to a point. While Thieves were very hard to master and did not seem to excel at much, in the hands of an experienced player they would be an existence to fear. While they would be generally weak at first, as long as a player did not misplace his free Attribute points and developed a fighting style, a Thief could quite easily outdamage most other melee classes. On top of that, there were many skills which allowed Thieves and their class upgrades to instantly disengage, making up for their low health.
To put it in simple terms, Raphael had donned the role of a Paladin not because he had wanted to, but because it looked like the second coolest option, after he had dismissed the notion of playing as a Thief. This was one of his regrets, as players only had 1 character slot, so by the time he knew that the class was actually not weak, he could not muster the courage to delete Raygo in favor of starting anew.
This would not have been a hard decision, were it not for the trading block which Origo had as one of its basic system rules. If a player had a character and tried to send all his coins and items to a friend, upon deleting the old character and creating a new one, he would be shocked to learn that his friend was blocked from sending him his old items. This was done on purpose and was part of the reason why every player had been granted an 'Undo' function in their Character Interface. This guaranteed, up to a point, that players could not switch characters without a bit of sacrifice. Of course, there were still other alternatives, but as there was no way to guarantee that your friends would not just run away with your items, it was definitely harder to start a new character.
Raphael sighed, mentally exhausted. The fight had seemed to drag on, but it had actually taken less than a minutes, yet his HP had fallen down from 92 to a pitiful 42. Thankfully, he had not gotten a Bleeding debuff due to the blows being softened by his 19 Defense.
Crouching down, Raphael's wounds started closing as he reached towards the cave wolf's carcass.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
ASlyDrake
ASlyDrake A late chapter yet again, but I fear I'm coming down with the flu again. Hopefully it'll be milder this time...
If you want to help the novel, I'm currently in need of:
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3. A new cover - this one was something I created so it wouldn't be bare. If you're not an artist - ideas are also welcomed!
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