Pride Online

“Full power jump!”

A second later, Wisana’s sneakers were glowing then the body that was supposed to lie flat under a rock, launched up in the air.

It seemed like time stopped. The young man used all the agility he had to step on a falling piece of concrete, using it as a base to jump to another. His amber eyes glanced at Maysa who was standing on the ridge of the stone walls, shocked.

A few moments later, Wisana launched himself right to where the girl was standing in one jump. He was flying in a perfectly straight line like a rocket,

Even though he was a bit off balance when he landed and was rolling on the floor a couple of times before he stopped at her feet.

“Ugh!” The sweet voice exclaimed when the troubled man just moved his butt by launching himself all the way up here, so quickly that her eyes could not quite catch it.

The said man was lying on the floor, eyes bulging as he noticed that the time around him seemed to start going at normal speed again. Then he patted a hand harshly on his chest, sighing in relief.

“I’m alive.”

“You’re okay, Wisana?” The owner of those grey eyes looked down to check on him. “How did you do that? I thought you were going down for sure.”

He could not say a word. It could be that he was too shocked to speak, too.

“I... I’m not sure. Before I could realize it, I’m already lying down here.

“You’re unbelievable.” Maysa gave him a wry smile. “In several ways.”

“Is that a compliment or an insult, huh?” He argued weakly.

“Both. You’re the number one troublemaker, anyway.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Wisana chuckled as he grinned widely.

“Quiet!” She interrupted, bringing out an item from her inventory window. This one was a large brown cloak. Maysa laid down beside Wisana, spreading it out to cover both of them, cuddling him close.

“W... What are you doing?” The one being hugged was blushing immediately.

“Quiet. You want to be hunted again?” The sweet voice whispered, a soft warm breath was against the taller one’s neck that he felt strangely trembling down his spine.

Ugh... she was so soft, also smelled so good.

He could not get carried away for too long when the same threatening pressure spread in the atmosphere again. The heat was so intense that Wisana had to gulp.

Outside of the cloak Maysa used to cover them, there was an enormous figure of Lord Inferno still wandering around. The red demon was sniffing, a flame blazing out of its nose. Wisana sensed something bad. He looked down to catch Maysa’s eyes tensely.

“He’s still looking for you,” she whispered.

“This cloak can’t fool him forever. You should go. I'll buy you some time.” Listening to this troublemaker whispering, Maysa curled up a soft smile, poking on the cocky one’s nose.

“Don't worry, bro. This cloak can hide us, so now you just have to stay still.”

“But,...”

Maysa pressed her finger on Wisana's lips before he could finish speaking, smiling to ask him to trust her. After seeing her like that, the young man could not say anything more, just glancing through the cloak with an anxious feeling. It would not be a big deal if Wisana got killed alone. But to drag Maysa down with him, that would be the biggest deal.

Because when a player died in the game, they would lose some of their EXP. The higher levels they had, the more EXP they would lose. So, a level 15 like Wisana could die anytime without making any difference.

But for level 28 like Maysa, if she died here, she would lose a huge amount of EXP!

Then the pressure started to fade away as Lord Inferno got further away from them, thinking that Wisana had already fled to somewhere else. At last, the buddies that were frozen still sighed at the same time in relief.

“I thought we wouldn’t make it out alive.” Wisana whistled as he got up, shaking the cloak off him. Maysa sat up beside him, looking worn out.

“How did you do that, May? This cloak can hide us from the monster?” The curious man could not hold himself back from asking.

“Yeah, it can. This is called Ninja Silk; it can hide us from monsters’ sights. The conditions for using it are a bit complicated, though. I’ll explain to you later.”

The listener nodded a couple of times like he understood what she was saying. He sprawled back with his arms while he was sitting on the floor, leaning on them exhaustedly. Then he glanced at the back of Lord Inferno’s gigantic body from afar and felt weak on his knees again.

“It finally stopped targeting me. What a relief, I thought I was gonna die for real.”

“Yeah, what a relief!”

SLAP!!

The sound of a palm hitting someone’s head came with a face that always had a bright smile on it, now writhed with anger! The one who just got hit with full force out of the blue, caressing his wound, looking confused.

“Babe, why’d you hit me?!”

“You’re lucky I didn’t go for a kick in your butt!”

“Ouch, that’s harsh.” He forced out a simper, then looked sad.

“You’re the world’s number one troublemaker, Wisana!” She snapped as she stood up with arms akimbo, looking like she was ready to fight. “I remember telling you to meet up at the well in front of the dungeon. And why did you get here without me?!”

“Someone pushed me in.”

“Don’t talk back!” The unusual tense voice made the guilty man look sad.

“What were you thinking when you were pulling that boss up, huh?! Didn't you know that the players with many times higher levels than you were still down pathetically on the floor? We're so lucky that we survived!”

“I didn’t mean to. I was just walking and the guy just boo-ed me out of nowhere,” he muttered then looked up to meet the fierce eyes of Maysa. He lowered his head again.

“Fine. I’m sorry.”

Seeing this little cracked head regretted, the angry one sighed hard, shaking her head as she felt both fed up and relieved that they could get out of the monster’s hand alive.

“And I told you to buy some items to save your life. Why did you come back with many new clothes like this?” She criticized while looking up and down at Wisana’s new costumes.

They were a left arm guard, a fire dragon’s skin belt, and a weird long red scarf.

“So those were the items that helped you survive.” She said, pointing at the Windy Line sneakers. Wisana looked down at her pointed direction, then he raised his eyebrows, feeling unsure.

“Those are rank C items, come with level 5 of the broad jumping skills. They're lightweight, which increases kicking attack points and agility stats.”

“Oh,” He drawled as he finished listening to the same item descriptions for the second time. “Yeah, yeah, that was what the merchant said, too. So, I could long jump earlier, because of these sneakers, right?”

“Of course.” Snapped again, then Maysa held up her hands to squeeze both sides of Wisana’s cheeks out of endearment. “And I am still lecturing you. Can you not bring up the smiley face too soon? Anyway, I told you to buy many types of explosive items, why did you waste your coins on your outfits instead?”

“But Hi bought em hith a hheap brice.” (But I bought them at a cheap price.)

“That’s not the point! The point is that you’re too reckless!”

“Awrry, is.” (Sorry, miss.)

Maysa looked at Wisana’s squashy face and shook her head, smiling. She then flicked the person in front of her on the forehead softly, before backing away. She really could not be mad at this guy.

When he was making a face like a puppy asking for food, who would be able to keep scolding him?

Seeing the girl stop yelling at him and turn to be busy on her inventory window again, the said troublemaker smiled awkwardly, getting up from the floor.

“Here, drink this. You were running around too much, must be exhausted.” She finished then handed out a bottle of pink potion with a carved fairy on it to him. Wisana pulled out the cork right away and drank all of it in one gulp.

“Oh, it’s yummy, tastes like strawberry soda. What is it?”

“Pixie potion,” Maysa said curtly. It was obvious that she was still a bit mad.

It did not take long before Wisana started to feel fresh and energetic again. The tiredness in his muscles was all gone, and he felt his body lighter.

“Now, what do we do? Are we still sticking with the same plan?” The hoarse voice sounded a lot more moderate.

“Of course!” Maysa raised her voice. “We’re going with the same plan. We're going to wait for the others to gang up on that crazy boss, then we'll find a nice spot to take photos of them.”

Wisana nodded, glancing at the toughest boss that was walking further away in the distance.

“Did you get any photos, May?”

“Yup, I did.” Maysa’s bright smile returned for the first time since they met up again. She snapped her fingers then the information window popped out. Wisana leaned in close to look at it with curiosity when he saw her amused expression.

“Oh, this is a very clear shot, May,” he chuckled.

Yes, currently Maysa got three photos for the quest event.

Each one of them had Wisana in it, looking very messed up. The first one was when he screeched like a freaked-out chicken and the gigantic body of Lord Inferno in the background. The second one was when the boss’ attack was just inches away from his nose. And the last one was when he showed off his stupidity by throwing a firebomb at the fire monster.

“When I was running for my life, and you had so much fun taking photos.” The unwilling model said sarcastically.

“I didn’t press the shutter, though. Al did.”

“What’s the difference?!”

Maysa burst out with a laugh then snapped fingers again to close the information window.

“And look at the photos, they are just me, in a pathetic situation.”

“Chill, I'm not going to send these for the contest. They’re not satisfying enough for me. But I'll keep them in my gallery, and title them... how about ‘must survive’?”

“May!”

BOOM!!!