Pride Online

“May, do something!”

“Quick! Come get me up, too. I’ll help you!” hearing the clear voice shouted back, the young man suddenly changed his direction, swooping down to his friend. And the moment when he saw something in her hand, he smirked, knowing that the Inferno was still flying after them.

But Wisana did not care, he was so concentrated on swooping down to Maysa as fast as he could!

It did not take long when he lowered himself down, close enough to the floor to catch her.

“Hold on to me tight, Orn. Close your eyes, too.”

“R... roger!” Warunya followed the instructions without any doubts. He held out his arm to pick her up in the air with them at the same time that the safety pin was plucked off.

“Right now, May!” Wisana yelled.

“Mind your eyes!” As she finished, Maysa threw the item back at the following monster right away.

Yes, it was a flash bomb!

When it was all done, Wisana grabbed his friend and rushed forward very quickly.

BANG!!

GROOOWWL!!!

When the bomb went off, Lord Inferno screamed out for another time. The massive figure lost control and crashed into a building. It fell, buried under the falling pieces of the broken concrete wall, disappearing from their sights. Wisana did not look back to check on the monster, but he was sure that it was still alive under the ruins. The pair of amber eyes glanced at the new passenger who grabbed hold of his arm tightly, asking her what to do next.

“Now what? Seems like the boss can’t just get over me so easily.”

“We need to get out of here, asap,” Maysa said, eyes searching around the area. “There! Let’s hide in that abandoned building. Get you out of his sight, or he won’t stop chasing you!”

“Got it!

BOOM!!!

Wisana then sped up to the said building as he was confessing something with a serious expression.

“You two, I forgot to tell you something.” His fake hoarse voice sounded so strange.

“What is it?” Warunya asked, feeling confused as well as Maysa who just raised her eyebrows.

“Well, not sure how to phrase this but, you should understand that I don’t really know how to land, so. Prepare for the impact.”

“What?!” The girls yelled in unison as Wisana took them through the glass window, breaking it away. And this already confirmed his lack of the skill to land on his feet, was true!

“Ew, you moron! I know I shouldn’t have trusted you!” Maysa screamed then ground her teeth.

“KYAAA!!” And Warunya could not say anything. She could only screech loudly, squeezing her eyes shut.

THUD!!

-----------------

“That... That was unbelievable!” Waree said as she did not take her eyes off the battle over there. As same as Thada, who was watching with an emotionless expression.

“How does the guy do it? And he can fly?” The pretty woman turned to her senior for his comment on this. “Now we have a class with flying attribute in Pride, too, Thada?”

“No, we don’t.” Thada replied right away, “I think that’s some effect from his items, not a skill.”

Waree nodded in agreement with the young GM’s conclusion. She turned back to the monster that was trying to get out of the building’s ruins. Eventually, it could get up, the glowing red eyes were searching around for the enemy. And when it found no one there, the monster growled out, sounding very butt hurt by that.

“Look, the Inferno was really pissed off. That guy is really a pain in the neck, huh.” She commented, smiling.

“He’s good,” Thada moderately complimented. “I don’t really care about the flying thing, though I'm interested in his quick reflexes. He was evading the boss’s attacks so easily. It looked like he was having fun, even.”

“Isn’t it like some other players can do it, too?” She replied casually.

“There’re some players who can do it like this, too, but that can be like one in a million. It's very rare to find someone who can react that fast, Nam. You already saw him evading the attack while he was floating midair, using the impact of the attack to shift away so smoothly like that.

“I see.” Waree agreed softly as she thought about that moment. She remembered the masked man making her cheer out loud, amazed with his quick moves!

“But..."

“But?” She repeated.

“He’s not going to win if he just keeps running like this. That guy doesn’t even think about fighting back.”

“Maybe he can’t since he’s carrying a girl in his arms.”

“I guess you’re right.” The handsome face smiled for the first time. “So, I'm kind of curious about what he’s planning to do next. I saw he carry another girl with him, too. Maybe he’ll come up with something to fight against Lord Inferno now.”

“Or he would just run off.” Waree shrugged.

But Thada disagreed with her. He smiled sweetly at her, shaking his face.

“No, he won’t run, trust me. This kind of guy won’t turn his back and flee.”

The listener paused before an amused smile was brought to her pretty face, dimples on her cheeks showing.

“How can you be so sure?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because he’s the same kind of person as me.”

-----------------

“Ouch, ouch, ouch!!”

“Ow, my butt’s definitely got bruises.”

“It hurts.”

The three were whining almost at the same time. The first guy was lying on the ground, a leg leaning against the tall wall. It could be that he did some somersaults when he was landing. The second was caressing on her butts, implying she landed on them. And the last was lying still in the first one’s arms, using them as the airbag to save her head from knocking on the ground.

“Ouch! Why didn’t you warn me earlier that you can’t land!” After she could pull herself together again, Maysa scolded aloud.

“Sorry,” Wisana whined softly to reply.

“Vincent, you can let go of me now,” the gentle voice of Warunya whispered in his ears, making Wisana realize that he was still hugging her. The guy drew his hands back in no time. He could not be able to find an excuse yet, but the girl had already turned away to hide her blushing cheeks.

AHEM!

The third person cleared her throat out loud. She could not help it since the atmosphere suddenly got so cheesily awkward.

“Well, well, I can’t believe you guys still have a mood to flirt after we almost got doomed out there.” She chuckled as she was just talking. His light brown eyes sent a dead gaze to his buddy, telling her to shut up.

But the buddy did not get the message.

“Also, why are you wearing the mask, Wis...!” She did not finish her question, because this cracked head rushed in and covered her mouth. The smaller figure was struggling in front of Warunya who was looking at them curiously.

“May you excuse us, please? I need a moment to talk to my friend.” He turned to give her a smile before he dragged this bigmouth to a corner in the room.

“The hell you’re doing, Wisana?” She was raising her voice for another time.

“Listen, May. Don’t call me Wisana. You have to call me Vincent from now on, okay?”

“Vincent.” She raised her eyebrows in confusion, her face twitched a little.

“Pretty please. If you call me by my real name, I'd probably die. Please?” Wisana pressed his palms together, bowing his head to beg her. The one who was being asked for mercy glanced at the girl who was giving her a wry smile from the other side of the room.

“Let me guess, it’s because of the girl?”

“I’ll explain later,” Wisana whispered. “Let’s just say that she knows me in real life. And there will be a big problem, if she knows that I’m on this game, too. So, please, I'm begging you.”

“Alright, fine.” She promised just so she could brush him off.

“Great! You can do and say anything to not get me busted, also you and I are just party, okay? Just party!” Noticing this troublemaker kept repeating the word party so much, the pair of grey eyes narrowed, staring at the guy in front of her for a few seconds. Then she drew a cunning smile.

“I think your relationship with the girl is not normal, Wisana.” Maysa faked a cheesy, gentle voice. “She’s also pretty, though. Let's be real, who is she for you, exactly?”

After being asked so straightforward like this, the face behind the mask turned deep in red that the one who was probing let out a laugh.

“Okay, I think I can guess now.”

Then she burst out with a laugh as she spoke, making Warunya tilt her head in curiosity.

They talked about a couple of things more before Wisana took Maysa back to introduce the girls. He did not forget to send Maysa the gaze in order to remind her to keep the promise.

“I haven’t introduced myself, yet,” the clear voice spoke to the other girl. “My name’s Maysa, but I’m fine with May. I'm... er ...Vincent’s party.” She purposely stressed harder on the name, her smooth face had a mocking smile that made Wisana face's twitch.

“Okay. I’m Warunya, but you can call me Orn. Nice to meet you.” Then they shook hands. Warunya turned to look at the other boy.

“Vincent, thank you for saving me. If you weren’t around, I’d probably be dead by now.”

“Oh, it’s nothing. You're welcome.”

THUD!!!

After he finished, the deadly fist landed on his head harshly, making Warunya flinch. The one who got punished sat down to caress his head on where it hurt.

“It’s nothing your ass!” The delightful, friendly girl started to turn savage again, snapping at the wounded man, making him whine for another round.

“Why’d you hit me again?”

“'Cause you deserve it! And to remind you to appreciate your luck that we made it out alive!” The sweet voice sounded so harsh right now. She then asked something that she had been curious about for a while.

“And since when did you learn how to fly, Wi... uh ...Vincent?!” Wisana glanced at the girl who just printed another bruise on his head and wondered how she could shift her moods so quickly like a lizard changed its colors. He forced out a wry smile.

Why did she hit his head like a goddamn volleyball!