MMORPG: The Elementalist

Qin Ruo ran for all he was worth. Dark Dragon retreated fifteen meters with a single Teleport. The Snow Eagle Dive had also left him Chilled, so that after a moment there were more than fifty meters between the two of them.

Right now, there was only the last half-a-minute until Qin Ruo’s red tag expired.

Just half-a-minute left, but now Qin Ruo was even more desperate than before—his spirits had never been lower.

Teleport? Dark Dragon seemed to have a range of fifteen meters for that skill, though he did not know what sort of cooldown time it had. If it had a cooldown of ten seconds or less, then he was in deep trouble—each time the skill became available for use, he could drastically close the gap between them, eventually being able to just pop into attack range.

His tactic from earlier had worked once, but there was no way it would succeed a second time. Dark Dragon could easily sidestep attacks with Teleport, or just use wind magic to bind Poochie and kill it. That would not be good at all!

Qin Ruo was at the height of anxiety, running helter-skelter away from the danger, throwing up his Darkfrost Shield as he went. Then Poochie, perched upon his shoulder, began to squeal in urgent warning.

“Cheep! Cheep, cheep!”

Before he knew what was wrong, the Frost Barrier around him began to melt away like spring snow, shifting and warping alarmingly. All around him, countless red vines reached down like live snakes, and it was as though they could actually see him—after tearing through his Barrier, they began to coil around his waist.

Behind him, Dark Dragon had run into the exact same hazard! However, Dark Dragon reacted much quicker, for this was not his first time encountering the mysterious Bloodthirsty Trees. Besides, chasing after Qin Ruo meant that he first saw the Vampiric Vines descending toward the Aquamancer before running into them himself.

“Wind!”

Dark Dragon understood what the Bloodthirsty Trees desired from passing Elementalists. Skidding to a stop, he cast a spell with a roar, and a violent tempest whirled to life around him, whipping away the innumerable crimson Vampiric Vines that snaked toward him—however, this did mean that Dark Dragon had to pause in his pursuit.

Looking around for Qin Ruo once more, he found that the Vampiric Vines had wrapped themselves tightly around the Aquamancer’s waist. The Bloodthirsty Trees were extremely quick, and once it had a firm hold on Qin Ruo, it picked him up off his feet and began to lift him high into the air.

Dark Dragon snorted in disdain. To think that he had been worried about this man’s abilities—two bottles of attribute-boosting potions, and he had still ended up like this, unable to break free from even the Bloodthirsty Trees which were so common throughout this forest.

The onlookers in the distance, regardless of whether they had known about the Bloodthirsty Trees or not, were thoroughly surprised by this turn of events.

The Aquamancer had been good enough to hold his own against a supreme champion like Dark Dragon, but then he had been ensnared by a bunch of Vampiric Vines simply because they had dropped down on him by surprise.

He was not even trying to struggle or fight back, simply allowing himself to be hoisted up into the sky until he had disappeared from sight, for all the world as though he had never come across a Bloodthirsty Tree before.

And yet, to see him so easily getting caught like that, something was not quite right about it all…

Even White Wine and the others, watching this scene unfold from nearby, felt as though Qin Ruo had been done in far too easily. However, they did not think too much about it, and certainly Qin Ruo would not have deliberately allowed himself to be ensnared and then tucked away like that.

Basically, once a player had been lifted up into the air by a Bloodthirsty Tree, any fall from that height would prove fatal. They’d already seen several players who only began struggling after they had been hoisted up high, and the tragic fall they suffered if they did manage to free themselves somehow.

Once Qin Ruo had been lifted so high up that he could no longer be seen, Dark Dragon shook his head in exasperation, as though chastising himself for picking on such a noob.

He seemed to abandon the chase completely then. Maintaining his personal cyclone to fend off the grasping vines, he walked out of the reach of the Bloodthirsty Tree, which appeared exactly identical to all the other trees around it.

But that did not mean Dark Dragon left the area completely.

Although Qin Ruo was only a small fry at Level 41, he had been able to survive against him for this long, after all—his equipment might be worth having a look at. Once the Bloodthirsty Tree had sucked him dry, Dark Dragon could easily pick through the equipment he dropped before moving on.

He could afford to wait around a little longer.

***

So they waited, fifty meters away from the Bloodthirsty Tree, but after several minutes had passed, and still no items had fallen out of the tree, Dark Dragon and company began to wear looks of serious concern.

Gazing upwards intently, someone finally spoke up:

“Dark Dragon, sir, something’s not right. Bloodthirsty Trees work fast—they can leech away 200 HP per second. Even if that guy was guzzling HP Potion (L) while using Aquahealing on himself, there’s no way he could still be alive. He’d definitely have run out of potions by now, no matter what.”

The one who had spoken was the Berserker who’d been facing off against the Terra Swordmaster of the Death Cult. A while ago, he had personally performed an experiment to find out the exact rate at which Bloodthirsty Trees drained HP from players, and even with the aid of a Priest, he had nearly fallen to his death, coming away with a new respect for those Bloodthirsty Trees!

It had also allowed him to determine, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there was absolutely no way any Elementalist could have survived this long against one.

Something was wrong!

Dark Dragon frowned but remained silent, although in truth he was deep in frenetic thought.

This guy… what plan had he come up with this time, to have kept himself up there all this while?

Some kind of magic? No, there was no way…

No single player should have so many secret techniques at his disposal—he could already conceal himself like a Bandit, use Elemental Perception… if he had some kind of ability that allowed him to soar through the heavens as well—it went against all probability!

Maybe another one of his attribute boosters?

Dark Dragon recalled seeing Qin Ruo use two different kinds of attribute-boosting potions, and began to suspect that the current situation had something to do with it…

Sacred Potion!

The name of an item suddenly appeared in his mind.

Suddenly, it all became clear to him. If he’d made use of that potion, it would explain everything.