inhibitants of sograd desert~ chapter 3

"waaaaak! Mat, help!!!!!" Cardry cried out loud to his elder brother. "i cant stop running!!!"

BANG! he'd ran face first into a cactus... Mat-Ahari clapped his forehead. this brother is such a pain in the... he wondered if they would make it across the Sograd desert without causing him a major headache.

"next time just cast the running spell again. then u'll stop, karate kid." Mat said, dragging his red haired brother onto his feet.

"taekwon! taekwon-kid!" Cardry rebuked. Mat rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"peace! here, i got this when i duelled that smith we met in Prontera that day. happy birthday and i havnt congratulate you on passing that karate test." an evil light lingered in Mat's eyes as he extended his hand to reveal a manteau to his younger brother. 'got' meant 'stole'. but his innocent brother didnt need to know that.

"taekwon! not karate! but gee, thanks~ you're the best brother in the world~~~~~" Cardry already eagerly putting the manteau on. it's their first day back into the desert, and it would protect him from the sand and scorching sun. "how do i look? how do i look?!" "ah, and i got this for myself too~ a merchant was vending it for 30zeny XD" he took something out and covered his face with it. an..... alarm mask.

"happy birthday to me!!! XD"

watching his brother running off to the horizon again, Mat let out a defeated sigh. at least he can trust that he would have enough sense to survive in this desert that they had both grown up in.


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somewhere in the endless desert...

"oh no!! muka~~~! Mat~~~" Cardry found himself was going to run straight into a muka. but as he screamed the words, he found himself stopped abruptly infront of it and landed a solid round house kick on the muka.

to his relief, the muka dropped dead. he collapsed to sit on the floor, heart still beating fast and unable to believe his good luck. he had ran away from his brother again, unabled to control his new skill.

"birthday boy is lucky boy~~ ^^" he decided. it was the first time he'd ever killed a muka. and a one hit kill too! he was pleased with how his attacking power had improved.

as he calmed down, he went to examine his kill to see if there is any loot to pick up. he found a cactus needle lying beside the muka and a red herb not far away. he would show his brother the needle, Mat would have to approve how he'd grown stronger. Cardry fascinated himself with the imaginary approving nods of his brother while he picked the two items up. as he was storing them into his pouch, he saw an archer girl in pony tail came running at the turn of the great rocks.

"hey there." she greeted him.

"hey." he gave her a wave.

"you killed it. it was running away from me, may i have the cactus needle please?" the archer girl asked politely, not accusing him of kill stealing.

(p/s: it's me ur friendly explainer again~ kill stealing or KS is a serious offence in multi player online games. it is a term used for players killing a monster who was going to die under attack by another player, without the player seeking for help. thus "stealing" the experience points and items dropped by the monster.)

"but you cant prove it. you wasnt attacking it when i killed it." Cardry said in return.

"see for yourself, there must still be arrows sticking on it." the archer girl offered.

Cardry turned his head to look at the muka corpse more closely and already saw two arrows half concealed by its dead body. his heart sank. he had believed he killed the muka single handedly. and he wanted to prove it to his brother with the needle.

"aren't you going to give me that needle?" the archer girl annoyed by Cardry's delay and unwillingness.

"prove to me you are able to kill it, or i'm not going to give you the needle." Cardry's turn to be annoyed by the tone in her voice. as if he was a thief. no, he hadn't follow his stalker brother's footsteps. he had became a taekwon.

"you mean i cant kill it without you interrupting?" the archer provoked, "PVP then?"

"just the thing i had in mind." he replied sternly, already in the round house stance.


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"young lady, just wot do you think you are doing to my brother." Mat hissed dangerously at the archer girl as he confiscated the double strafe she sent his brother's way just in time. Cardry, now leaning heavily against the great rock already had a few arrow ends sticking out of his body. "you all right Card?" he added, and actually sounded worried.

"near dead bro... see how many birthday presents this anolian girl forced into me..." reliefed for the second time in the day, he took out the red herb he'd just looted and used it on the injuries. his brother was here, everything would be alright. Mat gave his brother a rough scan, he could see that the arrows were not aimed to kill, most are stuck on his brother's limbs. yet he was furious.

"a girl or not, i'll teach you a few lessons." he declared. he'd not harm her, only to frighten the girl into a few nightmares and steal wotever she had. a lesson, that's all.

the archer girl stood fearless confronting him. a stalker. she knew she'd have no chance fighting against him but she would not cower away. not that she'd have any chance to flee either.

in a blink of eyes, he disappeared infront of her. and before she had decided if her eyes had played tricks on her, her crossbow was stripped off her hands. when the stalker reappeared again, he was still in his last position, wearing his last expression, but she saw her crossbow in his hands.

"you like double strafing eh? now, i'll show you how it's properly done." with a smirk on his face, he aimed the crossbow at the archer. she found herself unable to move, strucked by how easily he had left her defendless in just a second or two. the arrows the stalker had confiscated in her last shot was now flying like two bolts back at her. she shut her eyes and raised her arms across her head in horror.

clank clank~~ the sound of metal hitting metal. one closely following another. she opened her eyes and saw the many belts of her own brother's cladding. "Zeph!" she cried. the assassin cross had dashed out of cloaking to block the arrows with his katars.

the stalker frowned. those from the sin class are not his favourite opponents. yes, he'd defeated a few of them before but every single one of them were nothing less than a nasty fight. but as he studied the sin cross now facing him, the frown unknotted, and was quickly replaced by a wide grin on his face. "Zeph!" he let out a muted cry almost imitating the young archer's. as he lowered the crossbow, he cried another one more loudly "Zephyr my friend!" and a short pause. "you've become a sin cross!"


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Cardry the taekwon

Mat the stalker

Noki the archer

Zeph the assassin cross

Muka



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family reunion XD

well, Mat-Ahari was obviously... matahari 阳 XP
and Cardry car-dry 车干 轩 XD
anolian archer girl Noki = ano + kimi (happy le?~)

and ofcoz,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY XUAN~~~~~~~