Children of a Lesser God 177 Group Figh

Malene and Kennedy both froze on the spot as they took in Vivi's huge form. Malene had seen it before and even described it to Kennedy, but back then she was still much smaller and didn't look nearly as majestic as she did now. Her jet black fur had tiny sparkles of white dotted through it, almost as though one were looking at stars tucked into the night sky. Along her paws were another patch of white at the bottom of her feet, making it look like she was walking on clouds. To top it all off, a rather soft purple energy seemed to be floating around her and spreading off onto the floor, helping to spread along the almost invisible gas. If one were to look close enough, they could almost see little ice crystals within the energy.

While Laz's black flame could melt a person within a few breaths, Vivi's purple ice could freeze them almost as quickly.

Standing there with the three ice statues next to her, Vivi looked like some sort of mystical beast returned to life. Her normally sky blue eyes were now instead a deep gold color that froze those foolish enough to look into them. Of the almost two dozen fighters that Kennedy had assembled and trained, nearly half of them were on the ground having lost all will to resist.

For her part, Renee was still standing strong while trying to get everything back to order. A few of them moved up to form ranks, but the ones who were the closest to Vivi and also happened to be the tanks seemed utterly unable to even hear her yells. Only one of them was able to withstand the pressure Vivi let off and assume a defensive stance, as though just that one person alone would be enough. The other two who were not frozen, were unable to move.

With a quick step and a casual flick of her tail, the two useless tanks were now just as frozen as the ones she had attacked at first. For the group, this meant that five out of their number had been beaten even before the fighting began, something that Kennedy didn't fail to notice.

"How ironic that the ones who were suppose to be the strongest were also the first to fall."

Malene could only nod her head at Kennedy's observation since the final remaining tank was actual female.

Renee was finally able to get everyone on their feet, something that was only possible since Vivi had just stood there and let it happen. She knew that if she had acted before and not stopped, the entire group would be nothing more than fun little ice sculptures.

As the group pulled back together, Vivi just stood there watching. Although it seemed like she was just having fun, she was actually remembering a conversation she had with Laz one time when they talked about games he used to play.

"MMO's"

*And what are those? And follow up, why would you think of a group battle like a game you used to play?*

The conversation had started when they had been thinking of how you would work a group battle. Vivi and Laz often had these conversations when they were bored with nothing else to do. For his part, Laz had watched, read, and played a ton of war games when he was younger. Travelling around with his parents, more often than not, he would be stuck in front of a laptop while they did whatever they were doing. And as most young men did, he too enjoyed battle type games.

So when they were talking about fighting off a demon beast, Vivi asked Laz what he would do if he ever had to fight with a group. Laz asked exactly how big a group she was wondering about and she just threw out the number six. As such, Laz suddenly had ideas pop up in his head about the MMO genre he used to play.

So then he went on to explain it.

"Well, you basically split everyone up into one of three categories which are then broken up into other sub categories. But for now, let's focus on the three. Offense, Defense and Support." Hearing him say this, Vivi nodded her head since it seemed like the most basic sort of team.

"Ok, so, once you have that basic setup going, it's a normal sort of party play, the holy trinity if you will..." Laz rattled off.

*You lost me,* Vivi replied. It wasn't that she didn't understand what he was trying to get at, but it was more like she didn't understand the term and therefore didn't know if he meant what she was hearing.

"Ok. So, the idea is that anyone who can take a hit is a tank. They are defense. They stand in front and block the shit from hitting the others. Pretty simple right?"

*Yes. But... what if the creature is breathing fire? Or acid? They aren't they just asking to die first?* Vivi asked, thinking of some of the things they had fought in the past.

"Yes. But, those are the outliers of the situation and what I'm telling you about is merely the way it works. Not that it will work in all situations or that we could actually use it in the real world. It just provides the format. Now then, once those defensive tanks lock down the demon beast or beasts, it's up to the offense to take them out. No matter what type of offense, they either hit it from afar or get in close and hit it before backing off. And they are the types that aren't as body built as the tanks, so they have to avoid attacks as much as possible."

*Ok, I am with you so far.*

"Last but not least, the support. They have to stay away from the enemy as much as possible and support the group in whatever form they can," Laz finished up.

*That's just basic stuff though...* Vivi complained after he finished. She was expecting more.

"It is. It is the most basic of basics. But that's why it's awesome. Because it lays down the ground work for the team and let's everyone figure out their general role beforehand. Much better than people who have no idea what they can do. Or if a team randomly gets together, everyone can name off their position and that will give them a quick idea of what the team consists of, it's strength and it's weakness. Obviously when you have a normal group of people you hang out with or kill with, then everything is much clearer and roles are better defined. But for a start, you can't lose with the holy three."

As Vivi spent some time thinking about it, she had to admit that it was better to be simple and clean as opposed to complicated and fucked up. Therefore, after talking with Laz a bit more and reading up on some of the games that used that system, Vivi had posted the group battle form to the website, the Flower and the Pond. With this info, Kennedy had used it as a base to train her team and since it was a gaming concept to begin with, everyone caught on quickly.

And watching it in action right before her eyes, Vivi couldn't help but admit that it was effective because it was simple. Everyone knew were they had to be and what they had to be doing, despite being attacked and already losing five teammates.

As they formed up, there was a noticeable gap in the front with only one person standing with a shield. Seeing this, Vivi didn't think too much of it and started walking towards the lone tank.

The tall female with the shield held her ground as the large wolf walked her way. She could barely keep her legs from falling out from underneath her when she noticed two more teammates walk up to her sides.

"Fill in the gaps. Secondary tanks into position and switch to defense. Once the beast is locked down, hit it with everything you have. Don't get behind it or we can't help you if we lose sight of you. MOVE IT." Renee's orders came fast, getting everyone into position. Had Vivi been in her human form, she would have smiled at this since all of these tactics were things that Laz had told her and she had posted.

Since the team was doing as she instructed, Vivi was feeling rather proud. Of course, that wasn't going to stop her in the slightest. The simple fact was that she was much stronger than them with her realm and level matching Laz. In contrast, the members of the group were at most, mid level Condensation realm, having just stepped into it while most were still at the early stages of the low level Condensation realm. It was still impressive that they, as a group, were this strong.

As the team had now formed up, with three tanks in front and everyone else spread out behind them, Vivi began her assault. She charged the remaining tank girl, head on. As she was about to hit, the tank girl's hands flashed an almost invisible wall sprung up in front of her. As Vivi ran into it, she slowed just in time to make it seem like the wall had stopped her. Thinking this was their chance, Renee yelled out, "ATTACK."

Several gun blasts were heard as the bullets launched towards Vivi along with a glowing arrow, a spinning disk, what looked like plant vines, and several other colors and shapes. At the same time, a couple of people quickly approached to attack Vivi's body, their human forms distorted, giving way to various claws, blades, and scales among others.

Watching all this, Vivi realized that although they had memorized what she wrote, they had no idea how to actually put it into play. What looked like a well formed group devolved into nothing more than a mob pile up.

Sighing at this lack of progress, Vivi's eyes suddenly glowed a flash of gold before she charged forward, ignoring the attacks heading her way.

Slamming into the wall, she sent the tank girl and her two helpers flying before they could even brace themselves. They had backed off due to the various attacks their teammates were throwing around since they didn't want to get accidentally hit and because of that, they weren't ready.

After the tanks were down, Renee had no idea what to do at this point. In every group battle they had run before this, once the pray was locked down and everyone attacked, the beast would die without a doubt. Seeing this one ignore every attack and launch one itself broke whatever thought train was in Renee's head. The only thing that flashed in it was to once again form up.

Just as she was about to yell it, Renee heard a a scream of fear and looked over, only to notice that anyone close to Vivi had already been frozen and now she was zapping around, freezing everyone else at random. Renee's ability involved the vines that Vivi had seen earlier. Her ability allowed her to lock things into position and make it hard for them to move. But with her poor control and the power difference between her and Vivi, she never stood a chance.

Even before another thought popped into her head, she blinked her eyes once and noticed that the wolf was standing over her, as though it was about to snap it's jaws and rip her in half.

Despite being frozen in fear, Renee stayed standing, glaring at the wolf's whose hot breath was in her face. Just when she felt like she might pee herself from the pressure, she suddenly saw the wolf shake it's head and whine as though the smell of Renee had bothered it.

While not sure if she was angry or confused at being able to live, Renee watched on as the wolf slowly walked up to the table Malene and Kennedy had been sitting while drinking coffee and in a flash of light, the wolf was gone while only the young girl remained in it's place.

Seeing this, Renee's jaw hit the floor while her legs finally gave out.

Looking around at all the ice statues, Malene just shook her head while Kennedy leaned forward.

"Why didn't you kill her too?" Kennedy asked Vivi.

"She's not a bad leader, just inexperienced..." she replied.

"But you killed the rest of them?" Kennedy asked while handing Vivi a small cup of coffee.

"And now she will have to live with this failure for the rest of her life while the blood of her teammates will forever stain her hands...Shame..."

Chapter end