~o~O~o~

 

**Warning: The first part of Ch 12 contains the f-bomb. A lot. If you are easily offended, don't read that chapter or try and pretend they are exclamation marks and maybe it won't be so bad.

** Note: For the readers that might not be familiar with the MMO gamer term of “con”. I decided that I should make a quick explanation since the term is a critical plot element in the next few chapters.  “Con” is short for “Threat Condition” and is used by the game world to help the player gauge the relative strength of their target.  “Grey Con” means that the target is trivial and yields no experience.  “Green Con” means that the target is easy and yields a small amount of experience.  A “Green Con” target should only be a concern if the player is mobbed by a lot of “greens” or if they are attacked while “AFK” ( Away from Keyboard ).  “Yellow Con” means that the target is close to the same level as you are and that a fight could go either way.  “Red Con” means that the target is significantly higher level/more powerful and will kill you unless you have help.  These “Con” colors are usually displayed in the target window in some readily apparent manner. “[Insert Con Color] to me” is how you tell your group-mates of differing levels what the target looks like to you.  Now, I have no idea if GEO uses this system, but I think it helps the story, so I am using what I know.

 

Insert standard disclaimer here. The one that reminds everyone that this is a work of fiction. No one is real and any resemblance to someone who is real is just the reader's imagination. This is also a Fan Fiction set in the Whately Story Universe. No Canon characters or purple/blue furry children's puppet creatures were permanently harmed in the making of this story. I hope. :)

 

 

** Chapter 11 **

 

I feel a bit confused at first.  Okay, I lied!  I feel a lot confused.  I am leaning up against the wall behind the now opening door of Lady Seramis’s suite.  I can feel  Whisper’s  delightfully soft and slippery  shadow silk armor against my skin. Her boots feel like the most comfortable pair of wrestling shoes I’ve ever worn.  Unlike those flimsy thin soled shoes, her magical elvin crafted leather boots are soft, warm and supportive.  My chest feels slightly constricted, but supported. Umm…oh crap… la la la la la…moving on.

 

The magical mithral silver alloy of her thief’s mask feels comfortably cool pressed against every inch of my face.  The mask surprises me with how easy it is to breath.  I never thought about it before, but how does Whisper manage to breathe while wearing the mask?  There are no nose or mouth holes to be seen on its matte black surface.  Oh well, I can’t really look at the mask now.  I guess I will have to explore that question at a later date.

 

Even though her hair isn’t that much longer then my own, I can feel the extra weight of her longer bangs as they cover my ears and sweep forward around my face.  My real ears aren’t pierced, so Whispers earrings feel strange to me. I resist the urge to reach up and feel her ears.  I mean my ears. Oh, this is getting so darn confusing now! 

 

I can feel a cool band of metal on my right hand that must be Whisper’s Ring of Regeneration.  That ring was worth every horrible dungeon crawl in the Liche’s Lair that I had to make before the damn Liche finally dropped his ultra-rare ring for me.  It only took me fifty three tries before I could finally stop going to that damn dungeon. I nearly peed my pants when it appeared in his treasure chest.  I did pee a little when I won the ring during the group’s random greed rolls to see who would get what from the treasure chest.  The healing power of the ring doesn’t help in a fight, but it sure does reduce the downtime caused by the injuries of that fight.

 

Her ring of Mind Shielding is on her left hand.  That ring, I got by accident during a different dungeon crawl.  No one else in the group wanted it, so she got it by default. I haven’t noticed any difference with the ring equipped or not equipped.  I think that I saw some message on my screen about a Detect Lies spell failing on me when a player tried to lowball me on an item I was selling to him.  Other than that, nothing, but it is the only other magical ring Whisper has.  If it was real, maybe it would help me against my mom?

 

Every sense is so crisp!  I smell the earthy scent of the granite walls overlaid with a trace of wood fire and a hint of the fresh air coming from outside that carries the fresh outdoor forest smells untouched by the industrial revolution.  My muscles are relaxed, yet I feel so ready for action.  I feel so alive with the feeling of extreme good health and fitness.  Every fiber of my being is bristling with energy.  It is like that time John and I watched Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” movie were afterwards, we both walked around the neighborhood a few times looking for bad guys to fight with our Bruce Lee moves. The scents, sights and feelings assaulting my senses right now are so intoxicating.

 

If only I could feel like this in real life! 

 

>ROV Object Definition File Found.
>Begin File Transfer? [Y]/N

 

Ummm, yes?

 

>Transfer in Progress…1%...

 

Whoa!  The words flash for a second in the center of my vision before minimizing down to the lower right corner as the 1% changes to 2%.  This could take awhile.

 

I hear Lady Seremis’s musical laugh from outside her doors and the sound acts like a glass of cold water thrown over the curtain by a mischievous brat of a sister.  My new body tenses as everything snaps into a razor sharp focus.  I am ready for action and can’t stop myself from smiling.

 

I know Kung Fu.

 

“Oh, come now Lord Grover.  I appreciate the company and the escort, but I’m hardly defenseless here in the heart of my own stronghold.  Someone would have to be incredibly stupid to try and attack me here.” I hear her say from outside of her suite.

 

 Oh man, I am so screwed now.

 

“Yes my Queen, but reports have surfaced that someone has put out a contract for your life.”  I hear what I assume is this Lord Grover dude tell Lady Seramis. 

 

Reports my ass!

 

“Pffftt…this is hardly the first time I’ve heard that particular bit of news in my life.”

 

She sounds so unconcerned.

 

“Of course my Queen, but these rumors have also said that the GEO GM’s are the ones who have put out the contract.” Lord Grover says, sounding worried.

 

“I hardly think that the Game Masters would get involved in the assassination contract of a player character!”

 

Umm, yeah they would.

 

“There has been some speculation that your Neutral kingdom has the GM’s perplexed.”

 

I think it’s safe to say that Mr. Lord Grover dude.

 

“If the GM’s are involved in some plot against my life, then that will only aid me in my research of this strange world.”

 

Oh man…If she only knew how much danger that she is really in right now.  I’m equal level to her and given the element of surprise, I’m pretty sure that I could take her down pretty fast.  I’m not even specialized as an assassin. I’ve focused Whisper on the thief skills and have only taken the assassin related skills to help with the dungeon crawls.  A specialized assassin like Shad0 K1LL3r should be able to her down even if he doesn’t completely surprise her.

 

“Well, good night to you Lord Grover.  I thank you for your concern.  Your intelligence reports are always worth taking heed.  It has been a pleasure listening to your dragon tales and cannot wait to hear what the heroine does next!  I might have to plan another party next week just for that reason!” She says with a laugh. “Well, I have to do some reading before I camp-out for the night.  Tomorrow is going to be a long day at school me thinks.”, she ruefully finishes.

“The pleasure is all mine, my Queen and a pleasant night to you.”  He says and due to the sounds of armor rustling, I imagine him bowing to her in some archaic military fashion. It is amazing how good Whisper’s hearing is!  I so want him to stay to help Lady Seramis, but I hear his armored footsteps retreating back down the stairs as Lady Seramis fully enters the trap her own suite has become. 

 

>8%

 

Where in the hell is that other assassin?!

 

>Tactical Systems Enabled…
>Analyzing Sensor Net…
>Visual Anomaly Detected…
>Augmented Reality System Enabled!

 

A solid, yellow pair of brackets spring into existence around Lady Seramis with a pinging sound. 

 

>Target One: Locked

 

With another pinging sound, a second pair of brackets quickly follow the first set.  Instead of yellow, the second set of brackets are blinking red and appear to be enclosing empty air.  Focusing on the empty pair of blinking red brackets, I can make out a very slight ghosting effect caused by a rogue using their hide in shadows ability. If it wasn’t for the brackets, I would have never spotted him.  The more I focus on the ghosting effect, the less invisible the enemy assassin looks to me.  The blinking brackets then turn solid.

 

>Target Two: Locked

 

Oh man, this is so cool!  I feel like a fighter pilot!  If I only had a Sidewinder missile or two right now! 

 

Lady Seramis has her back to the assassin as she turns to close and lock her doors.  She looks so relaxed.  I could simply reach out and plunge my dagger into her neck right now, but I just can’t do it anymore.  After all the stress involved in getting here, I should feel depressed about that realization. Instead, it feels like a huge weight has lifted off my shoulders.

 

I know what I have to do now.  It’s probably going to suck for Whisper, but I have to try and stop this.

 

I watch as the assassin moves into the corner opposite of me so that he can maneuver behind her once she turns to step away from the doors.  I am guessing that he is letting her lock the doors to gain some time before her guards can get in and interrupt things.  Well, the guards were grey to me, so I guess that they would be grey or even white to Shadow Killer.  Sure, the guards would be an easy kill for me.  A simple sneak up behind the first, perform a backstab and the odds are it would be a one shot kill.  However; the second guard would take a few more hits due to missing the element of surprise, but the level differences would still make the fight trivial for me. The second guard might not even have had a chance to yell for help before I dropped him. 

 

For a high level and specialized assassin like Shadow Killer, the guards would be dead before they even had a chance to jump.  However, dealing with the guards first would allow Lady Seramis time to prepare and draw upon her Font’s power.  If the assassin allowed that to happen, then the fight would end rather badly for the dude. 

 

>10%

 

Holy cow!  What the heck is in that file?  I have a pretty darn fast connection.  This file should not be taking that long!

 

It is time for me to make my move.  I slowly reach down and draw both of my daggers from their boot sheaths. I know, I know, boot sheaths?  Real fighters don’t use boot sheaths for their daggers, but I couldn’t resist.  Whisper looked so damn hot wearing them that I didn’t care what Sensei Rogers might have thought about the tactical problems those sheaths would cause the wearer.  It’s not real.  Well, it wasn’t real until just now anyway.

 

The leather wrapped pommels of Whisper’s matched Adamantine Daggers of Speed feel like they are a part of me as I move into position behind Shadow Killer as he is focusing on Lady Seramis. It’s crazy, but I feel like I have used these daggers in countless fights.  For some reason, that feeling relaxes me. The sight of an unsuspecting victim being followed by an assassin who was in turn being followed by another assassin would be hilarious, if it wasn’t me doing it. 

 

>15%

 

Time seems to slow for me.  Unlike one of those dreams where I can see something happening in slow motion, but never reach it in time, I’m not slow.  Everyone and everything else is.

 

I feel like I have all the time in the world as I watch him start to pull back his right arm for a killing thrust into Lady Seramis’s unprotected back with the short sword in his right hand.  I choose that moment to strike at him with every backstab bonus I can think of.  My right hand dagger sinks into his back, right where a real person’s right kidney would be, while my left hand dagger moves to a guard position in case he spins toward me from his left.  If I had made that strike on Lady Seramis, her body would be hitting the floor right now and the fight would be over.  I note the critical strike notification and the damage text that briefly flashes above his head.  The nice damage number is followed by a level difference adjustment that changes what would’ve been a killing blow to merely a good hit.  His health total drops by fifty percent.  Yeah, it hurt him, but not enough.   

 

He still tries to kill Lady Seramis, but my blow ruined his aim and all he manages to do is lightly wound her with his short sword strike.  His off-hand dagger strike misses her completely.

 

Lady Seramis gasps in pain as she falls forward on to the floor and then rolls to face behind her.  Her face is a mixture of pain, surprise and anger. She only lost about ten percent of her health, so she’s not seriously injured. I’m thinking that with the level difference; I’m not going to be so lucky when it’s my turn to be attacked by the assassin.  I am banking on the player be right handed.  I am guessing that if I was stabbed on my right side in real life; I would try to spin to the left and away from the pain in my right.  However, since this is a game and the player of Shadow Killer can’t really feel the pain in his right side; I bet on him spinning to the right using his mouse.

 

I bet correctly when he spins to his right.  That allows me to flow to my left with his movement, ending up behind him again. My plan is to position myself between him and Lady Seramis.  I sneak in another backstab to his exposed rear, but the hit is negligible.  I maybe do an additional five percent damage to him. He spins again to face me and boy does he look pissed.

~o~O~o~

** Chapter 12 **

 

**Note: The fight scene is totally not GEO Canon. I have no idea how I could re-write the scene to conform to Canon and make sense to me.  So, I’m not even going to try. Maybe in the future.

 

“What the fuck!!?!” Brad Kenner, aka Damper, screamed.  Everything was going according to plan until someone stabbed him in the back, just as he was about to complete his contract for Lady Seramis.  The real kicker in the scenario is that he recognized the lady in the portrait hanging above the room’s fireplace.  It looked like Nikki Reilly.  Killing Seramis is one thing, but finding out that he might be killing that bitch’s character was just icing on the cake.

 

The damn good side must have sent one of their own to try and stop me.The other rogue is hard to see, but he quickly manages to target him and is relieved to see that the other rogue is green to him.

 

“Are you playing that stupid game again?” His twin brother James asked from his side of the dorm room.  “I’m trying to get some sleep here.”

 

“I had that bitch right where I wanted her and some damn noobie rogue stabs me in the back!  Me! The Shadow Killer!  No one gets the drop on me!”

 

 “Umm, Bro, it’s just a game.  You do know that it’s not real, right?” James asked. 

 

“I don’t fucking care!  I am going to kill Fey’s GEO character.  That’s fucking real enough for me!”

 

Brad angrily hit the keys to begin his first attack sequence. “Take that you damn noobie!” 

 

He smiled when he heared a feminine sounding cry of pain as his attacks ripped through her defenses.  He laughed with satisfaction when her health plummeted by 20% as her wimpy daggers futilely tried to block his attacks.  The only thing that detracted from his pleasure was that he couldn’t see the expression of pain on her face due to the silly thief’s mask she wore.  It reminded him of one of those stupid china doll theater masks that he has seen hanging in some of the girl’s dorm rooms.

 

“You can’t even see the girl’s face. What makes you think that she’s Fey?”  James asked as he walked over to look at the action over his brother’s shoulder.

 

“Not her, the bitch behind her.  I saw Fey’s picture hanging above the fireplace.” Brad said as he made another attack on the rogue.  The stupid girl rogue just got lucky with her first attack, but now she is going to die.   He sneered as she tried to attack him back, but against his character’s defenses her counter-attack only inflicted a paltry 5% damage, dropping his total health down to 40% as his character lightly grunted from the pain of his new wounds.

 

“Fireplace?  What fireplace?”  James asked.

 

Brad impatiently gestured with his left hand toward his computer screen with annoyance.  “The fireplace in this room!”

 

“Dude, half of the losers in this school have a Fey Pin-Up poster on their walls!  Maybe the person who decorated this fake room is just a fan of hers.” James said as his brother  continued to play and ignore him.

 

Brad’s second attack is almost as good as his first.  He dropped her health by another 15% followed by another 5% as his dagger’s deadly poison took effect. 

 

She should have cried in pain! Why isn’t she making any sounds?  Brad felt disappointed that she wasn’t making any noise during her attacked or when she got hit, while his character continued performing its default attack yells and damage cries.  Her silence was starting to get on his nerves. What in the hell is going on here?  Oh well, her noob ass is still going to die.

 

The bitch’s daggers flashed again and she managed to get a couple of lucky hits with her counter attack this time.  His character’s health dropped by another 10%, which brought him down to only 30% health.

 

“Damn it!  For a greenie, she’s fucking hard to hit!” Brad frowned with concentration as he focused on maximizing his character’s attack sequences.  The damn roguette suddenly turned blurry somehow.  That, plus her shadowy black armor with the stupid black face mask was really starting to make her hard to follow.  He decided to use a different attack sequence and he felt pleased when he dropped her health by another 20%, while her counter attack didn’t even scratch him this time.  The poison in her system took an additional 2% and would continue to slowly rob her of her health until she was cured or dead.  She was now down to 38% health and he felt confident that there was nothing that she could do to stop him!

 

“Dude! What in the hell is going on in here?  All your damn yelling is keeping everyone awake!” An unknown male voice yelled.  Brad figured that voice must belong to one of the losers that lived next door.

 

“Shut up man, I’m schooling this noobie in GEO!  I’ll be done in a minute.”  Brad proceeded to ignore the additional company in his room. He smiled with satisfaction when he hit a sequence of keys that caused his character to quickly drink down a health potion.  His character’s health shot back up to 60% health.

 

“Oh yeah!  In yer face noob!” He screamed in triumph while his two spectators watched the on-screen action with amusement.

 

The bitch even had the audacity to taunt him. “What’s the matter little boy, afraid that you might lose to a girrll?”  She sounded like one of those stuck up bitches from Dickinson.  The ones that always act liked they are too good for him.

 

“Shut the fuck up you little bitch!  I’m so going to enjoy spitting on your corpse when I’m done with you!”  Brad shouted into his mic.

 

 “Hey Bro, why did your ‘noob’ just change to a yellow con?” James asked, sounding confused by what he saw on his brother’s screen.

 

“Whaat in the Fuuck!?!?  That’s not even possible! That Fey bitch must be helping her somehow!” Brad screamed, his face contorted with rage.

 

“Whoa! Dude, check that out!  She just cloned herself or something!” Brad heard on if his uninvited guest exclaim with wonder.

 

Ignoring the idiotic commentary, Brad quickly hit the same button on his keyboard three times as he rapidly targeted each image.  Shuriken shot out from his character’s hands and when that struck each the image, the image disappeared. All except for the one true image of the black clad mystery rogue as she took another 1% of damage from the shuriken that hit her.

 

Brad briefly held his hand over his mic and turned to his brother. “Hah! Only a noob doesn’t know how to handle some simple mirror images!”

 

Brad returned his focus to the fight. “I am so going to pwn you noob bitch!”

 

“In your wet dreams nerd boy!” She said. Her mocking reply just pissed him off even more.

 

It doesn’t help when he heard one of the assholes behind him.

 

“Dude, she’s totally playing you, you know that don’t you?” One of the assholes behind him said, infuriating him even more.

 

He started to feel the pressure.  His audience has grown.  He heard a couple more dorm-mates walk into his room to see what the excitement is all about.  The additional “wows” and “ahhhs” was getting on his nerves.  To make matters worse, his last three attacks barely scratched her, while her attacks are mysteriously getting through and doing more and more damage.  His health has dropped down to 25% while her health was sitting at 25% and only dropped by 2% to 4% per exchange.  Most of that damage was from the poison in her system.  His hit ratio was down to one in ten now, while she never missed.  Her attacks managed to find every opening in his defenses.  

 

Why in the hell isn’t her character making any sounds?

 

That damn mask of hers was also getting on his nerves, the solid amber colored eyes, the flat black surface and the dark red painted lips all combined to somehow mock him.  The lack of expression made her look like some unrelenting killer robot. 

 

“I’m so going to end this fight now!  I’m done playing with you bitch!” Brad snarled as he started his ultimate attack sequence. He felt confident that this would end it. He used every power up and damage bonus at his disposal. He grinned with anticipation when he hit the button on his keyboard to execute his attack, but instead of watching the bitch die; His screen flashed red as his character’s fell to the floor as his health dropped to zero.

 

“Holy shit!  Did you see that move she just made?!?” Someone yelled from the audience.

 

“Yeah! That was fucking unbelievable!  It was like something out of “The Matrix” or something!”

 

“Oh yeah! She just cut your character’s f’ing nuts off Brad!  It was like you froze, while she slowed down for a second, then bam!  She slid under your legs and cut your legs down there by yer junk!”

 

Brad was stunned.  He numbly watched as the cheating bitch executed a graceful back handspring over his character’s dead body by pushing off using the points of her daggers instead of her hands to land crouched down near his head. What she did after that graceful move stunned him even more. He and everyone else in the room watched as she expertly twirled her right hand dagger to reverse the grip. Next, she smoothly thrust her dagger back handed into his character’s throat.  Then, she quickly and expertly twirled both daggers to spin his character’s blood off of her dagger’s blades.  She finished his humiliation when she sheathed her daggers with a gunslinger flourish in her boots.

 

“Oh man! Look at that coup de grace move she just did on you too!”  James said, completely caught up in the on screen action. He failed to see how purple his brother’s face turned as his rage built up.

 

“Ahhh, did tha poor liddle boy fall down and get a boo-boo?” Brad heard the bitch mercilessly taunt him as his screen turned black.

 

“That’s it! I’m going to kill that bitch right now!” Brad yelled.  He quickly stood up from his computer and pushed his way through the uninvited crowd to exit his room. 

 

“She can’t fucking do this to me! I’ve spent too damn much time and money making my character just to have him killed by some damn cheating bitches!”

 

“Brad! Stop bro!  It’s not worth it!” James said, pleading with his brother while the rest of the audience looked on with amusement.  “It’s just a game and how do you really know that it was Fey and that she was cheating?”

 

“You all saw what fucking happened!  She had to have fucking cheated!” Brad yelled, waving his arms and pointing back at his computer.

 

“Mr Kenner!  What is the meaning of these death threats upon another student?” Mr. Forrest, the Melville Cottage house parent, yelled with drill sergeant volume and precision.

 

Their audience took that as their cue to return to their rooms now that the action was over.

 

James attempted to explain things in a way that might keep his brother out of trouble.  “He wasn’t talking about a student Mr. Forrest.  He was just talking about a character he was fighting in GEO”.

 

“I wasn’t asking you James.”  Mr. Forrest said, sternly before he turned his attention back to Brad.  “Now Brad, explain yourself before I have you hauled off to campus security!”

 

“It was like James said Mr. Forrest.  The rest of the guys saw it.  I was just playing GEO and I got a little mad when I got killed.” Brad said as the reality of the situation started to sink in.  Having to explain to his dad why he had been sent to cool his heels in a security cell would not be a good thing.  That would probably end up with him losing his GEO account until he graduated this hell hole of a school.  Things were so much better before he and his brother got unfairly kicked out of the Alphas.  If only the Don was still running the Alphas.

 

“I don’t believe you, but I have better things to worrying about tonight and I sure as hell don’t want to have to mess with the paper work that having you hauled off by security would cause!  So, both of you, lights off and bed now!” Mr. Forrest said.

 

“Yes, Mr. Forrest” James and Brad chorused together.

 

**

 

I hear him yell, “What the [beep]!”, but I am guessing that since I still have the profanity filters enabled that he probably dropped the f-bomb there.  Even though Whisper is about to get pummeled, I am glad that I was able to get a good hit in on him.

 

His first attack comes at me faster than I can visually process.  His short sword and dagger flash with a complex pattern that slams past my defenses.

 

“Ouch!”  I felt that and it fricken hurt!  Why in the hell did it really hurt me? Oh crap, this is real to me now. Could I really die from this? 

 

My cry just makes the bastard smile with satisfaction.  I will not make another sound, no matter how much it hurts. I refuse to give him the satisfaction!

 

>Analyzing Enemy Attack Pattern Alpha…

 

I am not going to go down without a fight!  I suppress the pain that I’m feeling as I move forward to press my counter-attack. I feel my muscles effortlessly flow with a complex pattern as my daggers penetrate some of his defenses, but I hardly scratch him.  His character grunts with fake pain as his health only drops by 5%. If this keeps up, I will be dead before he drops below 20%.  Oh well, at least he will know that he has been kissed by me.  Umm…not that I would really kiss him, because that would be gross.

 

He laughs as he launches another attack, but this time I can sort of make out what he is doing. I can almost predict where he will strike.  Key word here is, almost.  I do a better job of dodging or parrying his attacks this time, but I still end up losing another 15% of my health from his attack. I can feel my blood dripping and soaking my clothes. I’m glad that I am wearing black.  I would hate for the bastard to notice that I am really bleeding. 

 

My eyes are starting to tear up from the pain and when the poison that his dagger is coated in takes effect, I almost lose it.  Oh my god! The pain is excruciating as the poison burns from inside me. My health drops another 5% from the poison alone.  Crap, I don’t use poisons and I didn’t think to bring any poison antidotes.  Even if I somehow manage to win, I am still dead. I still have 60% of my health compared to his 40% health. Maybe, I will get lucky here somehow?

 

I’d like to think that my plan of not crying out while he kills me is helping some.  He appears to be getting more and more pissed at me as the fight goes on.  Hopefully, his anger will cause him to make a mistake.

 

I launch my third counter-attack and his defenses are easier to penetrate this time.  I manage to drop his health down by another 10%.  That still leaves him with 30% of his health, but maybe there is some hope for me after all?  Oh crap, I’m acting like such a noobie!  I forgot to cast my Blur spell to help make me harder to hit.  I quickly cast the spell just before he launches a new kind of attack.

 

Ouch!  His attacks were too hard for me to follow again!  I don’t know what happened, but I was just starting to get the hang of this when, bam!, he destroys me by knocking another 20% off my health. 

 

Now, I’m sitting at only 40%...ouch…38% as the poison kicks in again.  I didn’t even manage to sneak a blow in edgewise this time. I can feel my tears dripping down my neck as the mask channels them down my face.  I really wonder how that mask is staying on my face.

 

Then, to add insult to my injury, he chugs down a healing potion to instantly bring his health back up to 60%.  I had better get this figured out and fast.

 

>Enemy Attack Pattern Beta: Analysis Complete...

 

“Oh yeah! In yer face noob!”, he taunts me.  I can’t let that pass.

 

“What’s the matter little boy? Afraid that you might lose to a girrll?”, I casually toss back to him. Even I am surprised by how girlishly teasing that I sound, but it seems to have the desired effect on him.

 

“Shut the [beep] up you little [beep]! I’m so going to enjoy spitting on your corpse when I’m done with you!” He screams at me. 

 

Wow, it sounds like he has really lost it.  I smile as the target lock bracket that surrounds his character turns from red to yellow.

 

I decide to see if I can buy myself a little more time by casting my mirror image spell.  I split into three separate illusionary images of myself and move forward to attack him with the hope that he will be confused for a critical second.  Sadly, he is not.  He just expertly whips out three shuriken in rapid fire mode.  Each shuriken hits one of my illusionary images and the real me, which causes the images to disappear on me.  I take another 1% from the damn shuriken followed by another 2% from the poison which drops me down to 35% health. Ouch, this shit is really starting to hurt.

 

“I’m so going to pwn you noob [beep]!”, he smugly gloats.  I really wish this dude would just shut up.  He’s really starting to get annoying.

 

“In your wet dreams, nerd boy!” I say. Even I am surprised by how condescending and teasing I sound.   Like I really am that hot girl who just shot the real me down when I asked her out on a date.  Judging by the expression on his character’s face, I think that he’s about to blow a gasket.  Awesome!

 

Hoping to overwhelm me, he launches three attacks in rapid succession.  His moves appear slow and basic to me now.  I only let one or two if his attacks hit me this time and that is only because letting those obviously weak strikes through my defenses allows me to hit him back hard.  My daggers are ringing and sparks are flying as I casually block some strikes and turn the block into a good solid hit on his open defenses for others.  I drop his health down to 25% while he returns the favor by getting my health down to 25% too.  I can’t give him much credit for that though.  His damn poison did more damage than he did. Again, the target lock bracket that surrounds his character changes color.  It changes from yellow to green.

 

“I’m so going to end this [beep] fight now!  I’m done playing with you [beep]!” He snarls.

 

Hehe, I think that I am starting to get to him.  Everything stops for me as I see his character activating his power ups using his first attack pattern.  He is moving so sloooow to me. I can’t stop myself from smiling when I figure out how I am going to kill him. I know exactly what instant in time and space he will be the most vulnerable to my counter-attack.  This is going to be good!

 

I dodge to the his character’s left, followed by a quick change direction with dive back toward him as his left foot ever so slowly moves forward.  I time my roll perfectly so that as I pass between his now wide open groin, I am able to slash my daggers across the inner side of both of his legs.  If he had been a real person, I am pretty sure that my attack would have severed something important. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be hit down there like that.

 

Critical Strike!

 

Oh yeah!  That’s going to leave a mark!

 

I continue my tumble forward and away from him to gain some fighting room in case my attack doesn’t kill him.  Timing my roll, I spring up and execute a perfect flip with a half twist to land facing back toward him with my daggers in the ready position.

 

I watch him stagger with a confused look on his face before he falls to the floor as his legs give out him.  His health reads zero to me. Feeling surprisingly giddy, I use my daggers to perform a cartwheel towards his body. Landing the cartwheel with a few more feet to go, I use my forward momentum to do a flip over him to land gracefully crouched down next to his shoulder; I twirl both daggers to reverse the grips. I follow that up with a quick thrust of my right hand dagger backwards into the bastard’s neck.  The jerk doesn’t even have the decency to leave any blood on my dagger when I pull it out of his throat. I sniff with distain as I perform a quick double spin to dislodge the non-existant blood that should be coating my daggers and then I follow that move by sheathing them with a few extra spins to show off.

 

I’m about to collapse, but I just know that the bastard is still on the other end of his PC. I will not give him the satisfaction of seeing me pass out.  I decide to rub some more salt into his wounds.

 

“Ahhh, did tha poor liddle boy fall down and get a boo-boo?” I coo at him with a glance back over my right shoulder just before the light in his character’s eyes go dim.  I hope the bastard blows a gasket or something!

 

Looking up, I notice that Lady Seramis is standing a few feet away from me with a concerned look on her face.  I attempt to stand only to find myself falling to the floor as I am overwhelmed by the pain and blood loss as the poison relentlessly proceeds to kill me.

 

The stone floor feels so cool and comforting to me.  I’m so tired.  The pain is just too much for me cover up anymore and I can’t stop myself from crying. Maybe I would feel better if I just closed my eyes and went to sleep.  I hear her reach my side and gently roll me over on to my back.  I am powerless to stop her as she removes my mask.

 

 Coughing and spitting up some blood I jokingly say to her, “I’m so sorry Lady Seramis. I didn’t know that I would get my blood all over your floor.”  My attempt to laugh at the face of death is ruined by the pain evident in my girly sounding voice.

 

“Hush child.  Save your strength.” She says with a look of compassion and understanding in her eyes that goes far beyond what I would expect from a person who must think that this is just a game.

 

“I would like to ask you how is it that you were able to do what you just did against that assassin, but my other half insists on being rude and wants me to ask you why it looks like you are in real pain.”  She pauses is if listening to something outside of the game. “yes…and about to really die too?” She says with resignation.

 

“I don’t know.” I cry out with pain as the poison sends another jolt of pain through my body. “I logged in to play my character and everything turned real.”

 

“Can’t you just log out?” She asks.

 

Oh yeah, I should try to do that.  Okay…how?

 

“Logout!” I try visualizing to myself.  Nothing happens. Well, nothing good for me anyway.

 

>Unrecognized Command

 

“Quit”

 

>Unrecognized Command

 

Again, Nada.

 

“Disconnect”

 

>Critical Operating System Download in Progress.
>Disconnect not allowed.

 

Oh shit.  I completely forgot about that.

 

“I can’t.” I say as she raises an inquisitive eyebrow at me. “It just won’t let me disconnect.”

 

Her face turns expressionless, so I assume that she is now talking offline with this ‘other half’ that she mentioned.  I can’t help but cry out with pain as the poison takes another bite out of my health. I’d like to think that I won’t really die, but this is feeling way too real.

 

Crap, the download is only at 75% now.  My health is down to 10%. I’ll be dead before it is finished. Oh well, at least it can’t get any worse. I notice that there is some blinking red medical cross icon next to the download status number.  I wonder what that means?

 

>Medical Status Display…Activated
>Host Systems…Critical
>Blood Pressure…Critical
>Sympathetic Stimulation Levels…Critical
>Neurogenic Shock Detected…Cause Unknown
>No Damage Detected to Host
>Corrective Treatment…Unknown
>Death of Host…Probable

 

“Shit, I just had to ask.” I mutter to myself as I notice the light in the room beginning to get brighter somehow.  I guess I really am dying.  I glance over to Lady Seramis to thank her for staying here with me when I notice where all the light is coming from. It is coming from her.  She must be tapping into her Font or something powerful.  I wonder if she will be able to heal me?

 

I try to say something, but a sudden pain wracks my body causing me to cry instead.  Oh god, it hurts so bad.  My health is now at 6% while the critical download thing is only up to 80%. The download seems to be moving faster now.  It’s still not fast enough though.

 

“Be still child.  I refuse to give my newest champion permission to die.” She says as the glow surrounding her body increases. A ghostly crown appears on her head while royal looking robes shimmer around body.  Her light is almost blinding me when she touches my forehead and all the lights go out as I feel a sudden rush of power fill me to bursting.

 

>Download Complete
>*** Reboot Required ***