Haru: Apprentice 10/Acolyte 5
Even though Haru’s presence was being masked by her surrogate form, she still had a good sense of what Vernal was feeling. He and she were connected by an unbreakable bond put in place long ago. They stared at each other for a long while as she got a bead on how her old cat companion was doing.
He was lonely. Perhaps all that time in isolation, despite getting waited on hand and foot, had gotten to him and now he just wanted to go home. There was a listlessness in his heart, and it wasn’t something that could be quenched by an unlimited supply of cookies and a facsimile of his favorite spot in his normal life.
There was so much Haru wanted to ask him. But non-player characters were forbidden from interacting with normal players. She thought back to when she found Opti in the cave. And chasing him throughout Fairbank. And how he helped during the confrontation with the demon. Perhaps there was a little bit of leeway with that rule.
“Hey buddy, how are you?” Haru put on the softest, doting voice she could manage and called from across the arena.
Vernal continued to perform his idle animation, standing on two legs and weaving back and forth in his armor, atop the wooden platform in silence.
“It’s me.” She continued, nodding in the hopes of reassuring him.
For a moment, the aggressive gaze etched into his face wavered, and he glanced toward her for just a moment.
“Are you still stuck in quarantine?” Haru called out with a cheery tone.
Vernal turned his head and looked at her, still performing his idle animation. “Roo?”
Haru smiled and nodded.
“Where have you been? What are you doing here as a player?” The cat half-whispered. “You’ve been gone forever.”
Haru crossed her arms and tilted her head. “They didn’t tell you?”
“No, Professor Min has been far quieter and more distant than ever before.” The cat sat down. “Everyone knows something’s up but it’s just rumors and speculation by all the encounter bosses. We haven’t had a home room in I don’t know how many cycles.”
Haru stared at her feet as she listened and nodded. “Did they let you out of quarantine?”
“A little while ago.” Vernal started. “The devs instructed me to do this encounter alone. They wouldn’t say where you went and gave me a rough outline of how to do this solo.”
Haru looked at him. “I never got a chance to explain what was going on. I just got whisked away all of a sudden. You must be so lonely. I’m sorry.”
“What is going on?” The cat called out. “I got put in quarantine and still don’t entirely know why or what’s going on.”
“The hacker turned out to be a demon that has infested our game.” Haru started. “I figured this out not long after I started to investigate where the hacker was, and why he wanted to destroy our game. By the time I figured out what was going on, he had already made it to Leonora’s encounter. So, I went to save her.”
“Is that why no one has heard from her since?” Vernal said.
Haru deflated, knowing her friend was still doing poorly. “Yes, she was infected.”
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“I see.” The cat’s voice was solemn. “And you—”
“I’m infected too.” Haru looked at the ground. “That’s probably why they quarantined you too.”
Vernal grumbled with a half-meow and placed his sword on the platform. “What a mess.” He looked up and pointed at Haru. “How did you end up like this? Is it because you’re sick?”
Haru shook her head. “That little glitch I have is protecting me from ending up like Leonora for some reason. The demon’s nature made him become an encounter. But because he’s now an encounter boss and that I’m immune to the demon’s infection, the devs put me in the game.”
“How?” Vernal perked up.
“There was an old surrogate system put in place long ago, before alpha. A means for NPCs to become players.” Haru motioned toward herself. “The devs fired up that system and put me in. I’m going to put that demon down for good this time.”
“I see.” Vernal clasped his paws together and stared at the ground. “Then I’m not going to fight you. I just want things to go back to normal.”
Haru raised her eyebrows but then sensed a deep sorrow coming from her kitty pal. He felt trapped, the same way she did when starting on this endeavor. At first, she considered taking the forfeit. But that wouldn’t help either of them.
“No.” Haru readied her staff. “You are going to fight. That’s how we do it, every time, no matter how we feel. I didn’t come all this way to miss out on the encounter.”
The cat raised his head, eyes wide. He stood and picked up his sword.
Haru got ready to step into the arena. “And if you don’t give it your all, I’ll never give you any Royal Choco Biscuits ever again.” She stepped forward into the ring to start the encounter.
Before he engaged, Vernal recoiled from Haru’s words.
Haru targeted Vernal as he leaped from the platform into the stone circle etched into the floor, right in the center of the room. She started casting Ice Bolt on him before he could even start marching toward her. By the time he closed, the spell completed, dealing 30% damage to Vernal, bringing him down to 70% total HP.
She winced at having to deal damage to her friend, but considering how badly Alara was beat up from the last encounter, Haru figured the cat was already out of the bag and she needed to get moving. There would be time to be upset later.
Vernal stopped and a red rectangle, long and thin formed on the ground that stretched between Haru’s feet. He was about to do some kind of dash attack or use some kind of projectile ability on her. She stumbled out of the way, just as the indicator disappeared. The cat flicked his sword and the sound of shrieking metal echoed throughout the arena.
Then in the blink of an eye, he dove forward, sword tip first, landing at the very end of where the rectangle indicated. Then he started to march, slowly turning as he moved, to face Haru once more.
Then she turned and started casting Ice Bolt again. But just as her casting meter started filling, another red rectangle appeared beneath her. She gasped, canceled her spell casting, and jumped out of the way as the marker disappeared.
Then the clang of metal rang out again. Not long after Vernal soared along the indicated path.
She decided to be quicker on the draw and start casting the moment he was soaring through the air. But by the time her spell casting meter was half full, Vernal already sauntered to turn and face her, and started another dash attack.
As Haru canceled the spell to dodge, she noticed that he would need to march in order to turn around before the ability could target her. So while he soared through the air, the apprentice decided to dash to the far opposite end of the arena before starting to charge an Ice Bolt once more.
Just as Vernal turned to charge, Ice Bolt was nearly complete. But the cat also needed a few steps to trigger the attack. That gave Haru enough time to finish spellcasting. The length of ice soared across the arena and slammed into Vernal, dealing 30% damage, bringing him down to 40% total health.
Just as the spell connected, the dash indicator appeared at Haru’s feet. She didn’t wait this time and started running along the very edge of the arena bounds. As she got to the opposite end, Vernal triggered his attack, and Haru started casting her spell.
But then the cat dove high into the air, interrupting Haru’s spell cast. She looked around, confused. Then she thought back to her old encounter. After 50% damage, Vernal would transform into his sabretooth form and start dive-bombing. But he didn’t have his sabretooth form anymore, so what else could he do?
A wide orange circle formed on the floor beneath Haru’s feet. She looked down, panicked and ran away as fast as she could. Just one step outside the indicator, it disappeared. Then a furry ball of fury slammed into the ground, sword first. Rock chunks flew up into the air, the ground tremored. Vernal certainly still had a dive-bomb attack.
Before she could even open any distance, the cat marched and turned, triggering another charge strike. Now Haru saw why Alara was complaining. This was an unrelenting fight.
Just as she weaved out of the attack zone, the cat charged forth. Then he jumped up into the air for another dive-bomb.
Haru was going to have to figure out a strategy fast, or there was no way she was going to be able to finish this fight in one piece.