I wonder if there's more treasure in there?
Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she walked up the steps of the crumbled palace leading to the main archway. Inside, she found a giant throne. Sitting atop it was a skeletal corpse enshrouded in shadow wearing a tattered robe. There was no doubt in Brittany's mind that these were the remains of King Armaros.
Suddenly, to her utter shock the figure stood up. His robes billowed outward, revealing his form. Brittany gasped when she saw him.
This can't be happening!
Threat Detected: Level 20 Fallen Angel
HP | 2,000 / 2,000
King Armaros is one of twenty leaders of the 200 fallen angels spoken of in the apocryphal Book of Enoch. His name means "accursed one", and is among the Grigori or "Watchers" cursed to roam the land for all eternity. He desires to break this curse by dooming anyone who dares challenge him to take his place.
Weaknesses: [LOCKED]
"Thou has come to challenge my throne!" the creature shrieked.
"No, actually I..."
The creature began to walk forward. Brittany wanted to back away, but her feet refused to move. She watched helplessly as the creature approached. When he was close enough, he opened his mouth and released a blast of shadowy energy. Then suddenly the air around her started to grow cold. The temperature lowered so much that the air felt as if it were solid ice.
He raised his right arm and pointed his bony finger at Brittany. A blast of wind hit her in the chest. It knocked her off her feet and sent her flying into the wall.
She felt a sharp pain run through her shoulders. She had gotten impaled on the shattered remains of a beam that had long ago splintered from the roof's partial collapse.
[-500 Damage]
Brittany screamed out loud, the virtual pain was beyond intense. She pulled herself free from the large splinter. It hurt so badly, she could barely stand. She looked down to see blood pouring from the gaping hole in her shoulder.
Brittany stumbled backwards, she dropped one of the swords and clutched at her wound.
The creature recognized the glow of the emerald immediately, "Thou didst dare to pilfer my beloved swords?!"
Another blast of wind hit her in the chest. Again, she lost her balance and fell to the ground. She could feel the blood pouring out of her shoulder.
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[-30 Damage]
Raising herself back to her feet she turned to escape with at least one of the swords, but her feet wouldn't move again. Brittany looked down at the floor. It was covered with a thick layer of ice, and her feet were stuck in it. She tried to pull them free, but it was no use. She was powerless to move.
Pulling her hand away from her wounded shoulder, Brittany took the hilt of the ruby sword with her good hand now covered in blood. Holding it tightly, she stabbed it into the ground and started to pull. The blade slid effortlessly through the ice. It cut a deep channel into the floor, breaking her feet free.
She pulled the sword back and flipped it over in her hand and admired it one last time.
I have no other choice.
Swinging hard, she threw the weapon across to the far side of the room. As anticipated, the demon-like creature rushed after it. She took this moment of distraction to escape back under the fallen archway and down the palace stairs.
A loud moan erupted from the palace, and she knew from the earlier system prompt that the creature had only wanted her to challenge him so that he could trap her there for eternity.
"Fat chance, sucker!"
She made a beeline to the city gates, eager to escape that awful creature.
The moment she stepped across the threshold of the city limits however, a system prompt appeared in her NR enhanced vision.
System Alert!
You have failed to obtain the Swords of Armaros. You are hereby penalized 100 XP.
[-100 XP]
Brittany let out a huge sigh of annoyance. She normally wasn't one to let herself succumb to defeat, but this situation was a trap. If only she hadn't gotten carried away with the lure of possible treasure, she would have completed the quest unscathed. Instead, she came out wounded and empty handed.
That was SO stupid!
Here she had taken a detour to the Arena to escape her frustrations, only to seriously botch it in the game and put herself in an even more frustrated mood.
"Screw this!"
She pressed on her right temple, logging out of the game. The scene instantly morphed back to real life with the teeming hills and valleys of green foam. The purpose of the arena was to provide a safe place to play with a medical team on staff in the event of an emergency, but to her knowledge no such emergency had ever occurred aside from the occasional bruise or bloody nose.
Brittany climbed back to the entrance gate and passed through the smaller exit doors and headed straight to the women’s locker room.
She removed the gray CyberBolt jumpsuit and threw it in the laundry chute as she headed straight for the showers. She felt no shame as she joined around thirty naked women in the room. Having showered with her colleagues many times back at the precinct, the concept wasn’t new to her. As she looked at the blank stares of most of the women in the room, she knew they had activated their NR enhanced ‘curtains’.
Amateurs.
As the warm water drizzled through her hair, a feeling of calm settled over her. After a few minutes of enjoying the warm water on her scalp, she decided what she really needed was a warm bath at home followed by some ice cream. She quickly washed up and wrapped herself in one of the thick plush towels that the Arena offered to their guests. She'd been tempted several times to take a few home with her, but her conscious always got the better of her.
Brittany sighed as she opened her locker to see her police uniform and gear again. The last thing she wanted to do right now was put the uniform back on, but she hadn't brought a spare set of clothes in her haste to come straight to the Arena after work. She groaned as she strapped her restrictive bra back on. She’d prefer nothing more than to let the girls hang loose. First thing she was going to do when she got home was to slip into something more comfortable.
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