The closest portal was five-hundred meters away.

“Only void walkers can go through the void safely,” the player said.

“Better chances than what we have now, right?” Colm said.

The player shouted the others that they need to get through the nearest portal. The front-liners with the highest firepower would act as a spear through the monsters while the lower ranked players stay at the back. There wasn’t much of them this time, so they would have to be fast.

While she was talking, Colm unhooked the barreled spear from his belt. “I don’t know what this does,” he told a player next to him.

“It’s a grappling spear,” the player said. “You see this trigger? Pull it, spear shoots out with a rope. Then pull it back again to disengage from whatever you’re hooked on. This is getting exciting, isn’t?”

“I don’t know about that,” he said. He hadn’t slept, it was six in the morning, and he still had class to attend to.

“Everyone,” the female player announced. “Move out! And Spirit help us all.”

Colm rode with them at the very back, watching for monsters as they were closely approaching the portal.

“Hey,” the player called out to me. “I’ve see you surf. That was surprising.”

“Now’s not the time,” Colm said.

“No, no. You don’t get it. This is the perfect time.” The player unhooked some sort of bow from his back and raised it forward. “I weeded out the unnecessary and the weak.”

There was a shot, and the arrow arched across the sky directly to the front. The players never saw it coming. There was an explosion so large it threw Colm off the board. He got up in a panic and grabbed the anti-grav board to surf away, but it was too late.

There was a scream, and the player morphed into a familiar tree—a Korvel.

This time it stood as a four-legged white skeleton made of roots and branches and imposing trunks. It was over ten feet tall and around two dozen feet in length. Colm and the other players darted for the portal, but the Korvel was faster. It reared on its hind legs and stretched its structure too much further back, it looked like it would break. And then it leapt. A looming shadow streaked in the air.

The korvel dropped directly below the portal and roared. Colm looked around. The hundreds of monsters that were closing in retreated further away. Of the twelve of the players, no one died, but many were injured and unable to move. The korvel quickly snatched them up and threw them onto its back, where roots circled them like a prison.

VOLAN THE UNROOTED

It opened its jaws. “Kneel,” it said.

“Ah, shit,” the female player said. “Not again.”

Colm stared at the imprisoned people.

“Sorry newbie,” she said with a quiet smile. “Looks like the pros won’t be able to show off.”

“It’s not over yet.”

She seemed confused. “We can’t kill the damn thing. It’s a raid boss.”

“I heard it talk. It said that it weeded out the unnecessary and the weak. This is just speculation but it might be aiming for the skilled players,” he said. “We don’t need to kill it. We only need to immobilize it enough so we can escape through the portal.”

The man who lead the front-liners overheard us. “Good enough. Sunriders!” The man unsheathed his sword and raised it high. “Earn your keep!”

A better way to describe these Sunriders people were hunters. Half of them had swords, but the other half used whips. Colm watched from the distance as they lassoed the limbs of the korvel while the swordsmen swooped in for strikes.

The korvel itself struggled against the onslaught of attack. Only Colm, the female player, and four others stood behind. “I thought you’re going to join the fray,” Colm said.

“Different kinds of players,” she said. “I’m more of a PvP type. You see groups like the Sunriders, they’re mercenaries on the side but hunting is their bread and butter. And you—you look like you’d fit in with them. You know how to surf. Mobility is a must.”

“Does that mean I’ve earned my credits?”

Player Noah invites you to be friends. Accept?

Colm and the player Noah shook hands.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“We need to get the hell out of here first,” she said. “And then we can talk about payment.”

He scoffed, but he was satisfied with this for now.

“That’s a spectacle,” one of the players said.

He watched as the korvel tried to chomp on a player, but was thrown a bomb inside its jaw, and was caught disoriented. It sprouted a tail and whipped the players away from the portal, yanking free from the ropes.

“Get some rest, all of you,” the player Noah said. “This is a raid—we’re switching once one of the sunriders get tired.” To Colm, “Sit down. That’s an order. Every second of rest counts so keep your eyes on the prize.”

“How much credits is that korvel worth?” Colm asked, sitting down.

The player Noah sat down next to him. “50k? It depends on the rarity of its core and materials. It has 3 cores, so that goes up to 80k to 500k depending on the quality.”

It was a lot of money, Colm thought. If he was in there and kill the monster, he might be able to split the rewards with the other players.

“It’s not about the money,” she said. “Don’t you just forget everything in the real world? Money is a faćade down here. This virtual space drowns out the noise and leaves you what people really want,” she paused. “You’re not stuck in a room writing out essays and meaningless reports and then growing old only to get shit on by your bosses. If you ever get rich, it’s more likely to happen in your sixties, and by then you’d have shriveling nipples and a beer belly.”

Colm did, for a moment, forget about his responsibilities. For a distinct hour he wasn’t thinking about his siblings, and he silently wished he could earn enough credits in the real world to leave his siblings for themselves. “Is that why you’re here?” He asked her.

She shrugged. “Why is anyone here?”

It had only been a few minutes but it felt like forever, which was as good as a quick rest they were going to get. As Colm struggled to get up, the player Noah explained the hidden cores underneath its ribcage and stuck to its spine. Three of them, rarity unknown. She informed him that every monster has a core which could power equipments like electricity would.

One of the Sunriders retreated, exhausted and panting. Noah squeezed out bombs from him.

Three other Sunriders retreated, passing out bombs as Colm, Noah, and the three other players surfed to the battlefield. The korvel struggled under the ropes. With other different bombs damaging its structure, it strained its white branches to cover up the wounds on its limbs. Two of the sunriders, noticing its weakening form, expertly surfed to the front and tossed bombs to its joints. Colm and the other players flung the bombs to its back limbs.

The explosions made it roar.

“Good job newbies and welcome to Corepunk,” The leader of the sunriders said. “We can kill it!”

“We won’t have the time to the time to harvest the materials,” Noah said. “Let’s rescue the other players and escape!”

And so they did. Colm helped carry one of the injured players as they escaped toward the portal, all twelve of them, with no one dead. He sped up to keep up, but also that he wanted to get the hell out of here as possible. He’d need to be in class soon, and he didn’t have the time to spend the next several hours in a hellish landscape.

“Go, go, go!”

A hundred meters to the portal. Fifty. Then he heard a laugh as the shadow once again jumped and landed over the portal, then skewered four of the sunriders, killing them instantly.

Its voice rumbled. “I’m afraid I happen to be a very, very good actor.” The cracks on its limbs and joints healed and were covered with more white branches, covering its skeleton body while it grew two more limbs on its back which turned out to be wings. “I don’t need all of you,” it said. “Only half.”

The sunriders tried to lasso its legs again, but this time the korvel wasn’t budging. It raised its wings, and from its tips, shot out piercing branches consecutively. Colm tried to surf away but his board got caught and he was sent rolling across the sands.

The sunrider took one shot to chest, limped, and then fell down. Then the korvel, with much ease, took the four sunriders until it was only Noah and Colm standing. It looked so hopeless.

“Have you got any bombs left?” Colm asked her.

“One. You?”

“One. I’ve got a plan.” He leaned closer.

She gave a nod. “Got it.”

Colm walked up to the korvel, hands raised and trembling.

“Will you resist?” The korvel asked, seemingly hopeful.

“You win,” Colm said. “Don’t kill me. Please.”

The korvel laughed. “Kneel.”

Colm knelt, which seemed to satisfy the monster. He must be delighted at what he was seeing right now. He looked like Anatolius in a different skin. But poke them right (or wrong), and you’d get a very predictable action. They were terribly easy to read, having fried their brains for their strength.

Noah shouted, “Hey you! You third rate actor!”

The korvel spun. Colm climbed up at the branching arm. He hypothesized that, if the korvel could act that well while being hit multiple times, its must not have any pain nerves from its body. Which might also mean that it couldn’t feel a thing. If he was wrong, well, all he had to do was be faster.

“I’m gonna burn you to death,” Noah said with a bright smile. “I’ve killed six of you korvels, and you’re gonna be my seventh. Oh, if only you can hear them cry stuck in that stupid tree. I’ve made loads of credits from that alone—“

The korvel roared. But before it could attack, Colm shot his spear straight through the narrow gap in its ribcage, and that’s when the monster jolted. “You feel something in there,” Colm observed. “Well—good thing you taught me this.”

He pulled the trigger then hung tightly to the gun until he was directly inside the three cores. He took out his bomb and threw it.

Colm was laughing. The korvel was shaking its body and trying to reach with its claws, tearing its own ribcage apart. The bomb exploded before it fell off.

Colm was thrown off the korvel who fell, one of its cores destroyed. He forced himself up and shot the spear again—this time to the direction of Noah. He wrapped the rope around the monster’s feet. “Grab on!” He looked at himself. His left leg was torn off, and he wouldn’t be able to run.

Noah grabbed onto the spear and she was pulled this time, ever closer to the portal.

“The bomb. Give it to me!”

She threw at him then ran for the portal. She turned to him briefly. “Let’s go!”

Colm was laughing. The korvel grabbed him from behind. “2000 credits,” he breathed. “Can’t get paid with you dying.”

She paused, mouth agape, then gave a nod. The korvel tried to reach for her but Colm threw the bomb at its face. It clanged through its teeth with a beautiful sound. An explosion, and only a split second later, Noah was gone.

Now the korvel was staring at him. And Colm, with a grin on his face, “Kill me.”

“That,” it said. “Would be mercy.”

The monster struck colm through his stomach with a very thin, red branch. Colm gasped. “What—“

But the world blacked out.

You have been rendered unconscious.