Cracking of bone was felt, as Han slammed the blade into the monster. A spray of blood splashed onto the front of his helmet, partially obscuring his vision. Quickly, Han used his right hand to wipe the blood off and cleared it enough so he could see a giant paw swinging towards him. The force of the attack sent him flying back and hitting one of the canyon walls.
Rocks fell on him and dust blocked his sight. Han sighed, saying, "There's definitely a steep learning curve, attacking and being aware of your surroundings. This is the second time this has happened."
"Han! Are you okay?!" His mother called out to him over the speaker.
"Yeah. It just surprised me." He got back up and dashed out of the dust cloud.
"I told you to use the suit when you get blood on your helmet! The suit will take care of such things!" Jade admonished him, her words sounding frustrated.
"Yeah. Yeah." Han growled in annoyance. "Using this stupid interface while battling is annoying, how does looking away from my opponent make sense during a fight?!"
"Just do it as I told you!" Jade commanded.
As he was using the suit's strength to push him off the ground, speeding towards the monsters, Han quickly glanced up and saw a series of images, similar to a digital wheel. Scrolling through the options, while checking to see where he was going, Han saw a symbol with a helmet and eye on it. "Found it!"
In moments, his helmet quickly cleared away the remaining blood and restoring his full vision. In front of him, a tail was rushing towards him. "Woah!" Han frantically slid under the tail.
"Good!" Steve congratulated him.
Glancing over at the team member position display, he located Steve and gave him a thumbs up.
"I think he's starting to get the hang of it," Kimberly's voice was heard as she broadcasted her words using the public function.
"Though I doubt he'd make a good assassin," Lexi biting words followed after Kimberly's
Han took his sword and stepped into the side of one of the monsters, this time making sure to avoid the blood squirting out. "Appreciate the vote of confidence," Han grumbled at the two women poking fun at him.
Yanking out the sword and feeling the broken ribs sliding past the blade, Han twirled his body while rotating the guard of his sword. Fanning out, his sword became similar to a spear with two giant swords on either end.
Twirling the blades, he kicked off the dead monster and launched himself towards another one. It was charging towards him; its eyes looking hungrily at him.
"Ahhhh!" He yelled, as his sword pierced the eye of the monster, killing it immediately. Twisting his body, he used the forward momentum to free the embedded blade. Slicing through the skull of the monster and freeing itself, Han landed on the ground. His feet skidding across the dirt.
Looking behind him, he watched as Ruby used dual blades and landed on the head of a beast. The two daggers sunk into the skull, causing the animal to trip over itself and slide across the ground.
"Behind you, Ruby!" Ivy's voice yelled out, alerting her friend of a monster that was coming towards her blind side.
Han could tell that Ruby wouldn't turn around in time before the monster bit off her head.
Out of nowhere, Jennifer slammed into the monster's side with a giant spear. The force was enough to push it sideways, preventing it from attacking Ruby. It snarled in annoyance at having been denied the satisfaction of eating its prey.
Instead of being killed, the creature dug its feet into the ground and attempted to turn enough to take a bite out of Jennifer. As Jennifer maintained her grip on the spear's shaft and her stance, her feet were dragged across the dirt.
"What are you doing?!" Jade yelled out at Jennifer. "Your suit has more power than that. How are you going to be able to fight more than one opponent if you're being tossed around?"
Tearing his eyes away from watching Jennifer, Han spun his sword around to build up momentum. A slight whistling noise was heard as the blades cut through the air. Once there was enough force built up, he winded his arm back and threw it at a beast coming at him. Like a giant shuriken, the weapon lodged itself into the forehead of the monster.
"This suit is pretty convenient," Han laughed. When he was getting ready to throw his sword at the monster, his helmet projected where it would strike.
Seeing that the beast tumbling over itself from its own momentum, Han ran towards where his weapon was. As he was heading towards his weapon, one of the larger creatures stepped in front of him and aimed an attack.
Stamping on the ground, he felt himself fly through the air and dodged the larger monster's attack. This one was similar to the four-legged creatures, though it had a torso coming off the main body. There were two heads, one where the other creatures had them and another on top of its torso. It looked like a hellish version of a centaur, with horns on its head. These types were able to use their arms to attack, while also trying to trample Han's team with its short and thick legs.
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This monster seemed to have it out for him, likely with him killing the other one. "You're going to have to try better than that!" He taunted it, though he didn't know if his voice traveled outside of the helmet.
Feeling his feet slam into the ground, Han tried to remember to keep his legs loose as to absorb the impact. Even though there was a loud noise from his landing, the suit made it seem like there wasn't anything special going on. It felt like he had hopped down from a picnic table to the ground.
Heading over to the dead creature, Han said, "Ivy was right, you guys do look like a pig and a crocodile had a deformed baby." Putting his hand on the hilt, he yanked out the weapon. A stream of blood oozed out and covered the ground in purple liquid.
Snorting and snarls were heard, causing him to look over at a monster being strangled by a thick metal cable. The pig-croc beast screamed as the metal turned bright red and melted through its body, decapitating it. Steam shot into the sky as its blood evaporated and flesh sublimated. The eyeballs of the creature popped from the sudden escaping gasses.
"Looks like you're getting used to that thing?" Han yelled at Ivy.
Ivy was holding onto the handle of a whip, yanking it back and causing the metal cable to fly back towards her. It neatly landed near her. "I never knew that I would be decent at using a whip," Ivy yelled out to him. Her voice sounded happy.
"That's surprising, considering how much of a slave driver you are," Ruby's voice was heard by both of them.
"Shut up, slut," Ivy flicked her whip and made it crack.
He saw Ruby running past the side of one of the creatures, using her dagger to slice open its side. A river of blood was opened up as she ran. From the way her helmet turned towards them, he could tell that she was looking at them. "Please forgive me! Don't punish this bad girl!" Ruby used her other dagger to slap her ass with the flat of the blade.
Seeing the two of them act in such a manner during the middle of a bloody battle made him laugh and shake his head.
A crashing noise was heard right next to him. "Honey, you should focus on what's happening around you." His mother's voice advised him.
Han saw his mother blocking a pig-croc from trampling him. Her hands were covered by two massive looking spiked gauntlets. When held in front of her, they acted as a shield and worked wonders at blocking attacks.
"Sorry, mom. Thanks for covering me." Han said to her.
With one of the gauntlets, his mother unclenched her fist to reveal nasty looking claws. It gave her the image of a dragon in comics, primarily how she used the claws to grasp the head of the monster. As her claw dug into the creature and purple blood squirted out from between her fingers, she looked back and said, "I just want to make sure that you don't get hurt by getting distracted. You should just stick near mommy from now on, so I can look after you."
Sighing, Han ran towards the next monster. Switching the guard back and lifting his weapon to make it return to its original form, Han used the inertia of the blade locking into place to gather enough power and swung the twin bladed sword into the face of the monster. The impact was significant enough to split the monster's face and neck in half. He could feel the skull and spine shatter as the blade smashed into them.
Putting a foot on the creature, he pulled on the handle and freed the sword. Blood flowed off of the blades and pooled onto the ground. Flicking the weapon horizontally, he got rid of most of the purple substance. Looking around, he didn't see any more creatures running around.
On the other side of the canyon, Han noticed Grace and Harmony heading towards where the group was meeting now that all the monsters were killed. Grace had a chain wrapped around her waist, with a sickle in her hand. From the way she was twirling the chain with the sickle at the end of it, she was feeling good about the weapon. The way she moved showed more confidence, compared to the officer he met before all this started.
Harmony was wearing weapons similar to what his mom was using, though Harmony had two piledrivers that would penetrate into the monsters. She even had to wear special boots that would clamp onto the ground.
"Ok. You guys are doing decently, though I still see a lot of goofing around." Even though Jade was wearing a helmet, Han got the impression she was looking over at him, Ruby and Ivy. "I feel like I need to remind you guys that the monsters will get stronger as you proceed towards the other side of this map."
Steve laughed, "Jade, you're going to ruin the surprise. I'm sure they'll..." He grunted in pain as Lexi roundhouse kicked him. Sliding across the ground for several feet, he was silent as he lay there.
"Big mouth," was all Lexi said, seeing her brother laid out on the ground.
A cough was heard by Jade, who raised her fist to her helmet. "Currently, you've been experiencing mobs that are considered easy," her voice took on a serious tone, "I can't stress enough that those things that are in the real world are several times more numerous and devious." She was quiet for a moment before saying, "What's worse is that they seem to adapt very quickly. In a span of a just a few hours during the night, they nearly overran us. This is why we train."
Everyone was silent upon hearing Jade's words. Han knew that everyone felt better about receiving the weapons and taking down giant monsters, but Jade's words were like ice cold water being dumped on them.
"Though we are rather cheerful the current reality is much worse than any of you thought. This place may look impressive, but the peace you're seeing hangs in a fragile balance and is fully dependent on us." Kimberly told the group.
"If they're adapting that quickly, then how are we going to be able to fight them off?" Harmony raised her hand.
Hearing her words, Jade's body language seemed to give off an uncomfortable vibe. "The main thing we have going for us is the fact that these creatures seem to enjoy waiting for their prey. This allows us to spend more time improving our skills, which we were doing previously for competition but now doing for survival. We try not to fight them, knowing that any major conflicts will mean that they'll get stronger."
The mood was still affected by the news that the creatures have improved since the first time they heard them at the Police station.
"We should keep going," Lexi muttered.
"Yes. You're right." Jade nodded her head. "We'll be heading deeper into the map." Turning her head and looking towards everyone, she pointed down the path of the canyon.
-------
Overhead, they could hear the wind whistling past the top of the canyon. The weather was perpetually horrible, not seeming to improve and remaining overcast. It gave an impression that it was going to rain, but it never did.
They stayed in a semi-formation, with those wielding shield weapons near the front and those holding spears right behind them. Ivy and Grace were bringing up the rear.
"How did Star and Moon create all this," his mother asked out loud to no one in particular.
"No one really knows," Kimberly answered. "I remember the first time I went inside of this place, it felt like I was transported to another world. We tried asking the people from Star and Moon, but they gave us very vague answers."
"It must be some type of powerful virtual reality simulation, where the suit interacts with the environment and makes it seem like we're inside a real world," Jade said. "What's even more impressive is how we're able to remove our helmets, which makes me think that when we enter into this place the suit puts us into a dream-like state and tricks our senses."
"Why do you think that?" Harmony asked, looking back at the group.
"You'll see," Lexi answered for Jade. From her tone, she didn't seem to care for any more idle chatter.
They had been walking for what seemed like an hour, and the terrain was changing in parts of the canyon. The canyon was beginning to show more green scenery giving it a more temperate climate feel.
"This place looks beautiful!" Ruby exclaimed, turning around and looking at the green vegetation that was appearing more often. As they walked further down the path, there were several trees that they saw. Soon they were entering into a vibrant forest.
The forest wasn't thick enough to block them from seeing either side of the canyon.
"It's been a while since we've run into any monsters," Han commented.
"Don't let the peaceful vegetation fool you into thinking that this area is safe. This entire place is dedicated to improving our fighting abilities, and the way the monsters appear varies each time you enter." Jade admonished him. "There was a reason why the sport was becoming more mainstream, with how players couldn't fully anticipate where the mobs would spawn from and what type of monsters players would encounter."
Ivy slowly unraveled her whip from around her waist, shortly followed by Grace with her chain. Hearing Jade's words, a feeling of dread began to creep over Han's group. No longer did the forest feel like a beautiful wonderland, but instead felt like a giant trap.
There was a light rustling noise near them, making Harmony jump.
Looking at the experienced group, Han noticed that they weren't as relaxed as they appeared though they did a good job at giving off that feeling.
"Han," Harmony called out to him, a gurgling sound in her voice making it harder to understand her.
In front of him, Harmony's body was lifted up into the air. Piercing through her back was a giant claw. Her legs were dangling, likely from her spine being severed.
"H-h-hel..." Harmony's voice pleaded, but the sound of coughing likely meant that blood was filling up her lungs.
"Harmony!" Grace cried out in horror.
They were too focused on the image of their friend being lifted up into the air before they noticed a giant insectoid creature in front of her. It was nearly as tall as a tree, and Han noticed why it took them a while to see the monster. Using the vegetation surrounding all of them, the creature had changed its color to a mixture of green and brown.
"What is that?!" Jennifer cried out, the sight of Harmony being held in the sky.
Dashing towards the monster, Grace spun the chain around while holding onto the sickle with her other hand. "You, bastard!" She screamed and threw the weighted end at the insectoid. Whistling through the air, it struck the monster and ended up bouncing off of the carapace.
Harmony jerkily turned her head to look at Grace, the helmet blocked her expression, but from the spluttering of blood being heard over the com, they knew that she was trying to talk to Grace. The creature used another arm to stab into Harmony's chest and tore Harmony in half.
They watched as parts of her entrails fell onto the ground soon followed by the upper and lower halves of her body.
"Noooo!" Grace screamed.
"It just killed her!" Ruby cried out.
Han looked towards his mother, who turned to him and tried to rush over to where he was standing. Before she could take a step, an animal the size of a tiger but looking similar to the insectoid jumped out. This thing had wings, which it used to speed towards his mother.
"Mom!" Han yelled out.
He quickly ran towards her, but even before he was able to get halfway to her the thing landed on his mom's back and bit off her head. Han stared in horror at the image of his mother's body spurting out blood.
"You killed her!" Han yelled. Removing his sword from his back, he launched the weapon at the creature and using his full strength cut the thing in half. The body chunks of the beast fell on top of his mom's headless body.
"Nooo! Mom!" Jennifer's screams seemed endlessly full of pain and sorrow.
Out of the forest, similar types of the creatures that ate his mom appeared and began swarming them.
Being pushed back by several of the monsters, he watched as Jennifer was ripped apart. He wanted to scream out for her, but he felt himself being pierced through his lungs by several of the monsters. He tried to breathe in, but no air seemed to be able to enter his body. As his vision slowly faded, Han looked to see both Ivy and Ruby trying to fight off the beasts but being overrun. Before the world faded to black, he heard their screams and cries for help echoing through his consciousness.