Author's Note

This chapter is bit more dialogue heavy than previous chapters, hope it works out well. Please post any feedback (good or bad) below, suggestions for the story and general writing tips are also appreciated.

PS. The positive comments I've gotten have made the past couple of days pretty happy for me, many thanks.

Arc 1 Freedom has its price

Chapter 4 The rising sun

I continue practicing for the rest of the night only stopping when I collapsed in exhaustion in the early morning. As I lay in the grass catching my breath I look up into the sky seeing the first rays of light peek over the horizon. Sitting up I look towards the direction of the light and watch the sun slowly rise. Briefly glancing towards the in game clock I notice the time is now 6 am.

"Well guess I should get moving" I sigh out loud as I prepare to stand back up

"Why? You don't sound that excited about it" an unknown voice replies from behind me.

Startled I quickly get up and spin around to face the source of the voice and find a player standing there. Unlike the generic characters the other players that logged in with me had she went with something truly unique. Standing at around 6 foot flat her skin was almost pure white but exuded a sort of yellowish light from some unknown source. Along both her arms and legs there are lines of bright red feathers that have a fire like pattern. On her face are tattoos that come up from her neck and end on her cheeks in the shape and color of fire. Her eyes look like miniature suns and her hair is fiery red like her feathers (eyebrows included) and short and spiky. Unlike me who's wearing basic cloth shorts and a tunic she's wearing a plain white dress. Realizing that I've been staring at her character for a few seconds I quickly get embarrassed, until I notice that she was doing the same thing to me.

Apparently she didn't notice my appearance as she was standing behind me. Well this situation is getting a bit awkward, time to break the ice.

Faking a couch I introduce myself.

"Hello my name is Calamity"

Thanks to my cough she notices what she was doing and quickly shakes herself out of it. Smiling faintly she returns the greetings.

"Hello Calamity my name is Salvation"

"Heh, how ironic. Not only do we look like opposite but are names are opposites as well"

"Really? I don't think they're really opposites. You can't have light without darkness and you can't have salvation without something to be saved from."

A bit taken aback I say

"Huh I didn't think about that angle, how interesting. Anyways I wasn't expecting another character to be here, the group I spawned with all left a long time ago. Why are you here and more importantly how long have you been there?"

"Ah I was afraid of that, I got back home late due to circumstances in real life and by the time I managed to log in it was already 7:30. With the time it took my create my character I only got into the game a few minutes ago. Why is it more important to know how long I've been here?"

"Ah...that...well..you see"

Blushing a bit as I remember my training I struggle to come up with an answer.

"hmmmm? Does it have anything to do with the reason why you're still here when all the other player left?"

"umm...well.."

"Is it perhaps something really embarrassing? I wonder what it could be?" She says while giving me impish grin.

My face gets even more red and I avert my eyes.

"You see it's not like it was something bad and I mean who wouldn't have to do it if they were in my shoes, there's nothing wrong with doing something embarrassing if it's your only choice right!?!?"

I hear muffled laughing and as I look up and Salvation sees my face she can no longer hold herself back and starts cracking up.

"its not funny" I mumble while she continues to laugh at me.

After a few more seconds she apologizes.

"Sorry, sorry its just that seeing a bad ass looking black dragon human hybrid have their cheeks flush bright red in embarrassment is not something I would have thought I'd ever see."

Sighing I accept her apology.

"It's fine, to be honest I would have likely done something similar in your shoes."

"Haha thanks, well I think that settles it. Let's be friends."

Saying so she sends over a a friend request.

Friend RequestPlayer Salvation wants to be friends. Accept?yes/no

Looking at the message I shrug and click yes.

"Good now where is the nearest town, do you know?"

"I'm not sure, but a majority of players went in that direction and none have come back so that's as good a direction as any" I say while pointing in the same direction I traveled last night. Curiously I note that unlike last night I can't see the first few feet into the wood line.

Guess that's the effect of the 10% reduction in eyesight during the day I gave my character. Didn't notice it before because I was too busy eating dirt during the last bit of daylight yesterday.

"Hmmm, alright thanks. I think I'm going follow their lead then."

Saying this she starts walking towards the forest.

"Ah wait!"

Hearing my yell she stops and turns around.

"Yes what is it?"

"Last night when I went through there I was attacked by a large group of wolves. I don't know if they'll still be there now that's day but if they are it's not something a single person can manage."

"Oh? Then are you offering to come with me then? Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that you were occupied with something here, since you didn't leave with the other players."

"I was but I'm basically done and it's safer for both of us if we travel together. As much as I like nature sleeping seeing civilization will be nice, if only to reassure myself that it does exist in this game."

"Alright then, shall we make a party? Since you've had a bit of experience with the forest already why don't you be party leader."

I nod my head in agreement and send her a party invite, which she accepts.

"By the way what kind of build did you go for? Or are you like me and spend a bit too much points on customizing appearance?"

Laughing a bit she replies "Guilty as charged, though I'm going for a more healer/support role and was able to get very basic skills towards that end. Of course I wasn't able to buy any item's besides this dress but I was kind of expecting to spawn in a location where it's easy to get supplies. What about you?"

"I don't have a specific role I'm thinking about, I only got two skills with my points and I still need to figure out how to work one of them. The one I can use gives a passive buff for melee combat so I guess I'll act as the tank/dps if the need arises. For supplies I can share what I have if the need arises, it's not much but it should hopefully be enough for reaching someone where can restock. Worse comes to worse I can always roast us some meat or something, I had at least enough points left to get basic supplies."

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Eh, what are friends for?"

Hopefully all that training I did will at least keep me from making a fool of myself.

Wishing for the best I try to walk towards her normally, using my new knowledge of my center of gravity and the improved control over my tail to the best of my ability. I don't know if it was because of my skills or not but apparently all my work was not wasted and after the first few steps I managed to get into a normal walking rhythm. When I reach Salvation she starts walking with me and we soon enter the forest.

I'm not sure if it's because the tree canopy manages to block a lot of the sunlight or not but I can see a bit better than before. Now all I need to do is avoid walking into wolves again and I'll be golden.

We walk awhile making idle small talk, apparently Salvation is also from the states and we're about the same age as each other. We share similar tastes in TV shows making the talking more fun as we discussed our favorite shows. Bad news is we got too engrossed in talking about the newest episode of Criminal Minds: European Union and ran into some wolves. Good news is that it was only 3 of them not an entire pack.

"Ironically I think I ran those three might be from last night, of course it's a bit hard to tell for sure."

"Really? that's kind of funny. So about how tough are they?"

"Should be one level 1 and 2 level 2s."

"That's not too bad, how did you fare against them last time?"

"about 10%" I mumble quietly

"What was that?"

"I said about 10% to three of them ok!?"

"Judging by the nature of that response I take it that's in damage dealt not percent left."

"Yeah..."

"Sigh, you know you don't quite live up to your menacing appearance."

"Don't remind me."

Throughout this exchange we had been running away from the wolves, barely manage to keep ahead of them. Thanks to all my practice I was able to keep going, it still looked a bit velociraptorish but I think Salvation was too busy looking where she was running to notice.

Thank god for small favors. Anyways we can't just keep running, it'll be bad if one of us trips or even worse run into another pack of mobs. Guess the only option is to kill them

Thinking this I call out to Salvation.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"OK new plan, we're going to have to fight them. I basically have their attack pattern memorize so with your supporting me we should be able to kill them."

Although it probably wont be fast or pretty

"Fine, but if we die I'm so going to laugh at you."

"Do what you want."

As I finish that sentence I stop running and turn to face the attacking wolves. Seeing me stop the wolves put out one last burst of speed and get into attack range of me. Instead of punching out at them I do a sweeping low kick towards the leading wolf. As I predicted the wolves jumped before my kick could reach them launching them selves at me like a furry cannonball.

Hope this works.

While I was running around last night I had a lot of time to think about things from last night. One of which being how my tail seemed to do more damage than my fist during the last fight. On the basis of believing I'd have to fight the wolves again I thought I'd try something out during the next encounter. With my leg still going through the kicking motion I use the momentum to roll to the side while focusing on controlling my tail. It took a lot of effort but I was able to stiffen my tail and quickly bring it up in an arc towards my head. Whether by luck or something else my plan actually works and I see the wolves go sailing past me with damage markers over their heads above their now revealed status window.

-15

Pack WolfLevel1Health85/100Stamina140/150

-10

Pack WolfLevel2Health130/140Stamina140/160

-10

Pack WolfLevel2Health140/150Stamina130/150

Score! My plan actually worked. Also interestingly enough these really might be the ones from last night. If so it's time for some pay back.

"heeehh, I thought based on what you said you were pretty bad at fighting but it turns out you're not that bad. Like this you might be able to avoid dying, fight-o mity!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, and who the hell is mity"

"You're mity of course, it's a bit annoying to call you by Calamity all the time so I came up with a nick name. "

"Fine whatever, just support me properly ok?"

"Alright, Alright I'll give you a buff does that make you happy?"

"Delirious"

Sighing she yells out with her hand up, palm facing me "Sun's embrace!"

You have received a buffYou have been embraced by the power of the sun! Attack increased by 10% any damage received reflects 10% of the damage back to the attacker.

That's quite the nice buff, should make things a lot easier.

Closing the message I look down and see a faint yellow light enveloping my body, similar to the one on Salvation. Unfortunately thanks to me being distracted the wolves managed to recover and attack before before I could prepare. The wolves manage to latch onto both my arms and my right leg with their teeth. I see damage numbers pop up -10 -10 -10, the weakest wolf was the one attached to my leg. Making a low growling sound in the back of my throat I swing my arms together causing the wolves attached to my arms to collide taking a light 5 damage each before letting go. Unfortunately I was a bit to slow to get the one on my leg off and it managed to thrash its head a bit with its teeth still embedded in my leg causing an additional 10 damage to me.

"Get the fuck off me!"

Due to my anger and rush to get it off me I forgot to make a fist when I hit it instead smacking it with my hand. This turned out to be in my benefit however as I had forgotten that I had claws and when they raked the wolf in the head I managed to do 20 whole damage in addition to causing it to let go. Thanks to the damage reflection the level 1 wolf is now down by a third of it's hp.

"That won't do mity, you really need to avoid those hits. I can heal you but thanks to that buff I only have half my mana left so I can only cast my heal three times" Saying so she calls out "Celestial heal" while once again facing her palm towards me. "

"Well 2 now."

Despite the flashy name it only heals more for 15 hp, leaving me at with 1/4 of my health still missing. By this time I've gotten back into a fighting stance and the wolves are gearing up for another attack.

Thanks to my last attack reminding me of my natural weapons I have a new plan of attack that will make things easier. As long as my hits land this fight should be over soon.

Right as I finish the thought the wolves launch themselves at me yet again. This time Instead of punching towards them I launch my hand straight out like a spear towards the leading wolf while sidestepping the other two. When my hand impacts the wolf I feel I slimy sensation as my fingers penetrate the beast's face. I see a damage number pop up and I'm shocked.

50 whole damage! Jeez, that's just too brutal. Of course my claws are lodged inside of it's face, if it weren't for this being a game it would normally be dead as it is it barely has more than 20 hp left so close enough.

Unfortunately while I managed to land the hit and dodge one of the wolves the other still managed to latch itself onto my leg dealing 20 damage. However instead of punching to make it let go I bring up my leg while striking down with my elbow which handily enough has a spike protruding from it. Just like the hit to the other wolf this cause an enormousness amount of damage at 45 hp. Maybe because of the spike hitting it in the brain but it appeared to enter a dazed stat after I hit it and landed on the ground at my feet. Not one to pass on a good opportunity I quickly finish it off with three quick strikes from my finger talons. Seeing this the remaining wolves growl angrily and quickly being their next attack.

"Good job mity! You probably wont need it but just in case I'll use my remaining heals on you."

Saying this she quickly casts her heal skill twice in a row on me bringing my health back up 85

"Thanks, this should be over quickly."

Once again the wolves throw themselves at me. I use the same attack as last time and manage to finish off the weakest wolf. I don't bother dodging the remaining wolf and instead block it with my arm causing a 10 damage. Ignoring the hit I grab onto the wolf and proceed to quickly strike at its head with my other arm. After a few hits it dies and I'm greeted with a message.

Level UpYou have been rewarded 10 stat points, you can spend them in your status menu.

Quickly opening my status screen I put 5 each in strength and vitality bringing up my physical attack to 15 and hp to 150.

Of course I noted physical attack doesn't always equate to damage dealt still more strength means higher damage potential right?

"Good job mity, and congratulations."

"Thanks sal, did you level up too?"

"Yup, and wait who the hell is sal?"

"You of course."

"Me!? Do I look like a buff biker guy to you?"

"No but you gave me a nickname so I just gave one to you, and Salvation only really lends itself to being turned into sal don't you think."

Salvation hangs her head and sighs

"Whatever, do as you wish."

We quickly check for loot on the ground but only see a few copper pieces, which we split between us, being continuing our walk. As a we leave the area we fought in suddenly Salvation looks toward me with a malevolent look in her eyes and asks me a question.

"Sooo, what was up with the way you run? You role playing a dinosaur?"

"NOOOOOOOO!!!" I scream as she starts cracking up.

"Why of all things did you have to notice that!?" I ask with tears gathering in my eyes.

"Sorry, but I happened to look back once as we were running and noticed."

"I'm just not using to this body is all, I'm definitely not doing it because I want to."

"ok ok whatever you say."

"It's true!"

Continuing to protest my innocence she keeps replying with a placating tone as we walk deeper into the forest.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading Chapter 4 of Free, hope you liked it and you didn't mind all the dialogue. I had fun coming up with Salvation and developing the beginning of her relationship with Calamity so expect more in the future.

Leave any suggestions, tips, critiques or ideas in a comment and I will read and reply to it.

Once again thanks for reading,

Ren Waya