I am currently in a VRMMORPG named We Are Delvers. Yes, the name is a terrible pun. Sue me. Seriously: There are people who hate that name so much they sued me over it. They were stupid and ended up paying for the case, and the publicity was great. Oh, I should probably point out I am one of the main developers and programmers of the game. Right now, I am playing a minigame while waiting for the Triforce Alliance to finish their boss summoning ritual.
The in-game name is [Monster Summoning Ritual]. The game is set up so that for a certain amount of offering and materials, anyone can summon monsters. What you get is mostly random, but will generally be stronger the more resources you put into it, and also depends or where you use it. For example, you can use it with a single loaf of bread in a city and get something like a Mutated Rat or Dire Pigeon.
Naturally, over time people found out that the more you put into it, the better whatever you summon is. It is common for high-level [Tamer]s to summon monsters to tame, as it will likely be stronger than anything they can find in the wild, or at least without having a full party just for an escort.
So the top guilds have been in an arms-race of sorts, pouring stupid amount of resources into summoning boss-type monsters. Some even managed to tame one, well, use it as a power source, really, and from there guilds quickly jumped on the bandwagon. Nowadays even small guilds have war-bosses, or WBs as they have been termed, and use them to clear dungeons and such.
Of course, eventually someone had to ask "If one top guild can summon a Raid Boss, what will several top guilds summon, if they cooperate?" They even took into account things like the stars' and moons' positions and season and such to get the most powerful being they could. Usually those things are only considered by solo summoners, as they rarely have that many resources to throw around.
In they even decided to do it on a historic battlefield between Gods. How is this relevant? After they've planned this for three months, even let other guilds and individuals join(for a fee), the team decided we should give them a real treat. They get a human-controlled boss -that human being me- but that's not all that rare for big summonings. After all, as good as AI is, having a person control it just adds that little extra.
So far, the players haven't caught on, but the plan was to admit it after the battle, no matter the outcome. We have made plans for both victory and defeat.
What the real treat is, is that they get a God as their summoned monster. After all, what else would be a challenge to more than three thousand players? Well, most of those will be cannonfodder, looking at the stats no more than five hundred or so, maybe more if the players in question are crafty, stand a chance of surviving against a regular, human-controlled Raid Boss.
Those who stand a chance against a God? Less than a fifty. Only the very best players will be able to protect themselves against God-level damage, or damage something with God-level defense.
So here I am, in the form of the Snake God. It is feminine, with the body is that of a lamia, or naga, depending on interpretations. In short: long snakelike body and upper torso and head more like a human. This particular variant does not have a very human-like head, and is completely covered in scales, tail to top of head. The size is nothing to laugh at, with a body that is two dozen meters long, thicker than the largest humanoid species -and a mouth able to swallow them.
The [God Summoning Ritual] is coming into effect.
Time until summon: 18 seconds
Ahh, good, I was getting bored. I (im)patiently wait for the counter to tick down while double-checking the stats, skills and buffs I am supposed to use. After all, if I could use all the abilities I have access to, it wouldn't even be a fight. So we have limited what I can use to a select few, and of course I will not use all of them unless they can pull down my health.
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The summoning light recedes and it's finally time to get started. I raise my upper body high, and my voice booms across the soon-to-be battlefield.
'Foolish mortals! You dare summon me? Upon the very ground of my defeat? Bow down to my immense power and I you may survive the coming apocalypse you have unleashed!'
I see a group of very well equipped players and stare them down. They are talking between themselves, surely finalizing their battle plans. Just as I am about to complain that they are making me wait, a stereotypical Knight in Shining Armor rides forth on his greater Wyvern mount.
He is Richard Silverthorn, one of very few player to earn the Hero title and thus class, and the title of Duke. He is the only to have both. I know from the overview of the battle that all 27 other Heroes are also here. They even managed to bring the Demon King and two of his Demon Lords. Each of the top guilds also brought a Raid-level WB.
'We will not bow to you, false God!'
He had his wyvern leap into the sky, and with an amplified voice he yelled:
'This day we will kill a God! Do not falter men, for together we are strong! Battle plan Omega!'
Oh dear, they went straight for the worst-case scenario plan in which each division leader are on their own, their job simply being to slow me down the best players and WBs trickle down my health. That will make this more interesting, and I'm sure the writer guys are furiously discussing how they can write this into the annals of history, both in the game, and in game history.
Pushing such thoughts away I whip my long tail across the lines of charging players, instantly moving down almost all of them. Then spells, arrows and bolts start hitting me with all the fury of a shrimp hitting a whale. I smash my tail into the ground, creating a shockwave that further reduces their numbers. Using the force from that I lift my upper body, twist, and throw myself at one of the WBs, fangs and claws first.
This one is Smaragdion, the green Elder True Dragon. He will have resistance to my poison, but I cannot allow him to take flight. My fangs sink through his scales and I taste his sweet, sweet blood. He spreads his wings, but I wrap my body around him. One movement later, the sound of bones cracking is heard, and I rip off his wings as I unwind from his lifeless body. Our tangle has killed or mortally wounded everyone nearby, and the heroes have started attacking me whenever to have the opportunity.
With a [Piercing Screech], now cast with Godly stats, I throw the wings at Richard and another flier. The Hero's mount is hit and killed, but the other flier, a Demon Lord, apparently, dodges with a hair's breadth. I make my way over to the other WBs, not minding the waves of people I crush under my weight.
These WBs are a Lich, which I simply pick up and throw away from the battlefield, and a big sphere of metal. The sphere is called the Oculus, and is a God Artifact. It is incredible and has much health, the only real weakness being attached from inside, but that will do the army no good: I stretch out and touch it, and it falls to the ground, useless.
With the mana taking from it, I sweep my hand over the battlefield, covering the poor players in highly acidic lethal poison. I swat at a flier, turning it into red pasta, and promptly trash around: Someone found this body's weak spot. With the lower body of a snake, the typical bodily openings is reduced to only one called a cloaca, hidden behind movable scales about 2/3 down my tail.
The weakness? Those scales are weaker, so the Heroes can actually damage me there. The team discussed it after we'd randomly selected this from a set of Gods, but in the end we decided it was a reasonable weakness that the players could hit without sniper type spells.
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'Argh! You dare violate me!? I will enjoying crushing your pitiful bodies, rendering your very soulss!'
That should broadcast that they have indeed found a weak spot, and that if I kill them from now on, they will take "soul damage", removing skill and stat levels or making them unable to respawn with the character if they are weaker. Which in this case means everyone but the Heroes and Demon King and Lords Indeed; many players immediately turn tail and rout, not wanting to lose what they have put much effort into.
The battle rages on for a little more, but soon only the top players and me remain. By this point they have managed to guess that my eyes are weak spots, but only if they can surprise me so I can't cover it with the semi-transparent eyelid. My health is down to about 2/3 and they have triggered my trap card! Well, my second stage.
'It ssseems you are not as puny as I expected, which will make this all the more interesssting!'
Now I start using toxic and acidic spit attacks. Where before they were safe if they could dodge my tail and hands, now they will need to stay on their toes even at a distance.
This is really fun, and despite the difficulty, I can see several players grinning, especially those from Battle Junkies, a fitting name for their guild. Consisting of only high-level players with actual skills as well as in-game skills, the criterion to be accepted is to solo a high-level Group Boss or a powerful mid-level Raid Boss. That girl over there, [Scarlet Blade Dancer]Katania, wearing a custom [Oricalcum Runed Adamantium Battle-Dress] is known for defeating a Raid Boss, unarmed and with no magic except buffs.
A little later, true to my guess, they have been reduced to only forty one people. My health has just dropped below 15% so i guess it's time for stage five.
'Perhapsss I can usssse you! Lllay down your armssss, and I will grrant you powersss beyond your dreamsssss!'
To my surprise, the remaining Demon Lord retreats from the front line and drops her weapons. Cheeky bugger, but no matter. Three people even dropped their weapons in my vicinity. Ah, one of them is basically dead and out of mana. Heh, the Demon King attacked one of them. But not if I am faster!
'Yesss! You chossse correctly!'
True to my word, I grant them massive buffs, full health and mana, but also turn them into naga. High Naga, specifically, with a God's blessing.
'Killll thossse foolishh enough to refffussse!'
The Demon Lord immediately grabs her weapons, which also got upgrades, and plows into the nearest group of casters, horns first. Yup, she kept her horns. After all, Demonic Taint is not easily removed, so she became a Demonic High Naga. Ah, she discovered one of her new abilities already; [Soul Venom]. She moves very well for suddenly having a different body type, better than the assist can do alone. She's probably played around in Arena Mode, where you can fight your friends as any species you have encountered, or one of the few other games which lets you have non-conventional body types. There is sad lack of those.
Of the others, the one fighting the Demon King is not fairing too well, and one other was unfortunate enough to be near a party of three casters who had readied a [Myth] rank spell. The final is not doing too well with his new body.
I throw myself over to the Demon King and his High Naga opponent, and with his attention on his opponent, he reacts to me a moment to slow and is bitten, venom quickly coursing through him. I shake him around to make him drop his weapons, and swallow. I sincerely hope the player does not have his [Reality Settings] to max. Either way, his health is dropping faster than meteor with rocket boosters, so he'll see the white login area soon.
Not pausing to mourn him, I turn my attention to the other struggling High Naga. Unfortunately, he falls before I can get over to him, but I avenge him by swatting down the killers. I feel a strangely pleasant sensation followed by a burning one as a mage I've apparently run over burns me from the inside, just as his HP depletes.
'AAAAAARGH!'
This time the scream is of actual pain and I coil myself together trashing around. I got a debuff, [Internal Mana Burn] Ouch! That guy has a nasty skill, and his... creative use of it just made it that much nastier. When the pain disappears a moment later(thanks God abilities) I straighten myself and glare at the remaining players. There is only twenty-two left, plus the two I converted. Since I'm already off the script, so might as will ad-lib a little.
'Death issss too eassssy for you! I willll torture yourrrr sssoulssss fo-'
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There is a bright flash, and then we are elsewhere. I recognize the light, and what I see around us. Us?
'Annnother ssssummoning? How?!?'
Apparently everyone left on the battlefield was transported with me, and some keep hitting me or the fresh naga. Around us is a grassy plain and formation much like the first I was summoned in. Outside it stands rows of knights, as well as many mages, healers and a bunch of adventurer-type fellows. And those decide I should not be here, so they throw all they have at me. It does the same damage as the attacks I was hit by in the beginning of the battle.
I get a bad feeling from this and decide to stop the fighting while I find out what's going on. I cast [Mass Paralyze] and revert to less lisping speech.
'Enough! Ceassse the fighting! I want answers!'
Not completely lispless, I am very much into my character right now. I rapidly cast [Full Heal] give myself the [Invincible] buff and cast [Recovering Sanctuary] in a radius covering me and the other summonees. As I say my next words, I dispel the [Mass paralyze], instead [Paralyze]ing anyone who decides to attack anyone.
'Thisss is not part of the Event. Where are we? Why have we been sssummoned?'
The players seem to understand something from what I say. Most of them; one falls over after being paralyzed mid-swing. The other people also stop their attack. The fact that most of they ranged combatants are paralyzed might have something to do with it, but a ceasefire order was given. Eventually a particularly well dressed (and guarded) man steps forward.
'We are King Eidelbredt of the Eidelbredt Kingdom. We have performed the [Hero Summoning Ritual] to bring out Heroes that can save us in a dire time of need. It appear you and those other snakes have been pulled with them.'
This Eidelbredt Kingdom is not in the game, not even on the global map. I swiftly try out the various menu functions, and they all seem to work, although the [Friends] function shows almost all friends as offline(two of the remaining Heroes are friends of mine). And more damning: The [Logout] Button is gone.
I start laughing as it all clicks into place.
'AHAHAHAHAAAHAAH! This is no longer a game, my friendsss. YOU have bitten over more than you can chew, and sssummoned a God! I could destroy this entire world on a whim, and the othersss could destroy a kingdom -or two- . A sssingle piece of their armorsss are worth more than your entire Kingdom, and you have the gall to ask usss the help you? After kidnapping usss? Tell me, dear King "Eidelbredt" why ssshould we not destroy you? Why ssshould we care? Why ssshould we help you?'
All of that were completely true. It would take a while to destroy a kingdom, and it is only Katania's one-piece dress that is worth more than the kingdom(even then it's only counting their net worth while ignoring privately owned properties).
The King is pale, and not the only one. I can also see several people who look greatly offended by my speech, but too afraid to speak. I think a couple people fainted, mostly the maids over in the back.
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And that, my friends, is the start of the legend of the [Mad Snake God]