Age: 15 years, 9 months

The words 'Landasy Reality' filled Asher's vision and a tingly sensation spread through his body. The direct neural interface was intercepting the electronic signals sent through his body and supplementing its own. The tingling stopped as the words disappeared, replaced by a void of white. Excitement rose through him when he anticipated the familiar, and wonderful experiences to follow. A moment later he was no more and Asura came into being.

Asura awoke inside a large marble room. A king sized bed with a pink comforter took up the majority of the space, while the rest of it was covered with trophies she had acquired over the last year of playing the game. An orc's head, a dragon's fang and, most importantly, a medal with the same winged emblem her breastplate held. A trophy from being one of the first master angels, only two of those medals existed. A gift to those who had achieved the roles of ‘first’ masters.

Across the room a large balcony looked out over the world. Slowly she walked onto it and spread her wings. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the air while it spread through her feathers, letting out a sigh of contentment. She was back, she was herself again. She was Asura. Looking out from her position made the world look entirely devoid of life, not a player in sight, but she knew better. She jumped off the balcony and spread her wings. The world froze for just a second. Then it returned to normal, except there were dozens of players flying through the air as well. She had now entered the real, persistent world.

She flew up to the main city. Her hands navigated the menu and the words 'Class change: Dragon. 10 seconds” appeared over her head. By the time she landed her body and armor had changed to the red scaled dragon form she had used before, with one exception. Poking out from her back were two large, leathery, scaled wings.

Asura barely managed to keep from chuckling when people walking through the streets turned to stop and point at her. Only a master class angel could have wings while in other classes, though the wings looked like a class specific variant, and there were only eight other master class players in the game. Asura was one of the only two angels. She occasionally stopped to pretend to be interested in something on the city walls, just to allow them the chance to watch. Drinking in the attention.

A small message popped up in front of her and drew an even larger smile to her lips. She tapped it once and it played for her ears only. 'Great job on the capture, get anything interesting? I checked their bail costs, they won't be out of there for a long while unless they choose the pay out option. I got a new job for you. Call me when you get on.'

She navigated the menus before clicking a name and soon a small ringing filled her ears, a sound made to imitate the phones from ages ago. After a few moments there was a click.

“Hey, you got my message!” a male's voice said.

“Yeah, I got it,” she said before she pressed a small button with the picture of a speaker, muting all other sounds from the game while she walked. The call became private so anything she said in it couldn't be heard by others. “What do you need me for?”

“Well, a new player joined the guild.”

“Really? Another member for our little group?” she asked before she stopped outside a stall and looked the wares over. She spread her wings out, showing off again. “How did you get another sucker to join us? Bounty hunter guilds aren't that popular. Not to mention with our silly name.”

“Hey! Escape from Reality is a fine name for a guild! Can you take this seriously? He chose the angel class, so I was hoping you'd show him the ropes.”

“Well. That's a lot of work, and I really need to finish leveling up my dragon class,” she said in a sultry voice. “Buuuuut... if you were able to help reduce my work load I'd be more than willing to help. What do you say, Mutt?” His name was technically B4hamutt, but she always called him Mutt to avoid trying to find a way to say that name.

“Uh huh,” he said in a flat, unamused voice. “Whaddaya want?”

“I just did the dragon's egg quest. I want you to find out how to hatch it for me.”

“... Really? That's all? Why don't you just look it up on the internet? You can just open a browser in game.”

“Because it's funner to spend my net time playing rather than researching, and I know you'll find everything I need. And then some. So, will you do it? Pleassssse? Oh great and wonderful guild leader, help your lowly soldier,” she said in a mocking tone.

“Fine. I'll have the information for you in an hour,” B4hamutt grumbled, she could almost hear him rolling his eyes. “For now here's the kid's friend card.” A menu popped up in front of the angel and she reached out to click it, downloading the information.

“Really? His name is... 5-t-4-r 8-r-3-4-k-3-r?” she said with an annoyed sigh. “There, he's added. I'm not calling him that though.”

“Okay. Thanks, I'll see you later.” The call ended and the sounds from the town began again. She clicked on the menu a few more times, contacting the new player and inviting to form a group, termed a party, with her. It didn't take him long to answer so she quickly switched to party chat, not muting the outside noises this time. “Hey.”

“Ummm... hi,” the voice responded softly.

“Meet me at the market, I'll be the winged dragon character.” She began to head towards a large market. Most of the shops were held in one large courtyard in the center of the town. All the NPCs, or non-player characters, were angels. There were a few non-angel characters and even a demon, though those were PCs, or player characters. She walked through the crowds, grinning every time she caught someone staring at her wings.

After a few minutes of waiting, a young angel character ran towards her. The character had blue hair, green eyes and no wings. His nonsensical name floated above his head. Her friend hadn't been kidding when he said the kid was 'new.'

“So you must be Star. You haven't even unlocked your wings yet?”

“I've been busy. The town is huge and I've been looking over every inch of it,” the boy said, his voice filled with excitement. She couldn't recognize which of the pre-set voices he was using, and wondered if he was using a filter instead.

“Since it's your first day, let me help gear you up. Think of it as a kind of 'welcome to the world' gift. I assume your base, angel, armor and weapon levels are all one?” Asura asked softly. “You start with a kinda flimsy sword, so I’ll get you something nicer.”

“Yeah. I wanna get a bow though. I practiced archery so it would be best for me.”

She froze in place. “You want to use archery as an angel?”

“Yeah! With flying and all it should be easy. I could just rain destruction down on people and they couldn't do anything about it.”

Asura sighed shook her head. “I tell you what. I'll get you a sword and a bow, you can level them each. Once you get your base level higher you might want to switch to the fae class to use the bow. As an angel, it's not easy. The wind your wings makes throws the arrow off,” she said before she glanced around for the nearby shops. “You can level your weapon skills no matter which class you are, so long as you use the weapon. But you won't get the weapon spells and racial buffs except by leveling up the fae class.”

“Oh. I didn't know that,” the boy mumbled. “I thought you could level your armor and weapon skills no matter what class they were. Why would I only get bow skills as a fae? Why shouldn't I just switch now?”

“Because you can't do the quest until your first class is high enough. Don't worry, any spells you learn from your angel class will be accessible in your other classes so you'll still have some low level healing, sword and light magics. You just won't have your wings any more. Your armor and weapon skills level independently through use, but all they determine is what kinds of weapon and armor you can wear. So which kind do you want, light, medium, or heavy?”

“What's the difference?”

“Weight, speed and armor value mostly. I'd stick to at least medium for now,” Asura said before she jogged away. She quickly returned with an iron sword, wooden bow, wooden strap buckler and an assortment of studded leather armor. Within moments the boy had equipped them and they were walking through the town again. She led him to a floor under the city. As opposed to the polished marble stones above, beneath the town the lower floor was a dank dungeon, filled with the sounds of chains rattling and moans of despair.

“W-what is this place?”

“Newbie area. The Dungeons of Sanctuary. You'll earn your wings down here.” The stairs they took twisted down. Soon the light from above was completely gone and only torches lit their way. They came to a hall lined with cells, most of which were empty, but a few housed dragons, fae and demons.

“Are those players?” 5t4r asked.

“No. They're for atmosphere. It's part of the angel's lore,” Asura said before motioning to the prisoners. “The angels, holy beasts and leviathans passed judgment on the other races, stripping the fae of their wings, dragons of their raw power, and demons of their mighty magic. If you go to any of the cities you'll see prisoners of their opposing factions in the cells. Don't worry though, we aren't considered full angels, since it's just a class to us, so we can head to any of the cities without being attacked by the NPCs.”

“That's interesting, I guess,” the boy said before he crossed his arms and shuffled his feet. “I was just asking if they were NPCs or not.”

“Oh sorry. Here,” Asura said before she stopped and motioned towards an angel down the hall. “Talk to him and tell him 'quest'. You can tell he's a quest giver since his name is written in red.”

“Gotcha,” he said before running off. He returned a few moments later. “He said there is a riot going on downstairs and I need to help clear it. That normal?”

“Yep. Don't worry, I'll be helping you,” she said before the two walked down another flight of stairs. Dragons, fae and demons were fighting with a number of angels, most of whom were using swords and shields. Asura held out her hand and a large axe materialized. “Make sure you hit the dragons straight on, their ability is they ignore damage from glancing blows. Fortunately the fae and demons won't use their ability here.”

“What if I hit another player?” 5t4r asked nervously before he cocked the bow and an arrow materialized in it.

“If you hit another player a menu option pops up. Just make sure not to click accept and the hit will just shove them,” Asura said before she charged forward. Almost instantly one of the fae ran at her, flailing a metal bar broken off from one of the cells. The motions were slow and predictable, designed for a newbie or beginner, so she was easily able to parry the attacks with her axe haft. “Try to hit the ones attacking me!”

“Okay!” 5t4r said before he nervously took aim and let the arrow go. It went wide, embedding itself in the wall behind the attacker.

“I thought you said you were used to bows and arrows?” she asked while she kept smacking the weapon away.

“I-I am! But I don't shoot them at people in real life. I shoot them at targets and stuff,” he said nervously before he looked away from her.

“I see. Switch to the sword, it's easier since you get right up in there. These enemies are slow enough you shouldn't get hit often.”

“Okay,” he said in a slightly depressed tone. A moment later the bow was replaced with the iron sword and he ran forward. It took a few seconds of swinging before the fae disappeared in a shower of red sparkles. “Hey, I did it! That was actually kind of fun!”

“Get any items? If you did a menu should pop up and you just have to--”

“I know how to loot a corpse. This isn't my first game you know,” he said snappily.

“Fine, fine. Go on,” Asura said as she motioned to the next enemy.

The boy swung the weapon around wildly and it took her a few moments to realize what he was trying to do. “Are you trying to activate... you used to play another VRMMO, didn't you?”

He froze for a few moments before nodding. “Y-yeah. Once or twice.”

“No wonder you can't hit with the arrows. Spigot Entertainment developed the game with actual hit detection based on your movements, not on a random dice roll,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “There isn't any auto hitting here aside from a few select spells. If you wanna use a spell you need to call out the name and then make the gesture for it. Depending on how you gesture will determine where it hits. So it can take a bit getting used to for each spell. The only spell you should have at this level is ray, so yell out ray and point your finger like so.” Asura held out her point finger towards one of the demons. “Ray!” A small white light shot from her finger and zapped the demon, making him explode into red sparkles.

“Whoa! I though you said that was an angel spell? How can you do it as a dragon?”

“I told you, any spell you learn in one class transfers to all your others. It's why most people tend to level a variety in the early levels. Though a lot of players only level one class. Now you try.”

“R-right. Ray!” 5t4r called out before he aimed his finger at one of the dragon NPCs. It hit the dragon square in the chest, drawing her attention. Sadly, it wasn't defeated in the single attack.

“Ready your sword!”

“Right!” He held the sword up as the dragon charged at him. The dragon was unarmed and slashed with her hands, cutting across 5t4r's chest. He howled and jumped back, holding his chest. “T-that hurt!”

“Of course it hurt. You have the physical sensations turned on, don't you?” Asura said before she charged forward, cleaving the dragon in two with her axe.

The kid stumbled about as he held his chest. “I-I didn't realize it would hurt like that.”

“It wasn't that bad, was it? The pain feedback is supposed to be set at a low level. Wait, how high do you have it set?”

“Physical feedback? Ummmm.... sixty percent,” the angel said nervously.

“... I'd set it to about ten to twenty percent,” the dragon said as she patted his chest. “That way it's low enough you'll feel it and know where the attack hit, but not high enough it'll hurt enough to distract you. Unless you get hit over and over,” she said with a smirk. “The only reason you should have it above fifty percent is if you're playing non-combat games. And even then, this game is incredibly realistic on feedback. Most online games aren’t. Unless you're a masochist and want to feel the full effect of an attack, then go ahead and put it on a hundred percent, but I think pros are the only ones who do that.”

“Okay, hold on.” The boy's hands moved around, tapping at invisible menus for a few moments before nodding. “Okay, I'm ready. Let's do this!” He charged towards the nearest fae and began his strikes. After a few minutes of killing the rioters he was barely managing to parry a few of the strikes. The rooms were soon cleared of NPCs.

“Okay. You get the rewards automatically when you finish the quest as well as the next part. We'll be going in deeper to eliminate the boss of the riot.” Asura said as they walked through the halls. “The prisoners will respawn in a few minutes so we'd best move fast, unless you want to fight them over again.”

“Gotcha,” 5t4r said before they started walking down a winding chamber. It led to a wide open chamber, filled with an assortment of torture devices, such as the rack and an iron maiden. “W-what's with all this stuff? I thought the angels were the good guys?”

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“Only from a certain points of view. These aren't biblical angels if that's what you're thinking. You'll find that a lot of them can be quite evil.” Asura walked to the back of the room. A single dragon was inside a small cage suspended in the air over a massive bonfire. “When we get closer, a bunch of fire elementals will spawn and he'll blow himself out of the cage. I'll take care of the elementals, you deal with the boss, okay?”

“Sure, anything I need to watch out for?” The angel asked. He clutched his sword and brought out his shield, swinging the arm as he tried to balance it.

“Yeah, he's a caster. Stay close and try to keep low. If he says fireball drop onto your stomach. That spell hits hard,” Asura said before she stopped in front of the cage. The dragon-man inside raised his hands into the air and four creatures shaped like humans formed from the bonfire. The cage exploded before the dragon-man fell into the flaming pit and made his way towards them. “Okay, get to it!” Asura yelled before she ran towards the fire elemental nearest her and cut through it with her axe.

5t4r charged forward and slashed down at the dragon-man's shoulder when he stepped out from the flames. The blade was wildly off target and barely nicked the man's shoulder scales. The dragon-man raised his right hand and held it out, palm open. “Fireblast!” In the palm of his hand a ball of flame formed and shot off, striking the angel in the chest. 5t4r was thrown back across the room and landed hard, groaning softly. He glanced at his health in the top left of his vision, his health bar already a quarter of the way down.

“Time to give this a shot. Lesser heal!” White light enveloped him and his health bar filled up partially, removing half the damage he'd taken. He charged forward and slashed the sword down across the caster's chest. He then swung his left arm out, clocking the boss in the face with the edge of the shield and making the dragon stumble back. 5t4r held out his finger again. “Ray!” A ray of light shot out and struck the NPC.

The dragon-man stood there, dazed, allowing the angel multiple free slashes across the scaled hide. Finally the man held up both hands. “Fireball!”

5t4r dropped to his stomach when flames shot everywhere, turning the area above his head into an inferno and destroying most of the torture equipment in the room. The heat made sweat pour down his body. He looked around, but couldn't see his ally anywhere, though all the elementals were gone.

Once the flames died down he jumped to his feet and stabbed. The blade glanced across the scales, throwing the aim off slightly, but the blade still struck deep into the person's side. The dragon-man howled and reached down with one hand to grab the blade while the other hand formed a fist and began punching the angel with all the ferocity he could muster.. 5t4r tried deflecting the strikes with his shield while he tugged at his sword, but his health was steadily decreasing point by point as his inexperienced blocking let a few strikes get through.

With a mighty tear he finally managed to pull the blade free, right before the dragon-man slammed a flaming fist into his stomach. 5t4r's HP plummeted when flames covered his body and he fell backwards. He struggled to deflect the man's kicks and punches, but his HP continued to fall. It was little more than a sliver when a white light covered him and brought his HP back up to full. A ray of light then shot over his head, turning the dragon-man to red sparkles. He let out a sigh of relief while he relaxed on the ground.

“You okay?” Asura asked. She stood over him and offered a hand. “Hope I didn’t jump in too late, wanted to give you a chance.”

“I feel like... hey I leveled up again, sweet. I feel like gravel, yourself?” he asked with a pained smile. He took her hand and she pulled him to his feet.

“I'm really high level for this place, so I'm fine. Did you get the next line in the quest?”

“Yeah,” 5t4r said before he flipped through the menus. “I'm supposed to go talk to the general and tell him the riot has been suppressed. How do I get there?”

“Follow me.” Within a few minutes they were walking out of the dungeons and back out into the marble city. The sunlight and fresh breeze was in stark contrast to the dark and muggy dungeons. They headed for a large building with four massive pillars in the front and two massive stone angels standing opposite each other, holding swords that came together directly over the entrance. A near constant stream of players headed in and out of the building. “This is one of the main quest hubs for the early levels for angels, so you see a lot of people who just started the quest here. Come on.” The two slowly navigated through the hordes before coming to another large chamber, this one made of marble with a large map of the world laid over a round table. There was a moment of lag before the room filled with angels pouring over the map, but no players.

“What was that?” 5t4r asked as he looked back.

“Just the game loading. Lots of people come into here so each party has their own personal instance of the room.” She motioned to an angel wearing armor similar to hers and lined with a number of red and blue jewels “It helps since the general tends to make large, boisterous movements. It would be difficult for everyone to see the full scene if there were a dozen or more players in here.”

“Ah. I see.” 5t4r walked up the angel and coughed before speaking, “Quest.”

The general turned to glare at the boy, making him cringe. “Another snot nosed little brat come to help us wage war on those lower beings, eh?” the man asked before he stormed over to glare 5t4r in the eyes. “High command needs to learn to send me real warriors, not wingless children!” the man shouted while he waved both hands wildly in the air. “Well since I've got you I might as well help train you. We'll start with basic flying and magic lessons. Go see Lieutenant Mickel and learn from him.” He turned away and stomped back towards the map.

“Okay, you got that then?” Asura asked as she walked up behind the kid, patting him on the back.

“Ummm, yeah. Just supposed to head towards the quest location, right?”

“Right, just follow the instructions and you'll be fine, since there isn't much more combat. I'll see you around,” Asura said before she turned to walk off.

“W-what? But I thought you were going to help? I mean, what if I don't do it right?”

She sighed and turned back around. “Don't worry, you'll be fine. You have a grasp on the basics, so there really isn't a lot more I can teach you. Besides, I really need to get working on some things. If you need any more help just send me a message. Until then, tah tah!”

“Oh, well, ummm, bye!”

Asura ran towards the edge of the city. Once there she leaped off, her wings folded against her back as she dove straight down at breakneck speeds. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of air whipping through her feathers. The world was coming up at her fast, an unbreakable wall of scorched earth and shattered trees. The lands under the city had been long destroyed, a result of endless war between the races. Even the massive elevator that non-angels used to get to Sanctuary was constructed of dented, charred steel and lacked any decorations. It was just a gargantuan tunnel that led straight up towards the majestic floating city.

Once the ground was only a dozen yards away, she opened her eyes. With a quick flap of her wings she started to glide over the wreckage. She flew around before landing on a flat rock, which was covered in old soot and ash, and brought up her friends list. Soon she had a direct line to B4hamutt.

“Hey. Did you get my info?” she asked, not hesitating to get to the point.

“Yeah. Happy to see you too. Why did you drop the kid off? I thought you said you'd help him out,” he said, his voice stern with disappointment. She merely brushed it off.

“I said I'd help him out, so I bought him some equipment and got him started through the tutorial. I'm not going to stand there and hold his hand while he learns to fly,” she said firmly. “That can take hours to get a feel for the muscles, especially if he wants to do it hands free. Do you have the information or not?”

“Fine. It's simple really. Long, but simple. How close are you to maxing out your dragon class?”

“Few more weeks, why?” she asked, warily.

“You need to head deep into dragon lands. Almost max level zones. Good news is with your wings you should be able to bypass most of the longer areas. You'll need to fight a minotaur to get something called the fire flower. Apparently it's an unarmed fighter, using mostly kicks, so be careful. Want any help?”

“Hum...” she said as she crossed her arms. “Well, it could be useful having another master class with me. But I'd rather not owe you a favor. No, I'll be fine.”

“Suit yourself. Here's a map,” he said as a small menu popped up in front of her. She clicked it and moments later a map appeared in the top left of her vision. “Good luck!” With that, the communication ended.

Asura flew up and soared east before switching on the auto flight. With her body heading on it's own way, she quickly flipped through the map. She was pleasantly surprised to find a bit more information about the boss, including a digital image.

The minotaur was called 'Mariasch the stomper', a monster with red fur. It had no weapons, but wore big blue metal boots and spiked leggings. It was far taller than a normal player with massively high attack stats. It was looking like the fight would be a difficult one, especially at her current level.

She didn't mind. She had more than a few bonuses from being a master class angel that carried into her dragon class. Besides, she had faced plenty of minotaurs before and they tended to have predictable attack patterns.

The angel flew over the world, eventually the burnt wastelands giving way to forests, lakes, plains and finally volcanos. She flew along the lava filled edges while she searched the rocky reaches for a cave entrance. There were plenty of monsters down below, lava elementals, the occasional tall and muscular orc and more than a few massive red lizards known as salamanders.

On occasion she had to fly higher when ground based creature's attempted to launch rocks or other projectiles, though she was careful to ensure nothing came too close. It wasn't long before she found the large cave entrance, carved into the rocky side of an active volcano.

She took a deep breath when she landed in front of the cave. The stench of sulfur was so strong she could almost taste it. The scorching heat was almost as intense as her encounter with Niohoggr. She glanced around, her hand on her axe while she prepared for any attacks her landing would cause, but after a few moments she let out a sigh of relief and headed within. Inside the chamber was dark, the only light coming from the small streams of magma that leaked through the walls.

Asura held out her right hand. “Flaming hands,” she said softly. Her hands burst into flame and lit the path ahead. A cheap, weak spell, but very popular for players, be they dragon or having only taken a few levels in the class. It beat having to buy torches.

------

Asura held her axe up when the lizard-man's blade struck just above the handle. The creature then charged forward, driving her back against the wall and pinning her while another two lizard-men watched and prepared for an opening to attack.

These things were far faster than she expected, and her HP was already at the half way point. Fortunately, the experience she was getting was amazing, she'd already leveled once while in the caves.

She kicked out with her left foot, catching the lizard-man by surprise and knocking him back. The other two charged forward, their swords raised, and slashed at her. One of the blades hit her in the side while the other was a sliding blow to her right arm, dealing no damage. She swung her axe down hard at an angle and struck the closer lizard-man in the neck, beheading it and making it disappear in an explosion of red sparkles.

The other two tried to push in, but she quickly moved to the left, getting some open space behind her so she could back up. She watched them closely and waited. The one on her left charged forward. She quickly dove to the right and brought her axe down on the back of its neck. It disappeared into red sparkles when its head tumbled off. She pushed out her right hand at the last lizard. “Fireball!” Fire shot out and, while the explosion barely harmed the last lizard, it did knock the monster back. Before it could completely recover she dashed forward and cleaved through its neck as well.

After the final lizard-man disappeared in a flurry of red sparkles, she looked down and took a deep breath. “This is a lot harder than I thought it would be,” she said with a groan before glancing at her map. “Just a little further and I'm to the boss. Come on, Asura, you can do this.” She hefted her axe over her shoulder, wiped the sweat from her brow and sat down for a short rest.

After taking a few moments to heal, recover her MP and catch her breath she pushed herself to her feet and started heading down the tunnel again. Soon she could see the end of the hall, light spilling out from a massive chamber. One creature stood between her and the room however.

It was another reptilian monster, though it held a large flaming mallet. It had a massive shell, with spikes on the back. Above it the words 'Crunser, the Reptile Lord' hovered. “Ah, a mini boss. Fun.” She readied her axe. “A nice little warm up before the real fight.”

She charged forward and swung the axe down at the reptiles head, but it simply batted the axe away with its hammer. The force of the blow made her weapon vibrate, sending bursts of pain through her hands, drawing a low, hurt groan. The intensity was so distracting, Asura failed to notice the monster's movements until the hammer slammed into her side and sent her flying. She bashed into the wall and dropped to the ground like a rag doll. Her HP was cut in half from the massive hit.

“Damn...” Asura said with a groan before she struggled to look up at the beast. She shrieked and rolled to the side moments before the hammer slammed down where she had been laying. It left a crater over a foot deep. One more direct hit like that and she'd be dead. She jumped to her feet and gripped her axe tightly. “Cleaving strike!” she yelled before she charged forward, a red glow encompassing the blade. She felt the axe go straight through the monster's shell and hit the softer parts underneath, but it still wasn't enough. The reptile spun and brought the hammer down at her head.

Asura quickly brought her axe up to block the hammer, the force sending small hairline cracks through the shaft. “Tough little bugger, aren't you?” she asked, before she kicked out with all her might into the creature's stomach. She regretted it instantly when white flash of pain shot through her foot. “V-very tough.”

Crunser roared and opened its mouth before fire shot out. Asura shrieked, but was unable to avoid the attack, becoming enveloped in flames. Amazingly enough, her HP barely lowered, though she fully expected it to reduce her to zero. The reptile raised its hammer one more time to finish her off, so she had to act quickly. She thrust her right hand out against the creature's chest. “Rapture!” the creature exploded into a mass of white light before disappearing in a burst of red sparkles. She dropped down, panting. After a moment its weapon landed on the ground, the reward for slaying the beast.

She smiled, scooped up the bosses weapon and saw the words 'Level up!' flash in front of her. The angel then glanced inside the chamber and shook her head. “This boss is going to be impossible like this.” Her hand navigated the menus and soon the axe was replaced by the white sword, Excalibur. “Can't switch classes for a while, no more spells for a bit. I hate having to rapture. I'll just have to do this the old fashioned way. A little lower stats won’t hurt now...” A small satchel formed on her side, filled with potions, before her HP bar shrunk slightly. It allowed her to quickly grab items without having to navigate the menus, but she could only store three items in the satchel at a time and it lowered her stats to compensate. She just hoped the potions would be enough.

Asura waited for her HP to recover before continuing on. She arrived at the chamber in moments. It was a large rocky cavity with plenty of room to maneuver, but littered with rocks that made it difficult to catch one's balance. It was hot and the air was stifling, but there wasn't any lava leaking into the room. In the center was a single small daisy that had red petals instead of white. The fire flower.

Towering over the flower was a red haired minotaur, a half-man, half-bull creature. Its arms alone were as thick as most trees and she barely came up to its waist in height. It had thick boots made of steel and colored in faded blue. It also had leggings that seemed to be made of the same metal with spikes on the knees. From the waist up it was completely naked, though she imagined with its height that likely wasn't a problem. The words 'Mariasch the Stomper' appeared over its head a moment later.

The minotaur made the first move, leaping into the air. She dove to the right before the creature hit the ground, sending rocks and dirt flying. Fortunately her class prevented her from taking damage from the flying debris, but she was beginning to see why this fight was considered a boss fight, despite being just a minotaur.

She continued to run through the debris while the minotaur rampaged around her, sending more rocks through the air with each attack. After its third jump it stopped for a moment, seeming to catch its breath. She grinned and turned. “So that's your weakness!” She shot forward and swung once horizontally. The blade cut through Mariasch's leg and left a large slash through the creature's armor.

That was one of the benefits of the blade, it could slice through all non-master weapons and armor easily. Unfortunately, it meant the objects were destroyed, so they couldn't be looted. The blade also required one to have mastered the angel class and mastered the sword weapon. Though, it was still the most powerful, in terms of damage and effect, sword in the game that she knew of.

Unfortunately, the attack wasn't nearly enough to defeat the beast in one hit. Even with its damaged armor it kicked out with its right foot. She was caught in the chest and sent flying back across the chamber before finally slamming into the back wall. Her HP instantly went from full to single digits.

“Ow...” Asura said with a groan while she clutched her chest. She wasn't given much time to recover when the minotaur jumped straight at her. She leaped across the rocky terrain, moments before the wall where she had been flattened against was turned into a crater from the creature's powerful landing. Again she was forced to run for her life while the ground behind her was turned into gravel. Before long the minotaur stopped jumping and Asura reached into her satchel to take out one of the potions, downing it in moments. Her HP filled back up to full, but the minotaur had already recovered leaving her no room to counter attack.

“Dragons really are over powered,” she said with a chuckle before once again she was forced to run for her life. “If I was any other class of this level I'd have been killed by all this debris.”

The fight was long and hard. It took all three of her potions before she figured out how to stay close enough she could attack while the minotaur was recovering, but stay far away enough that she was certain to avoid the damage from the landing. Getting in and hitting became easier after the fifteen minute mark when the rapture penalty on her spells faded and she could use them again. She was able to use a lower lever sword skill called crescent flash to dart in and cut the creature and then dart out before it could hit her back. Eventually she stabbed up into the creature's stomach and drew the blade out. It gripped its wounded abdomen before finally falling, disappearing in a shower of red sparkles.

She dropped to her knees and took a deep breath, letting the tension ebb away. “I did it! Hah! I won! I'm the champion!” She lifted her fists up with a laugh. A small flashing red light in the top right of her vision drew her focus. The timer. She only had a few seconds left before her time was up! “What? No no no!” She ran to the flower as fast as she could, but was too slow. The world faded around her when the headset was deactivated just before her fingers could wrap around the flower's stem.

------

The hospital room came into view when he was jettisoned from the game. “W-what happened. I... I was in the m-middle of s-something...” he said weakly.

“Now now honey,” Jessica said with a super sweet smile that made him want to scream. “I know you wanna stay up all night and play with all your make believe friends, but now you need to go nighty night!” He opened his mouth, but then closed it with a sigh.

Since he couldn't do anything about it he closed his eyes, planning for the next day. At least he wouldn't have to worry about the minotaur killing him, since after he logged off it would have waited thirty seconds and then automatically ejected him from the game. Unfortunately, it meant he would have to do the entire fight over again. This time he was just going to run away until his class change was ready and just do it as an angel. It would be far easier and far faster.

The lights were turned off after a few moments. Light could still be seen under the door and he could hear the nurses occasionally chattering away while the shifts changed. He glanced to the left of the bed where the headset was resting on the bedside table.

All he had to do was climb out of bed and hook up the cords to the wall across the room, grab the headset, put it on and flip the switch. He could play it all night. He let out an annoyed sigh and just laid back, giving up on his futile dream. He'd tried it once, all that had happened was he couldn't get back into the bed and had to call a nurse. He told them he'd rolled out of bed and since then they always had the bedside bars up so he couldn’t accidentally fall out.

Instead he tried to get comfy and fall asleep. All he had to do was sleep until morning, get his breakfast, and then he could do it all again. Head back into the world he so longed to be in.