Age: 15 years, 9 months

The sun beat down across a large park. A small section had been set up for a family, complete with a trampoline, barbecue and a volleyball net. Already a large group of children had run down to the nearby river to swim, under the strict supervision of their parents.

Amidst all the excitement and energy, Asher was forced to sit in his wheelchair under a large umbrella. He had been carted over to sit with the family's elders and forced to listen as they droned on about things like taxes, elections, the state of the government and the rising gas prices. He tried to tune them out, but every so often his uncle would say something the rest of them found witty and they'd all break into raucous laughter. It sounded like a vacuum trying to suck down a pile of cotton. He didn't care about any of that.

His focus was on the game. He'd managed to finish leveling the dragon class to maximum a week ago, hatched his dragon egg recently and was almost done capping out the axe's skill level. The master class quests were scheduled to start next week and then he'd finally get his shot at mastering the dragon class. He had been spending as much time as he could in the game, blowing through his meals and spending all his time training for the quests. Not only that, something very exciting had been spreading through the game news forums.

Players had been saying they saw a demon using transformation magic. In some games that wouldn't mean much, but in LRVR it was front line news. Each of the races once had a special magic, beyond the restrictions of the elements, that only they could perform. The magics themselves had disappeared, according to the game's lore, during the war when the races were sealed off from their strongest powers. According to the developers, those magics could be unlocked under certain conditions. The player who managed to unlock them first would be a legend in the game. With all that excitement going on in his favorite world, the park seemed dull and gray in comparison. Even the green grass seeming dim and lifeless.

He had a theory on how to unlock the magics, though it would take years to find out. In the meantime he was searching, along with his guild, for every hint on how to gain them for the players. Since transformation was the lost magic of the demons they couldn't just ignore it. The guild's third and final master class player, Scalios the leviathan, had already headed off to investigate the rumor. The only reason Asura hadn't gone first was because she was stuck at this picnic. It had already gone on for hours and was sucking the life from him.

He was brought back from his thoughts by his mother. “Hi dear. Are you holding up okay? Not too hot, not too cold?” She held out a small can of root beer to him, already opened with a straw in it.

“I-I'm fine m-mom,” Asher managed to stutter out. “J-just feel a bit n-nauseous.” He'd been dropping hints to his parents that he wasn't feeling well and wanted to return home for the last few hours, but had yet to make any headway. He took the root beer and slowly moved the can up up to take a drink. At least she didn't insist on feeding him(aside from prepping his food) while he could still move his arms slightly.

“Still, honey?” Her brow furrowed in disappointment. “Your father and I are going for a walk, would you like to join us?”

Asher sighed gently. Well, it would be better than sitting and listening to the mind numbing talk about rising prices on one thing or another. “Sure.”

Slowly his mother began to push his wheelchair along until they were on a small cement path. While they walked his mom pointed out squirrels or birds. His dad took up the task of pushing him whenever they got to the hills. He just stared, barely listening, while he imagined himself back in the game, where he could fully feel the world. He barely register the wind flowing around him and only really noticed when the bumps on the path made his wheelchair jump. This world felt almost fake compared to the other world.

The three made it to the end of the trail, a small resting place that overlooked a valley filled with trees. The leafy canopy could be seen for miles and the river that went through the park ran through the land like a blue and white foamy snake. He could remember when he was much younger and could still move, his parents used to take him rafting on that river. His stomach knotted at the remembrance of happy memories.

Sadly, the scene was barely impressive to him now. In the game he had seen far more amazing valleys filled with massive beasts or winds that made flying near impossible, but felt like a roller coaster when you flew with them. Flown through clouds over peeks of ice while wyverns chased him. Compared to that, how could a lifeless valley of green and blue compare?

“We have a surprise for you,” his mom said happily. “Your father and I have been talking it over and we know how much you enjoy your games. So, we decided we'd join you.”

It took him a few seconds to register the words. Then his mouth fell open. “W-what?” The stutter wasn't even from his lack of muscle control this time.

“Yep. We won't be able to play as much because of work, but we should be able to come on some nights and play your little game with you.”

“W-what game?” he asked weakly while he stared at them in shock. They were going to play? He didn't know if he could keep them alive. How would they feel seeing him play Asura of all things?

“Well, it took us a while to find one we thought you'd like and then we decided we were being silly. You love all your games so much, so we'll let you decide. Any game you want to play we'll join.” The light quiver in her voice caught Asher's attention.

Her hands were nervously rubbing themselves and her eyes were trembling. He could guess why. They were likely going to live years longer than he was. Not to mention that most of the time he was awake he spent in his games, so they didn't get to see him much without drawing him out. Neither of his parents liked the games and his mom was a bit phobic of them. The headsets messed with the signals sent throughout the body and a handful of the original sets had caused severe damage to a few of the testers, but that was ages ago, before the equipment had been perfected. The fact she was willing to try it for him made him feel far more warmth than the sun had all day. “I-I'll find a r-really g-good one,” he said with difficulty. “W-we'll have a l-lot of fun.”

“I'm sure we will,” she said softly, though the quiver remained.

“Just make sure not to choose one of those naughty games I know you kids think are all the craze,” his father said with a chuckle. “We don't want anything popping up on our records.”

Asher couldn't resist rolling his eyes at that bad joke. The whole superstition about some games getting you on government 'lists' was given up on long ago. Granted the main ones who disproved it were government ran agencies, so there were still plenty of conspiracy theorists out there who swore they were being monitored every time they logged in. Frankly, he didn't care. What were they going to find, that he played as a girl? Or better yet, that he knew how to fly?

“I-I'm ready to go back,” he said softly and soon they were heading back along the path. His mind was jumping with ideas. If he could get his parents to like the game he chose, they might understand why he played so much. They might even let him play more often, maybe they'd talk to the hospital about letting him play after lights out. He spent the rest of the picnic focusing on the new task of choosing the game and before he knew it the picnic was over. He was all to happy to be back on his way home and logging back in to his world.

------

Asura appeared back in her room, this time laying on the pink bed. She'd had a few more minutes left over last time before the angel had to log out, so she had lounged about her room for a bit. She did love the feel of the soft blankets on her body. The hospital ones weren’t bad, but Asher could only barely feel them.

She checked her messages first and found quite a few new ones, mostly from B4hamutt. She quickly glanced through them one by one. She then darted out the balcony and jumped off, spreading her wings. Asura flew south as fast as she could, engaging the auto-flight when she had the chance. “Damn it, Mutt! No fair heading off without me! I'm going to kill you if you figure this out before I get there!” she mumbled to herself.

Her destination was a mid-level area in the demon region. While most areas in the game had been fully mapped, it remained one of the few, possibly the only one on the main continent, that hadn't.

At her max flight speed the world flew by like a blur and she arrived outside the woods before she knew it. Despite the fact it was still daytime in the game, the forest was completely cloaked in darkness. Webbing covered almost all the trees and even from outside the forest she could see spiders skittering around the webs, some only a few centimeters long while others were as large as horses. Many of the trees were so coated in webs that from a distance they looked like they were covered in snow. She gulped nervously. The place was nicknamed 'Spider Hell' for a reason.

Rather than going straight in she sent a message to B4hamutt, a part of her hoping he didn't respond so she could go somewhere else. A part of her hoped that his head start DID mean he’d already gotten to the bottom of things so she didn’t have to go in there of all places. She let out a groan when she received a response along with a map to his location. Slowly she took a deep breath and nervously walked inside, her angelic wings tight against her back. Rather than equipping Excalibur she wore her new axe, Scalemorne. It was a high level weapon, the best she could use, with a life draining ability and high damage. It was a double headed axe made of black rock and laden with gold runes. Fortunately, none of the monsters would attack her due to her level. It didn't, however, stop the less combat capable ones from walking around and climbing along her legs when her feet tugged at the webbing.

Once she was inside a few yards and the darkness got overwhelming she used the flaming hands spell to allow herself to see. It took every ounce of willpower to avoid screaming when just a few feet from stood a massive tarantula the size of a wagon. Its legs alone were bigger than her. She whimpered and targeted it, letting out a sigh of relief at its comparatively low level. One swing of her axe would have killed it with ease. The spider turned its eight beady eyes on her before starting to walk off into the woods.

She whimpered and continued to walk along the path. It took every fiber of her being not to look down. The path was covered in webbing and every step tugged on it, sending tiny spiders scurrying and applying a small slow effect to her. She could FEEL them running along her feet and legs, darting around like frightened animals. While they were all too low level to attack her, the smallest ones were considered 'atmosphere' and therefore could run along her without worry. She could, of course slaughter them, but as many as there were it wouldn't do any good unless she did a spell that covered her whole body. It would burn through her MP way too fast to make it at all worthwhile. However, the webbing did apply a very small stacking slow debuff, so every so often she did burn it away. Sadly, it began to gather quickly each time and she struggled to ignore the feeling of webbing sticking to her legs and spiders crawling along her armor. A part of her wondered if it was as bad as it felt or if her imagination was just making it worse. Why would someone DESIGN an area like this? Aside from this zone, the game seemed almost bereft of giant spider monsters that were so popular in virtual reality games.

She screamed when a spider the size of a dog fell from above and landed on her wing. It wasn't attacking her so much as just landing on her, but that didn't stop her from tearing it apart with her axe and then running down the path as fast as she could.

She was eventually stopped by a scaled hand wrapping around her waist. She quickly turned and started slicing at the thing with her axe. “GAHHHHHHHH!” she kept screaming until she realized it was B4hamutt. “Don't do that!” She struck him one more time with the axe, dealing no damage, but lightly shoving him back. A pop-up was displayed that asked if she wished to initiate PVP. She almost said yes.

“Eesh, why you trying to wake the whole forest?” he asked before he got back to his feet and shook the spiders off.

“Spiders. Everywhere! Landed on my back, scared me half to death! Why weren't you out there? I'd cleave you in half if I thought I could!”

“Bah, you big baby. In my home town we got spiders the size of your head and they're a lot more aggressive. Poisonous too.”

That sent chills down her spine. “Where the hell do you live? No, you know what? I don't wanna know. I just wanna burn it with fire. Let's just go and see if we can find Scales,” Asura grumbled after she used Scalios's nickname.

“Touchy. You aren't scared of spiders, are you? I'm more than willing to do this alone if need be.”

“I'm just a little touchy about them, okay? At least the ones almost as big as me,” she yelled. “But there is no way I am giving up a chance to find out about unlocking the advanced magics. I'd sooner burn this forest to the ground. Actually I'd sooner burn this forest to the ground anyway, but since we can't destroy the trees faster than they'd respawn let's just AGGGGGGGGHHHH!” she screamed at the top of her lungs when something brushed against the back of her neck. She held the axe high when she turned around and saw B4hamutt holding up his hand at neck height with a smirk on his face. “Don't do that!” she said before she stormed off.

B4hamutt was a dragon character, covered in jagged red scales and holding an axe that looked as if it was made of obsidian. He was taller than her and had gone for the broad shoulders and thick muscles look like most who played the game chose. His hair and eyes were red as well, leaving her to wonder if he rushed his character creation. Even his name was a bit rushed. Granted, she couldn't really talk, she had been very lucky to get the name Asura. She was able to log in on the first day and claim the name for herself and in the course of the almost two years of playing she had already run into four people who had off shoots of her name. Though three of them didn't pop up until she became famous in the game.

She did feel a lot better now that her friend was with her, though that was mostly because whenever they caught sight of spiders larger than a dog she would quickly interpose him between her and it. She couldn't help but notice he was in his dragon class despite the fact he had spent the last year leveling as a holy beast. “I see you wanted to use a more familiar form here too, huh?” She glanced down and smiled. “While we're on the subject, I don't think I ever asked, what is the weapon bonus of your master axe?”

“Huh? Oh, this?” He hefted up the obsidian blade. “Explosions. Every time I strike with it the point of contact explodes. Doesn't hurt me or allies, and makes it a great area damaging weapon. I can turn the explosions off to give it a damage bonus as well for when I have single targets. Though sometimes I wish it could cleave though armor, like your sword.”

“Interesting. I wonder what the other weapons do,” she said. “We don't really play together anymore, do we? Shame Scales didn't join us. Would have been like old times. Where we could go anywhere but here.”

“Not since we completed the master class quests. Been too busy mastering new things, I guess. That and all the events and farming. Not a lot of group content for us. Scales has been the same way.”

“Yeah, a shame. We should do another guild party or something soon. After this year’s master class quests I'm sure more of our players will get their master hoods and then we can throw a big party,” Asura suggested with a forced grin, trying to focus on the conversation rather than what she could feel crawling along her greaves, or the sound of crushed sticks behind them. Once again she was thankful that she had chosen heavy armor, not light, as her armor of choice. It was solid and didn’t brush against her skin when she moved.

“That could be fun. There is something I wanted to ask you. After you got master class, why did you go that build?” He motioned to her armor. “If you use a long sword, why not use a real shield instead of that armor? Or make Excalibur a great sword so you can use it two handed?”

“Sometimes I like to dual wield. Well, at least try it. I'm honestly not that good at it yet,” she said with a sigh. “I sometimes switch it to the great sword, too. Or even a bastard sword. Honestly I just don't like the shields. They make me feel sluggish and awkward, so I prefer to just deflect attacks with my armored gauntlet.” She held up her left hand, showing off the thicker metal and jewels that surrounded the arm. “Besides, it works as enough of a shield with this armor level.”

“You tried using that type of armor with dragon class?”

“Of course! I think it's going to end up becoming my trade mark. Eventually every angel will wear this kind of armor,” Asura said with a soft chuckle. She glanced back for a moment.

“So you noticed our little follower yet?” B4hamutt asked before he moved a bit closer to her.

“A while ago. Demon class judging by how he's not showing up on our maps. If he'd stop tripping and kicking branches out of his way, I'd have never noticed him,” she said before she reached around to grab her axe and quickly used it to slice through a spider that crossed their path. It felt oddly therapeutic.

“Why do you assume it's a he?” he asked in a mock hurt tone.

“Because demons are always boys. Everyone knows they're made of dog hair and stuff.” She let the flame from her hand die down and stretched a little. “Think there might be more of them?”

“Maybe. You want to go first or should I?”

“I'll do it. Just keep the light up,” she said before she turned around and charged down the path. With a single movement the winged girl slashed in a horizontal arc, cleaving three spiders in two and striking a horned demon boy who was knocked back out of the shadows. A menu popped up asking if she wanted to engage PVP, though the fact he was knocked back so far let her know he already had it enabled. She wondered how many he'd ambushed and if he could still travel to towns without being attacked by the guards or auto-enabled for PVP.

“Ow! Hey! What was that for?” The boy asked angrily. He froze when the axe was raised over his head.

“What are you doing here? Why were you following us?” Asura asked in annoyance. Her eyes went wide when she recognized the player’s name. “Caelite! How did you get out of prison so fast?”

“Huh? How do you know about... Deva? ASURA?! Oh crap,” the demon said before he raised his hands defensively. “I-I was just tracking players I saw in here! I thought I could leach some items off you when you killed the monsters. I-I wasn't going to attack you, honest!”

She brought her axe down on his weapon, a small black naginata. It was hardly the strongest item a demon could use. Especially compared to when last they met. She flipped through a few menus to bring up the boys bounty. “Huh. Wow. Your record is kind of... low, since last time,” she said in disappointment. “Only a few dozen silver! I guess you payed off your debts for the prison? That had to hurt.”

“Yes,” he said nervously.

“Are you a member of Arachnaphobia?” B4hamutt asked.

“No! I just wanted some easy items, that's all!” the boy said before he started to shake. “I don't even know who that is!”

Asura wondered how many items he'd managed to get so far and would lose if she killed him now. She slowly moved the axe back and forth. Finally she sighed and pulled the blade back. “You're not really worth killing, so I tell you what. Get out of these woods and stop killing players. Maybe join a nice guild that will help you and stop causing people problems. Next time I see you getting a bounty I'll kill you so many times you'll be in debt until you master three classes, got it?” Granted, she didn't really have a way of doing that, but it still felt good to give such a threat. The boy in question nodded, turned and ran as fast as he could.

“You know, I'll say this for the boy. He is pretty brave,” B4hamutt said.

“What? Why? He ran like a child,” Asura said with a snicker.

“He's been stalking people in these woods, probably ambushing them. It can't be easy navigating in the dark like this, not to mention how many giant spiders he's probably ran into and had crawling all over him when he's on the prowl. He even seemed more scared of dying than actually heading off into those woods without the light.”

“... Okay, that's kind of creepy.” She glanced back towards the demon, but he was already gone from view. “So, who's Arachnaphobia?”

“Demon based guild,” B4hamutt muttered before they started walking again. “Not a lot of them, but I hear they tend to hang out in these woods to ambush players. Big on player killing. Doubt we'll run into any though, the woods are pretty big and there will likely be easier targets than us.”

Asura nodded. “Do you have any idea where Scales disappeared from? Think he might have ran into them?” she asked before she flipped through some more menus. The angel let out an involuntary squeak when a small spider dropped down and landed on her hand. She shook it off and swore by the heavens to NEVER EVER come here again.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“No idea. Last message I got from him was when he said he'd killed the spider matriarch boss. I guess we'll have to start from there.”

“Please tell me you're kidding. That's an underground fight. In a nest of spiders. That's horrifying!”

B4hamutt stopped. “Yeah. We're here.” The two stopped in front of a large stone cavern. The entire mouth of the cave was covered in thick webs and small cocoons could be seen intermixed with them, some of which still moved. To make it even more realistic occasionally spiders would crawl to the moving ones and soon they would stop moving. All in all, it was easily one of the worst dungeons to go through. She didn't know how Scales managed to go it alone. She couldn’t imagine why someone would even DESIGN such a place.

“Do we have to? I mean, maybe it was something else?” Asura watched him head towards the entrance.

“All the rumors mentioned killing the matriarch first. Come on,” he said in annoyance, before beginning to push through the webbing. When he knocked them aside occasionally spiders would fall from above and skitter off, though he didn't seem to care. Asura followed closely behind and made herself as small as possible, trying desperately to avoid being touched by any of the eight legged creatures or their webbing.

“I hate this place so much,” she said softly. The inner chambers were wide and open, though the floor and walls were coated in sticky webbing. It was a difficult area to fight in and she could see beady eyed spiders on the roof of the chamber, watching and waiting to attack any adventurers that dared to come into their home. Fortunately B4hamutt and her were far too high level to trigger the creatures, but she didn't want to imagine what this place must have been like to the first people who came here at the proper level. The forest lived up to its nickname.

A few spiders the size of horses soon blocked their path, but they were dispatched by her ally in a few quick axe strikes. “I am never, ever coming here again,” Asura said. Both their bodies were now covered in webbing and it was only through periodic castings of the flaming body spell that their bodies weren't covered in tiny spiders as well. She didn’t even mind the MP cost, considering the alternative. Even so she swore she could feel them all over her.

The chambers twisted and turned, creating a maze. Fortunately, B4hamutt had a map of the area, though Asura couldn't help but snicker at the fact it wasn't complete. She imagined most people didn't want to fully explore such an area. Thankfully, most the spiders didn't attack them so they quickly found themselves in the grand nest.

The chamber was at least fifty feet up and as wide as a football field. The roof was domed and it looked like a large stadium. Webbing flowed from wall to wall while massive spiders scurried about on their duties. Sacs filled with spider eggs hung from the roof and covered the ground. Large spiders brought in cocoons of webbing that she had a horrible suspicion was their food, and she knew better than to risk thinking about what that food was.

The webbing began to quiver before she saw 'it'. The matriarch. It was the size of a small house. It was the first spider she'd seen with that design, too. Red and black, the perfect replica of a black widow, complete with red hourglass on its underside. “Why do we have to fight that?” she asked softly. The spider was moving around the webbing slowly, each movement sending its smaller children scattering and making the web jump sporadically.

“Because we do. Come on,” B4hamutt muttered before he gripped his axe and charged forward. With a single slash he lopped off one of the giant spiders legs, a testament to how high his level was in comparison to it. The matriarch began to click angrily. Its other legs lashed out, trying to bind the dragon with its webbing. “Give me some support!”

“Oh! Right, sorry!” She held out her right hand. “Greater heal!” A white light instantly covered the dragon and healed the small wounds he had acquired. It was true that they were far above the level requirements for the area, but the spider was meant to be taken on by groups of ten or so. Not two versus one. Even worse was the fact that other large spiders were starting to appear out from the nests and charge at the two of them, intent on eliminating the threat to their ruler.

B4hamutt grinned when the spiders began to swarm him. He backed away for a moment while his fingers danced along the air, opening menus invisible to her. After a few seconds he was done and he swung the axe into the nearest spider. Flames erupted out and turned all the smaller spiders, and much of the webbing, to ash. Asura watched in awe while he tore through the spiders with ease and his blade exploded over and over into thick flames. She occasionally sent a heal his way, though he didn't really need it. Before long the giant arachnid rolled over onto its back and its remaining legs curled up. With the matriarch dead most of the webbing in the room gave way to reveal a small cavern opposite the entrance of the room.

“What's that?” she asked before slowly making her way after her friend. At least with the matriarch dead, many of the spiders had vacated and the webbing no longer covered the area as thickly. Without new thread to cover them the old webbing eventually fell off their bodies to leave them free of its sticky and icky feel, removing the minor penalty.

“Treasure cave. Since the matriarch doesn't drop items itself they have to give the rewards somehow. Come on,” he said before the two walked into the entrance. It sealed with webbing the moment they went inside and they were forced to use the flaming hands spell to see again. No spiders were in the chamber, and it was devoid of webbing which made Asura almost giddy.

“So, just a chest at the end then? A few gold and an item? Seems almost like a waste after all that work.”

“Maybe, but some people fight these outer dungeons with ten or more people at a time, so it's a lot easier to do. Not the designers fault we two manned it. Though it felt more like a one man,” B4hamutt said with just a hint of sarcasm.

“I'm sorry! I really don't like having spiders crawling all over me. Besides, you had it handled completely. My weapon isn't designed to knock out groups of enemies like yours is.”

“Excuses excuses.” The tunnel started to go up and soon they came to a small room with a large golden chest. It easily opened with a quick kick, and they each got a spider shaped helmet. Asura could barely contain her disgust before she tossed the item away. She didn’t even want to carry it back to sell. A stone doorway was all that remained, embedded in the opposite wall.

When the door opened, the cold, damp air of the forest rushed in to meet them. They stepped out and little spiders began to once again crawl along their body while the webbing tugged at their legs. The door closed quickly behind them, completely melding to the cliff side and appearing as nothing more than another stone in the wall.

“So now what? We beat the boss, but now we have no leads on where he is. I don't even see any demons!” Asura yelled in frustration before she turned and gave the stone a sharp kick. “I'm tired of this stupid spider infested forest!”

“You've come a long way to intrude in my domain,” a voice called out from above. They turned up and saw a woman standing above them, holding a large naginata in her hands. The blade was blood red and was partially see through, while the staff part of the weapon was completely black. The woman was wearing black and red armor that covered her entire body and had a red hourglass mark on its stomach. The helmet was in the image of a spiders face, complete with eight glowing red eyes. The matriarch set, the highest tier of the spider armors. It made the helmet they found in the chest look like chump change, though as demon armors go it was on the same tier as the armor she and B4hamutt wore.

“I know that armor,” B4hamutt whispered quickly. “It's a specialty type. It allows the user to be unhindered by webbing and be treated as a spider per the mechanics of the game, lower armor value though. Pretty powerful in a place like this.”

“Do you think she's a player or an NPC?” Asura asked while she watched the woman, too far away to see her name. “I've never seen anyone actually spend the time to make the full set of that. Seems like a bit of a waste when the next lower tier is so much cheaper, and a different demon armor of the same tier would be more useful in other areas.”

“Don't know, but here she comes!” B4hamutt said before he readied his weapon. The woman jumped down from the trees and gripped some webbing on the way. She disappeared in some of the bushes before something burst from within. A massive tarantula spider the size of a horse leaped out and charged at them. When it rushed, it glimmered for a moment, alerting them that it was now flagged for PVP and they could attack it without penalties.

“She transformed!” Asura yelled before drawing her axe and slashing down on the spider. To her surprise the axe only left a small edge in its thick exoskeleton. A warning came up, letting her know she was attacking another player. She quickly accepted. “It's real! It's not a normal monster, it's high level! It's a real player!” The panic in her began to rise. She hated spider fights, especially in a place like this. What if it killed her? Would she die before it bound her up? Or would it keep her character just alive enough so it could wrap her up in its webbing? Could players do things like that?

“Keep calm! It's two on one, we've got this! Just stay back and heal me!” B4hamutt yelled before he slashed at the creature with his axe. Unlike the matriarch, this one was strong enough that he couldn't just chop off its legs, though the explosive fire did keep anything else from interfering.

Asura backed away and watched the fight, occasionally sending out a heal towards her ally. She hated this, hiding in the back lines while he fought the girl-turned-spider. She froze when she saw something get caught on the edges of one of the explosions. Her mouth fell open when she saw the spider armored girl hiding in the now burning bush, the flames having temporarily pushed her out of her shadow meld ability. Asura launched another heal before going through her menus and switching the axe out for her sword. The moment it was equipped she took off. “It's a trick! That's a combat pet!” She yelled before she darted past the dragon and spider, launching herself at the demon woman.

She swung the blade down on the girl's head while the demon lifted her polearm up to catch the blade with its shaft. Excalibur was stopped in mid swing, drawing a startled gasp from the angel. “I-Impossible. Only a master class weapon could stop this!” She was so stunned that she failed to react in time before the woman kicked her in the stomach and knocked her back onto the ground.

The woman turned and ran. Asura got to her feet and took off after her. With a target in sight she was able to ignore the spiders around her and pursue without fear. She ignored her friend's call to come back, too focused on her prey. The fire hand spell gave her plenty of light while the demon girl ducked and weaved through the forest.

The demon's armor allowed the spider looking girl to easily move through the webs without being slowed down, but the angel managed to keep her in view. Asura was beginning to wonder if they'd leave the forest when they came to a small clearing, about ten feet around. An altar with a large red gem stood in the center.

The gem made Asura freeze in her steps. “That's a soul altar,” she said with dread before backing away.

“Yes it is,” The woman said before turning to the angel. “So you know what will happen if you die here.” The name Evealie appeared over her head.

“I do...” Asure gripped her sword tightly. She had a bad feeling when she drew back into a defensive stance, eyes wandering nervously. She needed to stall. “Whoever dies near one is sealed in a soul gem. For the gemstone to remain active it must always be held and in use by someone who is of equal or higher level than the one sealed within it. They can't resurrect until these conditions end. While it's held though, the holder's stats take a huge hit and they can't leave it. Not to mention the extreme cost of building one. Why make it?” Slowly she began to circle the demon girl, anxiety filling her voice. “Why lure me here? Having a combat pet lowers your stats, you're at a disadvantage.”

“You can't figure it out? I figured you'd be smarter than that. Easy. The master class quests will be taking place soon. I'm going to make you and your friend miss them,” the woman said before she struck out with the polearm. Asura deflected the blade with her sword and charged forward, but Evealie leaped back before she could hit. The webbing was slowing her down just enough that the polearm wielder was able to keep her range.

“You gotta be kidding me. You did all this just to stop us from getting a second master class? Seriously? How many people have you killed using that little trick of yours? Your bounty must be huge.” She didn't push the attack, hoping B4hamutt would hurry up.

“Plenty. You and your friend are the third and fourth master class we'll have captured. I assume the leviathan was your friend?” Those words made her freeze for a moment, leaving her open. The demon woman charged forward and slashed across the angel's face, making her HP plummet.

“You have him in one of those?!” Asura asked with a growl. “These events are a once a year opportunity. After all the work he did to pass the first time, forcing him to miss a chance of gaining his second mastery is just cruel.”

“It's just a game, a little cruelty is fun,” When Evealie's words finished pain shot through Asura's back. She slashed behind her, but there was no one there. A moment later the same pain shot through her side. She looked down and saw an arrow lodged in her, quickly disappearing into red sparkles. She brought her sword up, narrowly parrying the woman's naginata.

“Two of you? Cheater!” she snapped angrily before she deflected the blade with her sword. The demon woman was keeping her distance, so Asura couldn't get a chance to counter attack. She had no choice, but to constantly move so the archer wouldn't have a helpless target. Out of the corner of her eye she saw another enemy on her minimap, likely the archer. Unfortunately she was helpless to do anything about it with the demon girl so close.

“Oh please. You were more than willing to gang up on me when you thought I was an NPC, especially once I gave you the opening. Don't worry, once the quest is over we'll let you and the others out. You won't be our competition then,” Evealie said with a smirk.

“Competition? How many of you are there? Why are you doing this anyway?” She snapped before she struck the naginata and knocked it to the side. She charged forward to slash the woman open, but was stopped when an arrow lodged in her knee and made her stumble forward. She tried to slash at the woman's legs, but Evealie had already jumped out of reach.

“Easy, we're going to be the first to master all six classes. Passing this year will be easy considering all the information about them that's available. All that has to happen is make sure the rest of the masters don't compete. Once we make you four miss the quest, that only leaves three more and we'll have years to take them out of the picture.” Evealie stabbed at her while she was on the ground, though she rolled away. An arrow lodged near her hand, but thankfully missed.

Asura parried and feinted with each word, quickly jumping to her feet. Another arrow lodged into her back, draining her HP again. While she was distracted the naginata shot in from her left. She couldn't parry it with her blade in time so she quickly moved her left hand out to deflect it.

The blade went clear through her armor and through the wrist within, draining her HP down to the halfway point. “W-what was that?” She backed away while holding her wrist to her chest. Despite the fact the armor was still there she could no longer feel the hand, so she knew it had been removed by the attack. The flames from her hand died out as well.

“It's my weapon's special ability. It goes through all non-master class weapons and all armors.” Evealie's blade started to strike again, this time going for the angel's legs while she tried to avoid the attacks. Arrows were shot through the air, a few jamming into her sides.

“That is way too overpowered.” Asura hissed while she tried to deflect the strikes. The demon's blade seemed to glow in the darkness, but she could barely see the rest of the woman since the spider armor was so dark. Even worse, her own armor was completely white, making her a far easier target to find in the shadows. Each hit made her let out a pained hiss when little bursts ran through her.

“No worse than being able to destroy your opponents weapons!” The demon plunged her blade forward once again. This time Asura moved to the right and ran forward. She struck the pole of the weapon with her left arm and slashed out with Excalibur across the woman's chest plate. “Agh!”

Asura pushed her advantage, slashing with her sword as quickly as she could and staying close where the woman's naginata was useless. She landed blow after blow, cutting into the woman's armor. Best of all the arrows had stopped, the woman's comrade obviously not wanting to risk hurting her ally.

The demon woman dropped the naginata and grabbed Asura's arm, holding her still for a moment. The angel still had the advantage though, so she tried a threat. “You've lost. Give up, you can't esca- AGGGGGGGHHHH!” She screamed when her back erupted in pain. Her HP plummeted as what felt like dozens of arrows stabbed into her back. Once the attack ended Evealie shoved hard and held out her right hand.

“Dark echo.” The demon said before pain shot through Asura's torso and she felt the attack hitting her again, albeit dealing far less damage. It still felt the same though aside from hitting her front.

She was thrown backwards and let out a pained groan when she crashed into the ground. She couldn't believe it, she was going to lose. Her HP was nothing more than a sliver and she tensed, awaiting another hit from an arrow. She was going to lose what she worked so hard for. Panic started to flow through her. Her sword had fallen from her grasp when she fell so she no longer had a weapon to defend herself. But then the spear woman stopped and gazed past her, towards the archer. No arrow was coming. Seeing her chance, she held out her right hand. “Ray burst!” Small rays of light shot out from her hand and knocked the other woman back. She dove for her sword and took off, attempting to make space between them as she cast another spell. “Restoration!” It took a few seconds for the spell to fully take effect and she saw her HP increasing rapidly. Best of all she could feel her hand again.

She gulped and looked at the minimap again, a smirk forming on her lips when she noticed a familiar name had joined next to the archer's. Apparently B4hamutt had finally finished off the spider and caught up.

With her HP back to half and having access to both hands she turned to face Evealie. “Flaming hands.” Light flowed from her hand once again. The woman was standing a few yards from her, holding the naginata. The demon seemed to be unwilling to make the first move now that her friend was busy. “Looks like my friend took care of your spider and his second class is holy beast, so I don't think your spider will have left much damage. Seems it's two on two again. On top of that, dark echo is your final spell, isn’t it? I know how rough those penalties can be. So you have no more tricks.”

“Maybe...” Evealie said with a growl. “You've forgotten three things, however. I'm a master class as well, you're very easy to distract--” She lifted up her right hand. “--and I chose the location.” As her hand came down the shadows molded around the woman, making her disappear.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me.” Asura held her flaming hand up. There were two simple ways she knew to remove a demon from stealth. One was having them come into the light, the other was damaging them. The main problem was the flaming hands spell didn't make enough light to knock her out of stealth until she was very close and the angel didn't have nearly enough MP to spend throwing spells around and hoping they hit the woman. Worst of all, Asura couldn't fly without being trapped in webbing and leaving herself open.

With no options available she held her sword up and waited for the woman to strike while her left hand navigated through the menus. She tried to open a call with B4hamutt. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't answering yet.

Evealie appeared on her minimap, directly behind her. Asura ducked so the blade went over her head and she swung the sword back. It barely grazed the woman's leg before the demon jumped back, disappearing a few moments later. It happened two more times, each time Asura barely managed to avoid the full force of the strike. She only took minor damage, but was unable to swing her sword fast enough to counter.

The fourth strike wasn't so lucky when the blade slashed across Asura's ankles and brought her down. In a slight panic she reached out and gripped the shaft of the naginata and pulled hard, even letting go of her own sword. Evealie was pulled forward, refusing to let go of her weapon. Acting quickly the angel grabbed the demon's ankles and yanked as hard as she could, tripping the woman onto her back.

Asura rolled over on top of the woman and jammed her hand into the girl's chest. “Try going invisible now! RAPTURE!” White light enveloped Evealie and coursed through the woman's body. Rather than exploding into red sparkles the demon instead imploded into a small red gemstone, much like the one on the alter in the clearing. She laid there, panting with exertion and staring at the gem. She’d actually won. She couldn’t believe it. Slowly, she picked the gem up and smirked at it. “Can you hear me?”

“I can't believe you used that spell! When my friend is done with your little dragon buddy she's going to crush you into dust!” A long stream of profanity began to flow from the crystal, calling Asura almost every bad word under the sun.

“Hey, you used yours, first. Maybe if you hadn’t taken the stat hit from your pet and using a lower stat armor, you’d have even killed me. But hey, calm down. I'm not going to keep you in there for long. Well, okay I will,” Her hands navigated through the menus again before she sent out a message to her guild. “I'm going to do the same thing to you that you tried to do to us. I'm sure I can find some volunteers willing to swap you around until after the quests are done.”

“Don't think you'll get away with this! My guild will track me down and get me out of here!” The crystal practically hummed with rage.

“No, they won't, and you know it. You can't tell where you are while in the gem. All you can do is talk to me. But why don't I give you a chance? We wait here until our friends are done with the fights and then who knows? Maybe your friend will be the winner. Then she can kill me and take you back. Assuming she doesn't hold onto Mutt's jewel.” Asura said before the gemstone disappeared into her inventory and she put the stone on mute. With combat over, her dropped sword had reappeared in its sheath at her side.

She nervously glanced at her minimap, though she no longer saw her friend's name. She slowly walked towards where B4hamutt had been fighting. Every snapped twig or ruffled branch made her cringe and jump. With the skill lock penalty of Rapture she could no longer use flaming hands to grant light, and now every sound made her imagine giant spiders crawling around, just waiting to pounce. Not to mention the little ones that walked around her feet and crawled over her flesh. She hoped she could get out of these woods soon. Without the adrenaline pumping it made it hard for her to ignore the little monsters when they crawled along her legs and body.

She was soon running at a brisk jog as she tried to find the two, though she still couldn't see him anywhere. A message popped up in front of her, and she quickly accepted it. It was a single voice clip from B4hamutt. “Meet me outside the forest, north.”

Asura didn't need any more incentive. She darted through the woods, trying to ignore the feeling and sensations of the things she tripped over or ran into or that nudged her. At one point she had to cleave a spider the size of a bull in half with her sword, she doubted she'd EVER forget the sensation of running into something like that. She really wasn't looking forward to logging out of the game tonight, she just KNEW she was going to have nightmares.

By the time she was outside the woods her skills had returned and most of the rapture penalties had disappeared. She instantly lifted her hands up. “Flaming body!” she yelled before flames coated her body and vaporized all the spiders crawling on her. After a few more minutes the webbing fell from her as well, the penalty disappearing.

She sent a message letting B4hamutt know she was out and then just waited. After a few moments she received a response letting her know he was on the way. She soon saw him, holding a red gemstone in his hand. She grinned and pulled out her own, unmuting it. “You still logged in?” she asked hers.

“... I hate you. Where are we?” the spider woman growled.

“Not telling. Your friend lost and she's in the same predicament you are,” she said before muting the stone again when B4hamutt came within speaking range. “I see you got her. Glad to see you won, was it hard?”

“Yeah. She was a fae. Their teleporting ability is always a pain in the ass. You could have warned me they had one of those alters set up. That the spider girl?” he asked with a smirk.

“Yep. Talking to her now,” she said before she unmuted the demon girl. “Here's the deal. We're taking both you and your friend back to our guild. If you tell us where the other two are being held, we'll go and investigate. If we get them out, we'll let both of you out to compete in this years master quests. Deal?”

“Why on earth should I trust you? You'll just leave us in these stones to rot!” the red jewel screamed loud enough to wake the dead, at least it would have if anyone but its holder could hear it.

Asura rolled her eyes. “It's your only chance to compete this year. I think you have just as much right to participate as we do. Well, slightly less. You worked hard to be ready for this year and I'd hate for anyone to have to miss their chance. So I give my word to release you and your friend if you help us free our friends.”

“... I'll think about it,” the jewel said before going silent. The glow left it, so she assumed Evealie logged out.

“What she say?” B4hamutt asked.

“She'll think about it. Let's head back to the guild head quarters. We can hand these off and then I need to log out.”

“What? So soon? Why?”

“I got some things I need to deal with. Don't leave without me this time, okay? I swear if I have to go through another forest filled with spiders trying to find you, I'm going to be pissed. I should be able to have almost all day tomorrow.”

“I promise I will wait for you this time. Let's go.” He took out a small ring and held it out towards the ground. A blue archway formed in front of them and they stepped through it, disappearing rather than coming out the other side.