Age: 16 years, 3 months

The weeks passed slowly with Asher's game time reduced. Fortunately, he still was able to play enough to stop himself from going insane. One weekend with his parents found the boy chuckling when he bounced around a large metal chamber, gravity completely ignored.

Red and blue plastic orbs were stationed around the room, and he quickly grabbed one before flinging it across the enclosure at a red goal post. His mother flew to try to block the ball, but it slid by her flailing arms and struck the pole. A loud announcer's voice played. “Point, blue team!” His father flew by a moment later, crashing into the pole.

The three of them were back in the space station game and trying one of the minigames, gravless ball. His parents were struggling with weightlessness, so he was easily throttling them two on one. The score was five to two.

His father glided toward the red ball before Asher's lips curled into a nasty grin. He kicked off the wall and cannoned towards his father, knocking him aside and kicking the red ball so it bounced around the black, gleaming room. While his parents tried to catch the wildly rampaging ball, he bounced off the next wall and grabbed the blue orb, tossing it in for yet another point. “Point, blue team!”

“O-okay... I think thats's... that's enough for now...” his father said with a groan while rubbing his side.

“Awww, if you guys want. Didn't hit you too hard there, did I?” Asher asked with a grin.

“No, I'm fine. How does one turn down the feedback on these again?”

Asher snickered before explaining to him. They sank to the floor and he wiped sweat from his brow. Technically, sweat and exertion didn't have to be simulated and could easily be shut off in this game. Some games didn't even have the feature. But he loved having them enabled, they gave him a chance to feel like a normal person. That, and it was hilarious watching his parents getting exhausted, or at least feeling it, when they played his 'little games' they thought were so easy.

“So what do you want to try now?” he asked after they exited the grav-room. “We could go on a tour of the nearby black hole, or maybe go walk on a new planet? The space suits are optional.” He flipped through some menus and almost instantly he was freshened up as if he had taken a shower.

“Something... nice and safe. With less exertion,” his mother said with a soft groan.

“It's all safe, mom. Tour of the black hole it is then. I think you’ll like it, though. Apparently it’s a lot like a rollercoaster. I've never gone on it, so who knows? It might be fun,” he said before guiding them to the station's teleporters.

The tour was done in ships designed for small groups and had miniature 'force fields' around them to protect the players from the black hole's force. Granted, he knew that was just silly, since the ships were more or less glorified rides. Once they were all inside the windows began to show images as if they were leaving the mothership and slowly flying around the black hole. It was more like watching a bunch of special televisions, though, than actually looking out windows.

The event horizon looked amazing. Light swirled around the edge of a perfectly black circle. Nothing could be seen through it, as if the universe just stopped at that location. Space was distorted around the black hole to form a ripple effect, quite similar to dropping a stone in a lake. If the ripples stayed put and didn't spread out. Their ship drifted towards the event horizon while the universe around it got more distorted and warped. The light outside the hole was slowly compressed into a distorted dome above, before shifting and changing into narrow curved bands of light. Then darkness enveloped them completely.

His mother glanced out the window and shivered. “I-is this really safe? Nothing bad can happen to us, right?”

“It's just a game, mom. Even if we were to step outside the ship and be completely crushed by the gravity, we'd only feel a dim representation of the pain for an instant. Then we'd respawn back at the station completely fine. Heck, we might not even have anything happen, I don't know if you can die... errr, get hurt in this game.” He leaned against the window to see out. It was a bit depressing, nothing but darkness. Lights finally began to flow out from around them and he let out a gasp.

Objects could now be seen outside falling into the darkness. Well, objects was too small a word. He could see an entire planet, torn apart by the powerful gravity, falling by the ship. Besides that, he saw a star, shredded to pieces, falling towards the massive center of the black hole. When the ship went deeper and deeper he saw more and more examples of the black holes power. He watched a world as big as earth compressed smaller than a ping pong ball. He saw a star as big as the sun torn into a brilliant speck of dust.

“L-let's go back to the station.” His mother began twisting and turning knobs on the console. Her face paled and her hands began pounding on the console when it didn't begin returning them. Her breathing began turning ragged while she shook. “I don't like this! I-I wanna go back.”

“Mom, careful, you're going to--” He was cut off as the ship disappeared around them. “Activate free walk mode...” Asher cringed when his mom started screaming. They were fine, just hovering around in the darkness, but he knew she was getting freaked out. Sometimes it was all a bit TOO realistic. He brought up the menu again and a few moments later they were back in the station. Well, he and his father were. His mom was completely gone. “She did a manual log out, didn't she?”

His father shifted from side to side nervously, before nodding. “... I think so. I'm going to join her. We'll see you later, son.” The man disappeared in a small burst of light. Asher made a mental note not to do any more black hole stuff with them. He glanced at the clock when he logged out. He still had two hours to play! That gave him plenty of time.

He logged back into Landasy Reality and quickly began sending out messages. “Okay everyone, I'm on. Let's do this!” Before she took off flying towards her destination.

Asura arrived at a large port town and flew straight to the docks. A massive galleon was waiting while NPC passengers went up and down the ramp. She skipped the walk and just landed on the deck, glancing about. She grinned when she saw an angel and a demon on the bow. “Hey! Guys!” she yelled before they looked over. The names 'Scalios' and 'B4hamutt' appeared over them respectively when she came closer. “So Scales, I guess this makes you our designated healer. Who else is coming with us?”

B4hamutt gave her a wave. “I think Star wants to come. He's been trying the dragon class out so he said he'll be either that or fae. Also got a leviathan on the way. I think you know her, actually. She said she owed you big.”

“Really? What's her name?”

“She said you knew her as Media.”

Asura crossed her arms. With a sigh she shook her head. “I don't know any leviathans with that name. Maybe she meant someone else?”

B4hamutt shrugged. “Maybe. So, I figure you and me will be enough damage, Star can block most of it and we'll have a nice defense. Been a while since we've done this dungeon, you sure you're up for it?”

“Up for it? No problem. I'm always up to kill some undead pirates. They better get here soon though or the ship will leave without them.” Asura grinned and poked his arm. “So, demon huh? I figured you'd choose angel.”

He rolled his eyes. “I've been testing demon and leviathan. I figured I'd see how much I liked polearms in a group before I gave maces a shot. I don't have any plans to try angel for a few more masteries. Speaking of leviathans, here she is,” B4hamutt said before he pointed toward the ramp.

A large, bulky woman with thick, smooth scales was walking towards them. Across her back a large shield was strapped, and a mace was hanging from her hip. “Asura!” She ran up to them, the name Andremedia flashing above her head.

“Heyyyy... ummmm... I'm sorry, but have we met?” Asura asked nervously. “I'm afraid I can't quite place you.”

The taller woman frowned and her eyes narrowed. “You can't remember me?” she asked in disbelief, before letting out a sigh. “No, I guess it makes sense. We only met once. I was in the group when you helped us fight Niohoggr. I was the fae. You saved us at the end? Deva?”

“Oh! Yeah, I remember now! Wow, that was... that was a while ago. Sorry, I uhhh, I'm not always the best at remembering things like that. It was kinda a while ago. Good to see you again. I'll try to remember you in the future.”

The leviathan sighed and shook her head. “I guess. Not everyone can have as good memory as me. So, how long until we head out?”

“We're just waiting on Star,” Asura said before she turned towards the sea, enjoying the feel of the salty breeze. “Then we'll head out. It's going to be awesome.”

------

The galleon traveled through dark, murky waters while ominous clouds hovered high overhead. The ship rose and fell with the waves. The first drops of rain began to splatter on the deck. Within moments the soft rain turned into torrents and the waves lifted the ship high into the air, before slamming it back down. A dragon, fae, angel, leviathan and demon all stood on the port side and watched the horizon.

With a sudden strike of lightning, it appeared. A torn and battered ship was illuminated by the flashes, its sails nothing more than shreds. Massive holes were lined throughout the hull but, despite the severe damage, it sailed with precision and didn't sink.

The ship flew straight to theirs and the group grabbed the galleon's rigging. The wrecked craft slammed into the side full force, sending a number of the crew overboard, but only jarring the five for a moment. Lines and planks were thrown over the end of the assaulting ship and its crew began to climb aboard.

Skeletons. Nothing but skeletons. They wore tattered clothing with curved swords and a few, of course, had the token tri-pointed hat, eye patches and one even had a skeleton parrot. “Now!” the dragon, 5t4r, yelled before he charged. Despite the harsh rain and slippery deck, he gripped an axe firmly in his hands and slashed through the first skeleton in a single swipe.

The angel, Scalios, raised his hands and pointed at the skeleton before its bones began to shake and quiver, before lifting into the air to reassemble themselves. “Ray,” A ray of light shot out and hit the recovering pile of bones. After a second it disappeared in a flurry of red sparkles.

Asura, the fae, nocked her arrow and took careful aim at the nearest skeleton, which had locked blades with 5t4r, and let the arrow fly. “Sorry!” she yelled once the arrow lodged in the dragon's back. “At least I was closer this time!”

The leviathan, Andremedia, and demon, B4hamutt, charged forward as well, swinging their club and guisarme respectively. Asura stayed with Scalios in the back while the two peppered the skeletons with ranged attacks, though her arrows hit her allies more often than they hit the enemy.

The deck was slippery though and when they fought more and more skeletons started to climb on from the ship and attack. The three fighters stuck to the front lines and tried to keep the skeletons penned in and trapped, even managing to knock a few into the water below. Despite the fact two of them had the dragon ability, Asura was still forced to send out the occasional heal, along with Scalios, but they did manage to push them back. “Okay! Let's move!” B4hamutt yelled before they charged forward. With only a handful of skeletons left on the planks the five shot forward and sent them hurtling into the sea.

About halfway across the planks the wood began to shake under them. “Now!” Asura yelled before they leaped into the air right before the plank gave way. Down below in the water, massive tentacles rose up and flicked at where the planks had been. “Well that's one part of the fight we managed to bypass. Heh, remember the first time we did this and Scalios fell in?”

“I was a leviathan. Swimming was my thing. I didn't know there would be a kraken down there.” Scalios glared and crossed his arms. “Besides, I found that other entrance and caught up to you guys eventually.”

“So you remember that, but can't remember players you meet,” Andremedia said offhand.

“As much fun as it is watching you guys go down memory lane, we’ve got company!” 5t4r yelled before motioning to the opposite end of the ship. Lightning flashed and illuminated more skeletons crawling from the bowels of the ship, before disappearing into darkness. “Can we get some light?”

“On it!” Asura put her hands together. “Radiance orb!” She held out her left hand and a large orb of light formed. It was a high level spell that did passive healing to everyone the light fell on. It also had the added benefit of shedding light on an area without requiring a free hand like flaming hands, or being put out by the rain. Unfortunately, it was a highly draining spell, so she likely wouldn’t be using other spells with it unless she wanted her MP to bottom out.

The skeleton pirates charged and their three front lines took position. The wave of skeletons crashed against them, but the line held while Scalios sent out heals and occasionally let out a ray. Asura shot as many arrows as she could, but after continuously missing she let out a frustrated yell. “Ugh, I've had it! It is impossible to hit anything with all this rain and rocking boat!” she yelled before she went through the menus. Her bow disappeared and Excalibur formed at her side. She charged into the fray. Her blade cleaved through the creature's weapons easily and within a few moments the skeletons were nothing more than red sparkles. She let out a sigh of relief and wiped some of the rain from her eyes before glanced at the others. All of them were glaring at her. “What?”

“I thought we weren't going to use our master weapons, since they would make this to easy?” 5t4r asked before he crossed his arms and glared.

She glanced to the side sheepishly. “I was just, I couldn't hit anything... I got annoyed. All the rain and other stuff is making it near impossible to hit.”

“It was your idea to make it more difficult. Because our master weapons and armor are just to overpowered. Remember?” B4hamutt said with a shake of his head.

“Okay! I'm sorry! I'll stick to the bow. Can we go now?” Asura asked before she switched out the sword for her bow. “Not like I ended up soloing the boss or anything.”

“With the master equipment you probably could,” B4hamutt said before they walked past her.

“I'm sorry, okay?” She followed behind them. “I just got caught up in the moment. No need to get so angry. It won't happen again.” Her blush was so fierce it went all the way to her ears, embarrassment flooding through her.

The group walked into the lower decks of the ship slowly, the wet and mold covered steps creaking as they went. Despite the age and damage to the ship, most the steps held their weight fine and didn't do any more than groan under them. A few of the steps had caved in long ago and they had to watch their step to avoid falling in. Fortunately, there was a slimy railing leading towards the deck below. They made it to the bottom and stepped into the room and the glow of candles revealed the room to them.

It was a large mess hall, with four long rectangle tables. A goo covered kitchen was on the left side and a 'meal' had been set out for the crew. Fish, worms, all manner of decaying foods were set out at the table and being gobbled up by the long deceased crew. As soon as 5t4r took the first steps inside the room, the skeletons dropped their meals and as a single unit grabbed their blades and charged straight at them.

As opposed to the battles on deck where he used a two handed axe, 5t4r now held a large black shield and a much smaller one-handed axe. He brought the shield up and let the blades crash against it before shoving the shield, with the blades against it, to the left and swung once with his axe.

“Hydra's armor!” Scalios yelled before scales formed across the groups bodies. Andremedia pushed out with her own shield and club and stood by the dragon, both of them using the shields to block the narrow doorway. B4hamutt stabbed over their shoulders and between the shields to deal damage, while Asura tried shooting shots around them. By standing only a few feet behind the line she was able to get most her arrows around her allies and, with the skeletons so close, even she could hit them. Unfortunately, the arrows didn't do a lot of damage against bony enemies.

The skeletons were soon whittled down to only a handful and then even they fell. When the last one disappeared, a massive roar came from the end of the hall and the ground shook. A huge human-like creature, far larger than them with fat, bloated skin, a blood stained apron and a massive cleaver, charged into the room. It easily smashed the tables aside. Above it's head only two words formed. 'The cook.'

“Boss time. Let's go!” 5t4r charged forward. The cleaver came down on him, but he deftly deflected it with his shield before striking into the creature's side with his axe. The blade cut deep, but the creature seemed unfazed when the axe lodged in tightly. The dragon tried tearing it free, but it refused to budge.

The cook grinned and lifted its cleaver high to the right and swung at 5t4r's axe arm. Andremedia charged in and caught the blade on her own shield before he finally tugged the axe free. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I'm fine. Careful!” But it was too late. The creature opened its mouth before sticky green ichor surged out and covered the poor leviathan. She shrieked and tried to wipe it away so she could see and fight back, but the creature slammed into her and sent her toppling back across the damaged floor.

The creature then tried to slam past 5t4r to attack the stunned girl, but he dug his feet firmly into the ground and bashed the creature back.

“Lesser heal,” Scalios cast before he helped the poor slimed girl to her feet. “You okay?”

“I don't think this feeling of being filthy will ever go away,” Media said with a slight whine.

“Could have been worse. At least your mouth wasn't open when it happened, you never forget the first time that happens,” Asura said with a snicker.

“It happened one time. It's not like I had taste enabled, so let it go!” B4hamutt yelled before he drove his pole forward, “Necrotic ram!” Black energy coated the weapon before the end expanded to form a flat surface. When it touched the creature the edge shot out, burying itself in the monsters stomach before pulling back out. Nasty black fluids began to gush from the new hole.

“He's immune to knockbacks,” 5t4r said before he slammed his shield in the creature's face and brought his axe horizontally against the cook's neck. The blade cut deep, but wasn't able to fully cleave through and he was forced to yank it back.

“I hate fighting undead,” Asura said with a growl before she shot another arrow forward. “Hey! Mutt, combo with me! Now!”

“Black vortex!” the two yelled in unison and black mist surrounded the monster before spinning around and cutting into it. 5t4r only barely managed to pull back in time before the deadly winds destroyed the creature, leaving behind a few red sparkles.

The dragon stared for a few moments, his mouth hanging open. “You two know how to do combo spells? How? When?”

Asura just giggled. “It's easy once you know the person well enough. We used to do dungeons all the time, so we just got the timing down to give us an edge.” She began throwing out her own healing spells on the party before the items began to show up. The cleaver went straight to Scalios, since it was an upgrade to his sword. “I can teach you how to do them sometime if you like. Most people don't actually try though, so you end up only able to use them with a few people. It's a great boost on damage.”

“Wow. How do you get them to work?” 5t4r asked before he moved his fingers through the air again, picking some menu items.

“Well, you have to call out the combination spell at the same time,” Asura began explaining. “You can only use a combination spell of your current race, for example you could only be fire right now. Then both you and the other person have to aim at the same monster. If it goes off the damage is great and usually has a secondary effect. If you fail, well... you lose the MP from it anyway. So make sure you know the person or set it up before hand.”

“Wow. That's awesome!” They headed towards the door way opposite where they came in. Another staircase led to the floor below. No monsters came at them, yet, but the stairway had a few drowned corpses. Rather than waiting for them to rise up behind them the group swiftly beheaded them.

With the corpses pre-re-killed, they entered the next room without incident. Hammocks were hanging up in most the free space and massive oars were pulled inside. The area was littered with bones which slowly began to assemble themselves into skeletons when the group came closer. Small groups of five formed at a time and were quickly exterminated by the fighters.

“Okay, just be careful here. If we wake up too many of them they'll end up swarming us and we won't stand a chance,” Asura said while she followed, slowly, behind 5t4r.

“Don't worry, I'm being careful. Not like I'm going- ahh!” he shrieked when his foot got caught in a rope and he went down. His axe skidded along the ground away from him, triggering three separate groups of skeletons. “Oh cra--” He was cut off before Adremedia ran over him, stepping on his head in the process, and brought her shield up. Unfortunately, she walked too far and another group of skeletons came from the right.

“AoEs! Drop your area of effect spells!” Asura yelled before the monsters collapsed on them. They yelled out their magical assaults before ice, fire, light and wind exploded out around them, enveloping the creatures as well as the group. “Ray burst! Ray burst!”

“Fireball!” B4hamutt yelled while they tried desperately to fend off the swarm of skeletons, the monster's ancient and rusty blades slicing through the air.

“Torna-- gahh!” Adremedia screamed when her wind spell was interrupted and she was cut down by the deadly blades, her shield knocked aside. She disappeared in a flurry of red sparkles after a few moments of attacks. The skeletons hesitated just for a moment before charging at their fallen fighter.

“Ray burst! I'm up!” 5t4r yelled before bringing his shield up to block another assault from the undead monsters. A few of the creatures fell, but their numbers were quickly winning while the remaining four were pushed back. The monsters pounded on the front of the shield and more tried to attack from the side, Scalios and B4hamutt struggling to hold them off with their weapons.

“Burst!” Asura pointed her hand at the center of their group. The flames exploded out and knocked the monsters back, allowing the group a moment. “Pull back to the stairs! We can fight them better there!” she screamed before turning to the entrance and tapped her foot twice. She disappeared and reappeared at the steps, before quickly turning and nocking her bow. “Tornado shot!” she yelled before shooting the arrow a few feet ahead of her. While her friends retreated the fierce winds erupted behind them, slowing the pursuing bones for a few moments.

5t4r jammed himself in the doorway and bent low, holding his shield in front of him and waited for the creatures to begin their next charge. “I'm out of MP! How are you guys doing?”

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“I'm running low too, but they can't have too much more health left! Just keep attacking!” Scalio yelled before shooting out more shards of ice. B4hamutt was low on MP as well, but continued to stab at the creatures with his pole arm. Slowly their numbers began to dwindle, but not fast enough as with one final shove the creature's overwhelmed 5t4r and he disappeared with a scream and a shower of red sparkles.

“Use everything!” Asura screamed before burning the last of her MP with a ray. She backed against the wall, unable to aim her bow with such little room.

“YAH!” Scalios yelled while his blade cleaved left and right, his MP gone as well. He and B4hamutt barely sliced the creatures into fine red sparkles before collapsing to the ground, panting with exertion. They had won.

“Oh... oh my gosh...” Asura fell to her knees. “That... that was interesting. At least it wasn't boring, heh heh.” She glanced at her health and chuckled a little. So close to death and not a single point of damage. Maybe there were a few perks to being the archer. She glanced at the slivers of health Scalios and B4hamutt had. Definitely a perk. “So... wait to recover MP and resurrect the others?” The other two nodded and the three took a short break to rest and catch their breath. Soon the five were up again, though much more wary of where they stepped, and began to clear the rest of the floor.

“Only a few floors left. Death penalties should fade by the time we get to the boss. Hope you're all ready,” B4hamutt said before they headed down the next set of stairs. Candles no longer lit the stairs and the next room only had three lit candles. It was filled with hammocks and small make-shift beds, though most had rotten to little more than shreds, with undead pirates sitting about and either sleeping or playing strange dice games.

“Okay, I count about twenty-five,” B4hamutt said before looking the enemy over. “We'll have to be careful not to draw them all, especially since you two are still suffering from death penalties. We'll pull them here so we don't have another tripping incident.”

“Gotcha, want me to initiate?” Asura held up her bow.

The group looked to her for a moment before, as a single unit, yelling out, “NO!”

“... Fine. No need to be jerks about it,” she said with a sad sigh. “I'm not that bad a shot and at least I didn't trip. I did an amazing job on knocking all of them back up there too. I got awesome archery skills, you're all just jealous.”

“Sure we are dear,” Andremedia said with a humoring smile. “How about you just stick in the back where you can use those... skills to help us best.”

Asura responded with a very dignified sticking out of her tongue.

“Okay, here we go. Ray!” 5t4r called out before a beam of light shot out from his hand and struck the nearest skeleton. It quickly dropped its dice, grabbed its weapon and charged at them before its comrades did the same. Group by group they eliminated the pirates and made their way towards the other side of the room, with only a few close calls from when they accidentally caught aggression from two groups at once.

They stopped at the top of the stairs and glanced down. Water was flowing in and it was already about waist high at the bottom. The next area was not going to be fun in the slightest, except maybe for Andremedia and Scalios with their leviathan abilities. The group slowly headed in and shuddered when the icy water splashed across their skin. Asura couldn't stop shivering when the liquid stuck to her clothes and embraced her in coldness. The next room was filled with floating crates and barrels. They sloshed as quietly as they could through the floor, pushing the floating rubble away as they went.

Asura kept close to the group, bumping into Scalios a few times while they moved.

“Will you stop that? It's getting annoying,” he said before shoving a barrel out of his way.

“Sorry... I just hate this part. Since-” The ground burst out ahead of them and two purple tentacles sprung up in the air. “That!” She shrieked and jumped back. Her icy hands fumbled with the bow for a moment, before releasing an arrow, missing by a mile. 5t4r and Andremedia charged forward, striking each tentacle once with their weapons and bringing up their shields to protect themselves when the appendages swatted back.

“Okay everyone, form up! Target Media's tentacle first and keep an eye out for more! Remember, it's a simple fight unless someone gets grabbed!” B4hamutt yelled before he thrust his guisarme up and hooked the blade around the tentacle, pulling it towards the team. They let loose on it, slashing, cutting, bashing and hitting it with spells. Soon a ferocious howl filled the air. “Keep going! We've almost got it!” Green blood spilled across the blade while he held the limb as best he could, pinning it against the leviathan's shield even while it struggled to get free. With a final furious howl the tentacle yanked down and out of the ship. The team quickly turned on the next tentacle, pinning it to the dragon's shield while the rest pounded on it.

The ground suddenly began to shake under them and Asura glanced down. “Crap!” She shrieked and tried to double tap the ground, but the water slowed her down. Before she could do the second tap the ground opened up and a massive tentacle reached up to grab and yank her under.

The fae struggled against the massive slimy limb as water filled her mouth. Fortunately, it didn't fill her lungs. A system notification appeared, in the form of a shrinking white line over a blue background, warning her of her lack of oxygen. She closed her mouth and thrashed wildly. Unfortunately, she couldn't see anything in the dark water and could only guess where the ship was. She didn't have to guess where she was going. The kraken would drag her into the center of it's body, straight into it's mouth to devour her whole in a single bite. It was, frankly, one of the worst ways to die. Possibly only second to dying from being captured by a spider and wrapped in it's cocoon before being feasted on. At least it wasn’t physically painful.

She tried pulling one of her arms free so she could get to her sword, but the tentacle refused to loosen its grip. Slimy suction cups gripped her flesh while dragging her closer to her demise. With no other option, she lunged her head forward and bit the tentacle.

To her surprise the creature let go. For a few seconds she floundered about in the water, confused and disoriented by the creature's movements and the raging storm above turning the sea into a fury of changing currents. Before she could figure out which way was right, two arms wrapped around her waist and pulled.

Her body was dragged back into the ship, through the hole she had been yanked through and she was tossed onto a nearby crate out of the liquid. She coughed and hacked up water before glancing to her savior.

Scalios, his wings now gone and replaced with small fins on his arms, was standing a few feet from her. “Feeling okay?” His sword was coated in green blood.

“Yeah... ugh, I hate that thing. Thanks for saving me. Heh, leviathan swimming and dark vision transfers over when you master it?” Asura slowly slid off the crate. It didn't feel so bad only being waist deep in it now. Far better than drowning.

“Water breathing and underwater casting, too. Then again, we don't get to ignore damage, fly or teleport short distances. So they had to make at least a few major battles where it comes in handy,” he said before patting her arm.

“It's not that bad,” she said before leaning back and panting from exertion. With the beast gone, she focused on the quickest thing she could to forget her near grizzly death. “You know, once we master more races we should try the sunken city of Atlantis dungeon. That would be a lot of fun,” Asura brought out her bow, letting out a sigh of relief. It had been damaged, but was not broken.

“Think we dealt enough damage to the kraken?” 5t4r asked nervously, still holding his shield up.

“Maybe. Doubt it though. Best be careful so it doesn't catch us unaware,” B4hamutt said before they slowly sloshed back along towards the next exit. More stairs were at the end, but these ones went up. Skeletons blocked their way, but they cleared through them before walking through collapsed hallways, around broken stairs and even over a large crocodile infested pit. They finally came to a large door with two rusty swords hanging on it. “Okay, you guys ready for this?”

“Ready as I'll ever be... you can't catch a cold from all this, can you?” 5t4r asked.

“... No. You can't,” Asura said rolling her eyes. “You're only imagining the cold anyway, it doesn't actually hurt your body. Well unless you decided to go crazy and buy one of those old VR suits, but who would buy those these days?”

“Not everyone trusts the head sets, even if they are a lot cheaper,” Andremedia said instantly.

“The feedback is far less responsive, the suits are far more dangerous and restrictive, and they cost a lot more since they are the size of a room. Not to mention all the monitoring equipment that has to be used on top of them. This method is far safer,” Asura said with a smirk.

“And what happens if you get a surge or something? Your mind could end up being fried,” the leviathan said with a snort.

“That only happened on a handful of all the prototypes. Why would... oh my gosh. Do you have one? How can you afford something like that? Heck, my parents could make twice what they do and never even consider anything like that.”

Andremedia glared at Asura. “Of course I don't have anything like that. I'm just saying if there was a cost effective means of using it, I'd use it. It'd be more realistic feeling it with your own body. This is kinda... well, like being a program. It also reduces chances of getting VNS. I'd say for most humans it could be an effective alternative.”

“What about--”

“Ladies, please!” B4hamutt interrupted. “You can discuss the finer mechanics of VR gaming equipment later. For now, I just wanna know if you're ready.”

“Oh, right. Sorry, yeah. Good to go,” Asura said softly before the rest of the party slowly gave their agreements. With that, the demon shoved the door open and candle light spilled out from the room.

The room was small and square, wet and rotted wood enclosing them on all sides. It was empty aside from a broken mirror hung at the back and a human with his back to them who began to rise. Tall, bearded, wearing poofy black garments and a large tri-pointed hat. At his left side a cutlass was sheathed and at his right a small flint lock pistol. His hands were folded neatly behind him. Slowly he turned to face them and glared. “So... yeh have come tah steal mah treasure. I knew thi-” Before he could finish the sentence 5t4r ran up and slammed his shield into the man's face.

“Star! Don't interrupt the NPC dialogue! Come on!” Asura objected when the pirate stumbled back into the wall.

“What? It's free damage! Besides, you've all heard this before and no one cares about lore anyway,” he said before stomping his feet down in front of the man and steadied himself.

“A fiesty one, eh?” the pirate said before he spit out a tooth. “Fine then, yah land lubber! I'll knock yah down tah Davy Jones locker meself!” he grabbed his blade and drew it in a single motion while drawing his gun with his other hand.

“Star! Don't try to block the bullet!” she screamed. The dragon looked back and gave her a confused look before the gun went off. It hit his shield dead center, but phased through it and slammed into his chest, making him stumble back.

“W-what? How... what?” he said with a groan before steadying himself. A quick heal spell from Scalios patched him up.

“Magic pistol!” Asura yelled. “You have to try and dodge the bullet! Don't worry, he's pretty obvious when he-- eek!” Three tentacles shot into the room from the stairwell. The party scattered when the limbs twisted and grabbed for them.

“This is part of the fight, right?” 5t4r yelled out before backing away from the pirate. The ship suddenly jerked to the left and sent the dragon flying into the wall with a pained grunt.

“Yeah! Didn't think it was just the pirate, did you?” Asura yelled before struggling to her knees and shot an arrow into the pirate. He shrugged it off and headed towards the downed dragon. “Careful, the ground is going to get a lo-- eek!” She fell backwards into the wall when the ship rocked hard, this time to the right.

B4hamutt kept on the ground and jabbed at the pirate with his guisarme, straight into the stomach. Blood coated the blade, but almost as soon as the blade was removed the wound healed over. “Ah heh heh heh!” the pirate laughed. “Yah buncha land lubbers didn't think Captain Scomparsa, ruler of the damned, would go down so easy, now did yah?” He walked towards the demon, seemingly unhindered by the rapid jerking of the boat, and lifted his sword to cut the prone fighter down.

Andremedia lunged forward and, stepping onto B4hamutt, blocked the sword with her shield. She then quickly countered with a firm strike to the pirate's side. Despite the rocking boat she managed to keep her footing secure and not tumble over.

“Gah!” Scalios yelled while swinging his sword wildly at the groping tentacles. Blindly the appendages tried to feel around for anything, only backing away for a moment when his sword hit them. After a few slashes the tentacle retreated back and the ship stopped rocking.

“You okay?” Asura called before double tapping her foot. She appeared at his side and, despite being sitting when she had initiated the step, was now standing. She pulled him to his feet before motioning to the pirate. “Come on!”

“I'm fine,” Scalios growled and held out his left hand. “Ra-- AGGHHHHH!” A huge tentacle suddenly reached out from the doorway and wrapped around him. A moment later it, and he, were gone.

“Healer's down! I'll back up! Andremedia, go after him. You're the only one with the water abilities!” Asura drew the bow string back. “Piercing!” She let another arrow out at the pirate. “Arrow!” She cast once she was sure it would hit. Mid flight the arrow was surrounded by green light and shot through the captain.

B4hamutt tried to sweep Scomparsa's legs out from under him, but the man merely jumped over the weapon. Andremedia took the chance and ran out the door, in pursuit of their healer.

The wound was already healing up. “Ray burst!” Multiple bursts of light shot out from her hand and pierced Scomparsa. His facade began to fade and his flesh turned from tanned to gray and lifeless, pieces of rotting flesh and bones peeking under a now ragged and torn uniform.

“Yah buncha mangy curs,” the pirate said through rotting teeth. “Don't think you've taken this ruler of the seas yet! Rawrg!” He held both hands out before his body exploded into green rays of light.

“RUN!” Asura screamed before they darted towards the door and began to run full sprint down the stairs. Throughout the ship they could see holes where the tentacles had broken through, and the ship was taking on more and more water. Behind them they heard creaks and groans when the room behind them caved in on itself.

“What's going on?” 5t4r yelled while they struggled to run. The rooms behind them continued to cave in and jagged pieces of wood started to spread throughout the ship, attempting to impale them. Each step was a struggle, the ground shaking wildly.

“Sheath your weapon!” B4hamutt yelled before his weapon disappeared and he dove into the water of the lower deck. His comrades followed his example and they struggled to swim towards the opposite end of the shop, though with 5t4r's armor it was more running than swimming. The crates and barrels spun around in the turbulent waters, bashing and bruising them while they slowly made it to the opposite end. After what felt like an eternity the three managed to escape the freezing water and sat on the steps, just above water level, to catch their breath.

“What... the hell... is going on?” 5t4r stared at the rampaging water.

“He's become one with the ship. Now it's just a timed challenge to get back to our ship before-” There was another loud crunching sound from below, cutting Asura off. “That! Move it!” she yelled before they took off again.

They had no problems until they re-entered the dining hall. All the tables now blocked the exit, and a large group of skeletons stood staring.

“B4hamutt! There's no way we'll be able to clear them fast enough without our weapons! We'd need all five of us to do this! We need to use them!” Asura yelled before the skeletons charged them.

“Fine! Let's do it!” he yelled and the three scattered. Their hands moved through the air before their weapons disappeared to be replaced by the master weapons of their choice. In Asura's and Star's right hands a silver bladed sword, with golden ruby studded hilt, appeared. Over B4hamutt's hands two ruby gauntlets formed, each with razor edged talons at the end of the finger, that went down to just below his elbows. They molded completely to his hand and wrist, seeming to allow him to bend them with no restrictions.

“Whoa. Those are new, what do they do?” Asura asked before fae-stepping into the middle of the undead. Her blade shot out and cleaved through the creatures like butter as the others moved in to fight.

“You'll see soon enough!” B4hamutt yelled before flung himself into the fray. He punched the nearest enemy and it was sent flying backwards while flames exploded out from the attack. He followed up by kicking the nearest skeleton, revealing ruby clawed boots.

“They have boots too? Eek!” Asura ducked down so one of the skeleton's blades shot over her. She slashed once to lop off the skeletons arm and a second time to finish the creature. “Star, how are you holding up?” She swung her blade in a wide sweep, lopping off the legs of many of the monsters.

“This weapon is amazing!” 5t4r yelled before cutting one of the skeleton's blades in two. “I can't believe you've had access to this for a year!” He used his shield to block the undead attacks before easily countering with more slashes of his sword.

Within moments the last of the skeletons were gone and they turned their attention to the barricade. It exploded out within a few moments, turning the entire room behind them into an inferno while they ran towards the upper deck. Behind them they heard howls of rage that were soon drowned out by the torrential rain pounding on the deck. The ship rocked dangerously as they charged towards the bow and towards their escape. They were only a few yards away when the ship rocked hard once again, sending them hurtling to the ground, and began to pull away.

“No! Hurry!” Asura screamed before running towards the planks, but they were already falling into the water. She stared hopelessly at their lost escape before turning to the others. “We... we've lost. We can't escape now.”

“... Asura?” B4hautt said slowly.

“What?”

“You and Star both have wings. Just carry me.”

“Oh. Right. Eh heh... oops.”

The two grabbed the demon and with a small bit of effort they carried him across the gap, dropping him on the slightly more stable galleon. Unsurprisingly, the ship was still fine except for the rocking back and forth from the waves.

“Think those two will be okay?” 5t4r asked before he turned to face the shifting pirate ship. Wood cracked and groaned while the ship slowly changed into a large floating wooden creature, a face made with shattered glass eyes and two large hands made of splintered wood.

“If anyone could have fought the kraken, they could. They should have been able to at least escape it with the leviathan abilities. Come on!” B4hamutt yelled before taking off, the others following behind. They headed down to the lower areas of the ship. “There are two ways to fight this part. Spells and ranged attacks while waiting for it to come on board, or the fun way.” He stopped and motioned to a large line of cannons that were propped up by the wall, aiming out from the ship. The cannons were made of a glittery blue metal and held dozens of archaic runes across their surface. Instead of a fuse, the cannons had a large rune on the very top where one could place their hand. He demonstrated by pushing down on the rune and a large cannon ball shot out towards the pirate ship, sending wood splintering out.

“Okay, that does look like fun,” 5t4r said before the three took positions and began using the cannons. After each shot the cannons had to be repositioned and re-aimed, making them slow to reuse. Once a few shots were let loose the ship rocked after the monster punched the side, taking out one of the unmanned cannons, but missing them. When the fist was pulled back, bones began to rain down and reform into skeletons.

“You two stay on the cannons, I'll take care of the skeletons!” Asura yelled and charged forward, her hands dancing through the air. A second sword formed at her side, a direct replica of Excalibur. She grinned and began slicing through them, using her fae-step to appear on the opposite side of them and swing her blades through their back lines, then fae-stepping again to their front lines before they could fully turn around. When she appeared a second time the ship rocked hard and sent her flying to the right, straight into the wall. She crumbled to the ground, dropping both swords and holding her side. “Owww... eep!” She let out a squeak before crawling backwards along the wall.

The skeletons charged at the downed fae and slashed, driving her back and away from her weapons. “You okay?” 5t4r called back before another cannon blast rent the air.

“I'm fine! Don't worry about me!” she yelled before rolling to the left, away from a blade. She pushed off the ground and flapped her wings a few times, putting a few feet between her and the undead. There were eight, but some of them were already low on health. She grinned and charged straight at them.

The skeletons froze for a second as if their brainless bodies were trying to think of a reaction, but that was all the time she needed. She ducked down before her hand tapped the air and her wings disappeared. The first blade went straight over her head while she dove through them, sliding just above the ground while the skeletons tried to hit her but kept bumping into each other. She quickly tapped her foot twice when their blades shot at her and she disappeared just before they jammed into the ground. She reappeared by her swords and quickly scooped them up, grinning triumphantly. “Oh yeah. You're all--” She was cut off when a massive wooden fist plowed through the side of the ship and came straight at her. Her eyes went wide and she froze before being slammed back against the wall, chunks of wood piercing her skin and draining her HP to a fraction.

Asura groaned and fell to the ground, dizzy from all the sudden fae-steps and wall slam. Barely able to move her body and with her vision spinning, she tried to re-orientate herself. She realized a second later that the attack had paralyzed her, leaving her temporarily helpless while the skeletons slowly lumbered towards her and raised their weapons. With her body like this she couldn't even call for help while she managed to steady her vision just enough to make out the first blade coming down.

The blade struck her in the stomach and lowered her HP ever further, but a second strike never came. Instead, two hands wrapped around her shoulders and slowly lifted her up to her feet. Scalios and Andremedia moved forward and began slaughtering the skeletons, albeit far slower since they were using their normal sword and mace. Her paralyzation wore off, allowing her to put a hand to her chest. “Greater heal.” Her HP shot up and the soreness quickly left her body. “About time you two showed your faces.”

“Hey, the kraken was very persistent. You have any idea how hard it is to out-swim a giant tentacled monster? Especially in this weather?” Scalios asked, his tone dripping with annoyance.

“Calm down, I was just teasing. Glad to have you back. We're on the final boss though, hope you're ready for this,” Asura said and moved to the cannon. Before too long, and after many re-killed skeletons, there was another blow throughout the ship and they looked up.

“That's the cue! To the deck!” B4hamutt yelled and they charged up the stairs. The three had each switched back to their non-master weapons, so they knew the battle would be fierce. The deck was covered in splintered wood and corpses of the sailors.

The wood of the ship had taken a much smaller, but still quite large, humanoid form and glowed with green magic. It stood on the deck and easily batted the crew away while they struggled to fight it. It's voice came out in a guttural echo, “Bwa ha ha ha! None survive without the say so of Captain Scomparsa! Your blood will dye the sea and you'll spend an eternity as my damned crew!” The wooden creature grabbed one of the crew before impaling him, kicking and screaming, on its jagged body.

“Are all dungeons this long and convoluted?” 5t4r asked before charging towards the creature, axe at the ready.

“No! But the best ones are!” Asura called back as she nocked another arrow and released. “Yes! I h-- dang it! That's no fair! Wind should not affect trajectory!” she screamed in rage, stomping her feet.

“You really need to work on your aim! He's the size of a barn! Fireball!” B4hamutt yelled, causing flames to shoot out from his hand and envelop the monster. It howled in rage before swinging it's wooden arm at him.

Andremedia charged in to block with her shield, but when the blow connected the hand shattered and chunks of jagged wood jammed into her from all sides. “AGHHHH!” she screamed and fell back.

“Careful! Heal!” Scalios said and aimed a hand at Andremedia. “Hit it hard and fast! Guiding blade!” His blade came alive and shot through the creature with a single powerful slash.

“Cleaving strike!” 5t4r yelled before his axe slashed off one of the creature's legs and it crumbled down.

“Homing arrow...” Asura said softly before she let the arrow go. It shot through the air and, unsurprisingly, changed direction to hit the monster.

“Piercing stab!” B4hamutt yelled before a black aura encased his guisarme and he was able to easily stab through the creature and, temporarily, pin it to the ground.

“Titan's smash!” Andremedia screamed and charged at the monster. When she came closer the mace increased in size dramatically when she swung until, when it hit, it was larger than three of the players put together. Shards of wood shot through the air and the five stood over the splintered monstrosity.

The green mist slowly began to rise from the creature to reform the pirate, gun and sword in hand. “Don't think you've won, you've-” He was cut off when they threw every spell they had at him, destroying the ground out from under him and, when the smoke cleared, leaving nothing more than some burnt marks and a crater.

The group stood there in silence for a few moments until a large golden chest appeared on the deck. “We did it. How did they design something like this?” 5t4r stretched and walked towards the chest. “WHY would they design something like this? What's wrong with having normal, easy dungeons you can just spend a little bit of time doing and have fun?”

“Exhibition dungeon,” Asura said with a groan before stretching, hearing a soft pop. “It was one of the dungeons they made to show off when the game was in beta, to make it look nice and fancy and that it broke all the limits. There are a few more, but this is the lowest level one.” She walked towards the chest with the others. Inside were the creature's sword, gun, his hat and a number of other pirate related items.

“Wow. Really? A gun? Isn't that a bit overpowered?” 5t4r asked before picking it up.

“No. Only one in the game, novelty item,” B4hamutt said with an annoyed sigh. “Takes forever to load, low damage for the level, even with the magic, low range and I hear it's actually a fairly accurate copy of how one would be in the early stages. Meaning the aim on it sucks from a distance. Completely useless, but fun. Some of the role players use it. You can have it if you like.”

“Sure, why not,” 5t4r said. Piece by piece they divided the loot before the storm quickly disappeared, almost as fast as it had come. It wasn't long before the ship returned to port and they were about to go their separate ways. “So Asura, are you going to join the tournament?”

“Huh?” she asked, glancing back at the dragon in confusion.

“... Don't you ever read the message boards?” B4hamutt asked with annoyance. “Aside from when the master quests come up?”

“I can spend my time reading or gaming, I choose the latter. So what is it?”

“Since there are quite a few masters now, Spigot entertainment is hosting a master tournament. There are a few rules in place to give the newbies a chance, but you still might want to sign up,” 5t4r said.

She stopped for a moment before a grin formed on her lips. A tournament just for masters? Something like that would make her a hero if she won. She wouldn't be able to walk down the streets without people staring at her in awe. “Are you kidding? How do you sign up?” She turned and practically ran her two comrades over in excitement.

“Oh, umm, you just need to sign up from the message boards. They are keeping the prizes hush hush but-- hey! Asura, don't... ugh.” B4hamutt shook his head when Asura disappeared. “That girl, I don't know why she even asks me things if she won't listen.”

Asher glanced at the clock after logging out. He only had a little bit more time before he had to disconnect entirely from the system, so he quickly went through the sign-up before quitting. There were a few specific rules, though the most important was that they had to use a class they had mastered. But with that, he knew he had an edge. When his head set was finally removed he could barely contain his anticipation for the next coming weeks. His dreams were filled with visions of him standing before a cheering crowd while they called his name over and over. Asura. Landasy Realities greatest hero. A true legend.