I wish I could think of some plan to escape from this clearing. I'm not much of a tactician, I think? I don't know. Every move made is wrong. Thought this place was a statuary, it sure is if you're an animal or a monster. Well then, I'll just have to try differently and do it right. I still have Avery and Rob. Maybe the system too, It isn't glitching right now. Would be nice if it asked us what we wanted to do though. That might be enough. Our our parents okay, are they alive? I wish he was five again and I was six outside playing our ingame of poke the stuffed toy tomato. That's gone now, everything's gone now.
The animals moved apart from another then froze, a light tremor shook the area along with several beeps.
Initializing battle sequence
Requirements to win:
----------------------------------------
Stay alive.
Defeat all enemies.
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Game board creation in progress, move exactly one foot away from another.
Do NOT move during setup.
"What the hell?" I stopped running, the only sound my thudding heart and our rapid breaths.I realized I had no clue what the system was doing anymore, everything I thought I knew had turned to shit.
The lighting started then. It streaked across sky, out of the cloud cover a multitude of crisscrossed rays appeared speeding earthward. I jumped away from them both, holding to the brush tighter, and consider tossing the dorky shield away. No better not, maybe it'll help somehow.
The rays shot down slicing through sections of the earth, the forest everything. Where the rays touched lines of light appeared, and pulsed before vanishing.
Avery stopped where he was, crouched down and pulled his furry beaver like tail between his legs.
I can only imagine what he must have been thinking choosing a monster class, would he even be able to take on a human forum again? the stress must have gotten to him. I'll get you out of this somehow.
Ron at first held an odd pose, an arm up stiff as a frightened cat, his back partially arched and an arm bent back behind, he relaxed some the corners of his eyes drawn and his face pinched.
We were all quiet. What could we do? If the system warned of injury you listened, those that didn't, god the news articles tried to tone it down but the descriptions of anyone that didn't heed the warnings. She rubbed her eyes. Don't think of it.
... a whirring, a click... the ground shuttered.
The blast made me stagger forward, fall and land on my knees. I popped back up, looked on over to where Avery and Ron where. Ron wigged his bill. He looked agitated. His opened his bill then closed it gain, his furry brows dropped together. You're okay." His statement simple, yet with him he knew better then to say such empty crap as 'are you okay.'
I nodded.
Ron squeezed and opened his free hand, rocking on his heels. "None of this is in the books. None of it. How are we going to cope? He muttered the next part, "not that I'm not ecstatic you both are here," he muttered some more.
He tended to become lost in his thoughts at times, one time at school the teacher asked him a question about the geographical location of the floating mountain and he burst out with: "If the potatoes are roasted in a brown sugar glaze at..." and the class laughed at him. After that he became even more withdrawn.
"Ron, we need you here, now with us."
His gaze settled off to the side, where the animals were, before looking my way again. As if his uncertainty's evaporated, he straightened, his jaw tightened and he pointed the shotgun at the manic animals. "You can count on me." He smiled gently, becoming far more badass in that moment then I'd ever seen him before.
Maybe we can do this, whatever it is the screwball system decided to throw at us next. "It might be waiting for a command."
Rob lips squished together and his nose drew back in a crinkle, as if he'd mistakenly drank rotten milk. "You think it's It's going to make us start this? This is probably the only OPs I want to brick."
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I took a deep breath. I didn't think it was outright malicious. "It's intention doesn't seem to be like that." How to explain that my gut was telling me that it seemed to be wanting to help, but somehow stuck? "Let's keep trying." This is all very heavy...
Letting the conversation drop, Ron and I watched the sky, the animals and waited.
Grid setup complete.
Battle will began immediately after board setup, make ready.
System now accepting the normal verbal and mental commands.
For information say: Game Menu
I checked on Ron, "ready?"
"Not really, no." He frowned, his furry head seemed to have a hard time expressing such things and looked off. "I messed up, I just want to leave here... " a rawness crept into his voice. He wasn't totally lost but, that look in his eyes the near hopelessness, just pure–I'm assuming–shame that it made me want to take it all away.
I took in a deep breath. "Whatever it takes, we'll get through this." There were days where I'd wished he'd just stop doing stupid things, but this time he'd really messed up. Maybe there's an undo option or some kind of class upgrade that'll fix it somehow. "Just stay behind us for now."
"Ron, do you want to or should I?"
Ron faced me now, and fidgeted with the robe, he tilted his head to the side and closed his expressive brown eyes then opened them again. "Let me try."
I nodded.
"Game Menu." He head a breath, then released it slowly.
Map
Character Stats
Enemy Stats
Victory Conditions
Tutorial
Save
Main Menu
Options
Start
A moment later the Menu screen came to view in front of him, it's big enough that we all could see it.
"We need to look at everything but I think we'd better began with the Tutorial." He tapped it.
Tutorial
Up to four saves slots are available for the party. You can choose from each of these saves at any time during battle or when in a town/city. When in battle chose the option Quit, this will automatically save your progress using this option. Note: You can only start a new game, continue a previous game, delete or copy a game out of battle.
If you start a new game, you will only be able to save it in an empty save slot. Chose confirm with a tap to save or say/think 'confirm.' the delete and copy, function is unavailable at this time, so take care when saving. System is still working on repairing certain features.
ITEM OPTIONS
Say or think: Item Options to bring up the Item Menu. Each player can call up an item storage, there are five slots in a storage, use the space wisely. Weapon, armor, rings all take up a slot.
Tap an item in the storage slot to:
Use
With this command you can utilize any item in your storage. Double tap to take item out of storage. note: items can be used on other players. More information on this is below.
Equip
Use this command to equip a character with a weapon. Can also switch weapons/armor during battle, replace them for another. note: A player must be selected first before giving or using gear on them.
Discard
Items can be tossed away with this command. Warning: this is permanent.
Give
Select a player first, tap or say/think this command to give an item. The item will then appear in their item storrace, but only if a slot is free.
Next ➡
This a lot to take in, my stomach growled, I hope this finishes up soon. "Maybe we should skip the tutorial, it wouldn't matter much right?"
He he huffed shaking his head. "I want to skip this too, but everything is new, it's like the system we've all known has evolved or maybe regressed? I don't know there's isn't enough information yet." He continued to read.
All the animals while still still, had their eyes closed. Were they sleeping? This was taking forever.