1.4

"Kill it!!!"

Aesa's nerves were on full-throttle. His adrenaline on overdrive. Move! Get out! Every fiber of his being had been screaming those words since two seconds ago. And unfortunately for Aesa, panic completely took him over. Instead of escaping, he was just stuck there--- dumbfounded and unmoving. Like a deer caught in a headlight.

Who are these people? Are they part of the security team? Are they here to delete me?

For one quick second there, Aesa thought that they were envoys of Cirrus Games which were dispatched inside the game to delete deviants like him. But then, Aesa suddenly remembered where he had previously seen those skin-tight suits in black. It was the same one that he had worn the night before he got murdered. They're players! Aesa figured. If those three were still wearing their begginers suit, then they must be. However, something didn't quiet add up--- why were they hostile? And why were they attacking him?

Not far away from where he was, the guy who threw the axe a minute ago had finally recovered his weapon from where it had landed. His gaze was fixed on Aesa's direction. It was intense. The guy showed no fear in his eyes. Only hunger. If looks could kill, then Aesa would have been dead already.

"Wait wait wait!" Aesa held his remaining arm up as if in surrender. "Please stop. I'm a player too!" He pleaded.

Unbeknownst to Aesa, the trio didn't understand a thing that he was saying. All they heard from him was 'Clak clak clak... clak clak clak clak.'

The information has not been made public yet, but eventually, later in the game, everyone would eventually come to understand that the language barrier imposed by the system was purely intentional. It was placed there by the developers to pose as a challenge between the ordinary human players versus the transformed ones. The intention was to create chaos and to spread misunderstanding like how it was during the time of the Great Ziggurat in ancient Babylon. This feature was installed to create more drama and make the game more strenuous for everyone, thus making it harder to beat. Now in Aesa's case, he was an undead. Most probably, only another undead would come to understand him.

"Go ahead, Godrick. Finish it man!"

Puzzled, Aesa couldn't help but be aghast. Despite his plea, the axe was still coming to behead him. "Fu_king PK's!!!"

It was then that Aesa saw the young man called Godrick wind up his axe in preparation for a heavy swing. He knew for sure that once Godrick unleashed that gigantic axe, it would easily split his skull in two. The same could be said regarding his ribcage and pelvis. Aesa knew that none of his parts would fare better once it hits. But like he promised himself earlier, he was not going to take any shit from anyone anymore. And so, just when Godrick was about to bury his oversized hatchet right over his skull, Aesa wittingly scooped up a handful of dirt from his right and threw a fistful of it aimed directly towards Godrick's eyes.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Shit!" Godrick cursed as he accidentally dropped the heavy axe out of surprise. There was no way he could have anticipated that level of sneaky counter measure. For a creature to have that kind of trick up its sleeve was something unheard of, atleast in Godrick's opinion. It was a common mmorpg trope to treat the undead as nothing more than a punching bag for experience. They were slow, mindless and an easy to kill mob.

But that was the point where Godrick got it all wrong. This was Grum's Labyrinth. The game doesn't exactly follow the typical MMO mold. Everyone had to be constantly reminded that the game was created to be the greatest deviant amongst the deviants of the MMO genre. And every player who had willingly participated in this insanity better expect a healthy dose of curve balls thrown at them from every direction possible. The game had stored tons of surprises for everyone on every corner of the labyrinth. It was meant to surprise all three billion players and more. Cirrus Games promised it and so they would deliver.

Godrick admits that this blunder was entirely his fault. He did not prepare himself for that kind of retaliation. Why would he? It was just a mindless skeleton after all. But boy was he wrong. He got over-confident when he smashed the skeletons left arm earlier. So, he thought that it would be an easy kill from that point on. But surprise, surprise motherfucker--- Mr. Curve Ball just entered the building.

It was bittersweet and funny, but atleast Godrick just learned a very valuable lesson today. With red watery eyes, Godrick cried as he tried his best to quickly wipe the dirt off of his cornea. The little rocks sanding his eyelids was the most irritating part of this ordeal to say the least. I will never under estimate another opponent ever again. He promised himself.

At that same exact moment, a small window of opportunity just opened for Aesa and he was not one to waste a chance. He quickly turned around to execute his exit plan. After one quick forward roll coupled with a one-handed somersault later, Aesa secured his cover by jumping behind the waist-high thicket cheerleader style. It was as if he disappeared completely amongst the tree line in three quick seconds. Thank goodness he stuck around for that one semester of gruelling gymnastics back when he was in middle school. It came real handy today while he was escaping.

And although he one upped Godrick with that one underhanded pitch, he knew deep down that he was far from being safe. There were still two other players who tagged along with Godrick back there and Aesa figured that they will most likely seek vengeance in his stead. He needed to move as far away and as fast as he could. Getting caught now was out of the question. He was in no condition to fight. Not with just a single arm he was not.

Using his agility, Aesa slithered through the bushes quickly and quietly. He kept his stance low, almost stealth like as he bailed away. He could hear the other two players yell and curse as they desperately tried to find him amongst the thicket. Unfortunately for them, Aesa was long gone. The cunning undead was already too far away for them to even catch.