Kors darted in. His sword struck, too fast for Vivian to see.
But it doesn’t matter. Vivian threw his weight into the rake as the sword struck. Sword and rake clashed. The sword struck the steel rake and halted.
The critical weakness of System junkies is that they can only move with the System. They’re incredibly powerful when they set the pace, but if they aren’t expecting a serious battle… say, if they’re fighting a pitiful NPC, they’ll use the same moves over and over. Because the System is executing the moves using their body, rather than them executing the moves using the System to guide them, they do their moves exactly the same every single time. Same moves, same execution. If you watch them fight enough times, you can know how to block their attacks before they start to move.
In other words, it doesn’t matter that I couldn’t see his move. I knew what he was going to do, and how, before he even started moving!
Well… it’s not a hundred percent thing. But I respawn! So, you know. It was worth taking a chance on.
Dumbfounded, Kors frowned at Vivian. “A Gardener stopped my—”
Vivian twisted the rake viciously, applying all his STR. The sword snapped. Sending the rake into his inventory, he summoned his clippers and charged at Kors.
Kors jumped back, putting the remnant of his sword between them. “Lewis! Renee!”
“Are you kidding me? Kors, get serious!” Renee shouted, reaching for the gun on her hip.
Lewis charged in. “Get back!”
Vivian batted the broken sword down with his off-hand. It sliced his arm open. Wincing, he pushed the pain to the back of his mind. I’ll drink an HP potion later. It’s fine. He jabbed the clippers toward Kors’ gut.
Green glowed around Kors’ legs, and Kors darted back at top speed. The clippers scraped his stomach, but failed to cut him open the way Vivian had planned.
Lewis ran in. He raised his shield and charged, lowering his shoulder like a linebacker.
Vivian called out the rake again. He hooked the tines into Kors’ back and yanked the man forward.
Lewis’ eyes widened. He tried to dig in his heels, but couldn’t. He slammed into Kors and Vivian. All three of them went flying.
The tines of the rake bit into Kors’ back. Vivian laughed, so tangled up that their faces were inches from one another’s, their limbs tangled. “Do your hands feel numb?”
Kors’ eyes widened, and then he narrowed his eyes. Sharp pain burst in Vivian’s leg as he pushed what was left of the sword into Vivian’s thigh. “You didn’t break through my armor. Your poison is useless.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Vivian said, and jabbed the clippers into Kors’ gut. The sharpened blades and Vivian’s twelve STR pierced through his armor, and the clippers passed into the soft belly beneath.
Kors’ face contorted in pain and rage. He twisted his sword. Blood soaked down Vivian’s leg.
7/10
5/10
3/10
Farewell, my Checkpoint. I barely knew thee, Vivian thought, staring into Kors’ eyes as he pushed the blades deeper. “Wow, you’ve got a good chunk of HP, huh?”
Kors wrinkled his nose. “I’ll outlast you.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Lewis shoved away from both of them, grabbing Kors as he climbed to his feet. He kicked Vivian away, sending the gardener rolling into the foot of the rosebushes.
A scream burned through the garden. The roses around them lit up in eerie green flames, and the grass, too, began to burn, illuminating everything underfoot but the dark cobbles. A cold wind blew. The stench of death and the cloying sweetness of rotting roses rolled over them in a sticky wave, as if the air itself clung to their skin.
Kors raised his hand. A shiny, metallic green sword materialized in it, a snake’s head at the hilt and purple stripes down the blade. “I don’t like using this because it’s ugly, but I’ll make an exception for you.”
Vivian yanked out a potion and downed it, limping back to his feet. The gash on his thigh sealed over. “I’m honored, but seriously, it’s tacky as shit.”
+50 HP
HP: 10/10
Vivian wrinkled his nose. That was a High Potion? Damn, what a waste.
Renee’s eyes widened. Jangling her bells, she backed away. “Kors… Lewis…! She’s here!”
Vivian turned. He laughed, just once. “Took her long enough!”
In the narrow hallway of the hedge maze, thick luminescent vines drilled through the ground. They wound around the hedges’ trunks and pulled. The cobblestones rumbled, then burst up. The Lady of the Lost flew into the air in a burst of brilliant green light. Dirt flew, peppering Vivian and Kors’ party alike with pebbles. Vines thrust up behind them, blocking off their exit route.
HP: 9/10
The Lady of the Lost dropped slowly toward the ground, lowering herself on those thick vines. Translucently pale skin showed glowing green bones beneath, her veins crawling through her flesh like black vines, pumping rotten, dark blood.
She wore an enormous ball gown with a skirt shaped like a rose. Hundreds of delicate petals floated around her legs, visible through a ragged slit in the bell-shaped ball gown that split the rose almost to the bud. Thorned vines wrapped around her bare legs, biting into her flesh and letting that dark blood run to the floor. The vines enveloped her torso, too, tightening into an armored corset bristling with thorns. A thick stalk of vines curled over her chest, twisted around the back of her neck, and climbed up behind her ear. Thinner vines cut across her face and vanished into white hair, vines striping pale skin with dark bruises where they clung to her. An enormous rose blossom stood at the peak of the vine. As she stepped onto the earth, the rose on her head bloomed, releasing motes of glowing green pollen. Her phosphorescent eyes vanished behind the rose’s multitudinous petals.
Ragged pale hair hung loosely behind her. Delicate gloves made of lace formed from the natural tangle of fine roots clung to her forearms. Jagged fingernails bit clean through the material. She roared, revealing black-stained teeth and a phosphorescent green tongue long enough to reach her belly button, studded with sharp thorns.
Yuck. It’s someone’s fetish, but it isn’t mine, Vivian thought, looking at that long tongue.
Behind him, Kors gulped down a potion. He threw the bottle, and the glass shattered against the cobbles. “Have fun fighting her.”
Vivian looked up at the Lady, then back at Kors. “I don’t think so.”
The Lady drifted past him, lurching toward Kors’ party. Kors raised his sword, startled.
Vivian threw back his head and laughed. “Yes! Kors, did you forget? I’m an NPC. What kind of boss aggros an NPC that isn’t even in someone’s party?”
Kors’ face twisted as though he’d just bitten a lemon. “You…”
Vivian smirked, standing beside the Lady of the Lost. He barely reached the boss monster’s hip height. The Lady towered above the hedge maze, her faintly-glowing skin casting phosphorescent glow over the entire maze. It’s not as if I was sure this would work. I killed a lot of Lost Ones, or at least played kill-assist, so I couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t aggro on me. It was a bit of a gamble, but it paid off! Pursing his lips in mock pity, he shook his head at Kors. “Ha, Kors. You can’t even properly kill an NPC like me? How sad.”
“You aren’t an NPC. Are you a Player?” Kors asked, backing away.
“Huh? You saw my tags. I’m an NPC, through and through,” Vivian said. Waving jauntily, he backed toward the hole he’d cut earlier. “Have fun with the Lady, though!”
The Lady reached down a clawed hand and gripped his skull. Vivian’s eyes widened. He grabbed his clippers and jabbed upward.
Before his clippers could land, a prompt appeared before his eyes.
[Role] Granted!
[Lord of the Lost]
Name: Vivian | Age: 21 | Sex: M | Level: 10 TEMP: 25
Role: [Lord of the Lost] [BOSS]
[Status] [TEMP]
HP: 100/100
SP: 20/20
STR: 24
MAG: 5
SKL: 14
SPD: 14
MDEF: 20
DEF: 20
Motherfucker! Just when I was about to bow out of this battle! He lowered his clippers, annoyed.
Wait, hold on. I’m level 25 now? And a boss? Vivian’s eyes flashed. He looked at Kors, and an evil smile spread across his face. He tossed the clippers lightly in one hand. “Oh ho ho ho…”