The explosion was spectacular, the goblin flew halfway across the map, and landed at the feet of Christa, who paid it no mind, and instead opted to roll under a horizontal beam of magical energy that seemed like it could cleave a tree in half. B-Rain however was not as agile and dexterous as Christa’s character so all he could do was hold both of his hands up in front of him and use the flat of his much to massive axe to block most of his upper torso from the blast and plant his feet.

It helped, but it still hit him hard, he was pushed back three or so feet, the flat of the axe blade that had taken the brunt of the attack which at one point in time had been covered with golden frippery and was held in place with a lion shaped lugs, but now was simply a black and red melted mess.

He flashed red as the damage was registered to his character and she could see as his health slipped down into the red zone, he opened his mouth to call for a heal but Monica was already on it, with a twist and a quick hand sign she casted the greater heal and quickly turned her target to Siris, casting a purify she freed him from the webs that had him glued in one place.  And then went back to attacking the adds with offensive magic, all the while keeping an eye peeled to see if anyone were about to get wiped.

The boss they were fighting today was part of the daily, and was the third strike boss they had foughten.  It was a massive spider that shot webs and asid, and was quite fond of spawning in more goblins and spiders for her and her friends to wade through.

‘Come on, come on I don't have time for this...’  she growled under her breath, and she pushed forward, aiming with all of her might to hit the crit area’s of each creature, filling her ult meter as quickly as possible. As she pushed forwards the rest of the team stuck with her, no one wanting to be left behind by their healer.

“What the hell? We are being to reckless!”  one of the pickup group members said, he was a rather flash human paladin, and was sporting a mixture of cloth and plate mail.  “This is not the way to do this if you rush it you can't get the max exp and loot drop.”

“I have shit to do so you can either keep up or leave you damn P.U.G.”  she growled as she used the butt end of the healer’s staff as a mace to catch the goblin under the chin and send him flying with the blunt end of the staff.  It was in no way shape or form intended for such use and as such it didn't do much more than stun the creature and she finished it off with a well placed blast of flame from a fireball she conjured up.  The small creature let out a whimper and just flopped over, not showing any sign of damage.

“This is bullshit!”  another pug called out, as he worked to keep up with the group. “You're the guild leader, can’t you make her stop?”

“You want me to tell not only an upset woman what to do but also want me to tell a healer, our only healer I would like to point out what she can and can't do?”  Siris laughed, “you must be dumber than you look.”

“I don't have to take this!” the paladin said, even as he slashed a goblin in mid air.

“Then don’t, I don't need you.”  Monica growled and pulling an orb out of her small messenger bag she had hanging to the side of her person she pressed it into her chest.  Light flew out of her and her eyes light up, and like she was a storm cloud she started exuding electricity and rushed forward with a renewed frenzy.  The boss melted beneath her exotic consumable like it was so much butter beneath a burning hot knife.

“Whew,” Siris said with a laugh, he ran his hand over his face and walked over to the chest, as party leader he was the only one allowed to open the chest.  He looked in the loot box and smiled, pullout out several handfuls of small purple chips he started to pass them out, “Good news everyone, the speed at which we did this gave us a loot bonus, so we got two times the rewards.”  he pointedly looked at the paladin who was now saying nothing, even when Sirus gave him and the other complainer a few chips less than others. “Alright good luck with the decriptions of those, hopefully we can gets some good purples, and thanks Mo-” he paused, looking around but found there was no trace of Monica, it would seem that she had just vanished into thin air. “Where is-”

“She logged the second you gave her the ingrams, I guess I better go as well, she needs some help and I said I would help her with it.”

“What is so important that she needs to rush a raid like that?” B-rain asked, flexing his muscles. “I mean she hardly did any killing, there is something to be cherished about having the ability to crush your enemies underfoot and reli-”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Shut up you no lifer,” Siris called out as he and the others walked out of the dungeon, leaving the monologuing B-rain behind.

“Hey, guys that's not really nic-”  he called out as they made their way out of the dungeon.

***

Matt sighed and stepped out of the shower, he grabbed one of the ultra thin towels that were folded down to the size of your hand and grabbing one corner he shook it, allowing the small cloth to unfold and reveal a full size paper thin towel. He started to rub his body down, and almost like the water was magnetically attracted to the towel it drunk it all up, with an insatiable thirst.

He fully wiped himself dry and pulled the clothes he had stashed on the counter on.  He couldn't help it he had this feeling that he was being watched, and honestly speaking he probably was. He did after all have an A.I. in his head, who knows exactly what she was and was not watching.

He looked down at himself, he was wearing a black pair of jeans, they were one of the aspects of clothing that never seemed to go out of style. No matter how many years and centuries passed there was always jeans. Jacob W Davis would be proud to note that even a thousand years after the creation of his pants they were still in use and were still one of the most popular types of clothing.  The side of his jeans were covered in a few bags and a loose loop on the side, they were loose fitting cargo jeans that had a distinct pattern of fade on the front of them, not from his use but from the factory.

Pulling on his shirt he looked at himself, the shirt was also black and was a skin tight fabric that he tucked into the pants, and clasped there with a belt. He then pulled on a short sleeve blue hoodie, opting to not zip it up but to simply leave it open. He ran his fingers through his slightly damp hair, putting it back in place and pulled out a small mirror and using both mirrors in tandem, he looked at the wound in the back of his head.  

The biogel was doing its work, it really didn't look bad, it was obviously a nice gouge, but it was not that bad, he was able to clean it out, washing all the dried blood away.  With a shrug he stepped out of the steamy room to find Willow looking around his room curiously. She looked over at him and smiled.

“You look nice,”  she said.

He looked at her and did not speak but simply raised an eyebrow in indignation.

“What? What is wrong?”  she asked looking at his face.

“Just because I let you stay does not mean everything is peachy fine.”  he growled looking at her. “If I remember correctly, you are installed on my caser against my will, and you attempted to take over my mind by force.”

“Take over your mind? No no no no.”  she started to speak quickly, “I used dopamine, it is a neurochemical that causes happiness, I thought if you were happy you would be more willing to let me stay.” she said in one breath.

“I am a fairly reasonable person, it would have been better for the both of us to talk it out.”  he said.

“I tried that!”  she said softly, “But you continued to insist knowing how to get me out of your head.”  she said softly, looking him in the eyes for the first time since he had said she would stay.  Matt thought back, and realised she was correct, he had said that, and he had refused to listen to what she was saying.

“Sorry,”  he said, his anger dissipating.

“So am I,”  she said, her demeanor showing the same remorse as he was feeling at the moment. “I really didn't want to, I simply didn't want to die...”  he nodded, that was understandable, and her response was indeed a very human one, she had been after all backed into a corner and so she had responded with everything she had to keep surviving.   He nodded to himself and walking over to the small table for two he had he picked up his key chit  and wallet. He made his way to the door and started to open it. “Where are you going?”  she asked.

“I have to buy some things, and to check something out.”  he said.

“Can I come?” she asked and he looked at her with a strange look on his face.

“Wouldn't you come even if I didn't want you to?” he asked looking at her and he tapped his head with a finger, “You're in my head remember?”  he said.

“I know, I am just trying to make this a more comfortable situation for the both of us, so I thought I would offer you the option.” she said.

“Come on.”  he said, and grabbing his VidCom he turned it off and plugged it into his head, tucking the small black rectangle into his shirt. “There now when I talk to you people wont think I am insane and talking to no one.” she looked at him and nodded, seemed like a smart idea.

He lead the way down to the bottom of the building and saying his parting piece to the person who was in the lobby he opened the door, sliding his card at the door of the garage he waited as the underground machine brought up his garage platform and revealed his bike.

“So this is what people drive now?”  she asked as she looked it over.

“What? No, this is an antique, I dont ride in those vehicles.”  he said, straddling the machine and pushing the chit into place to allow the machine to start, he pressed a button on the side of it as it hummed to life and a small display appeared on the section of bike just in front of him. It showed a small bar that was half filled with a green color. “Alright good still have half charge, should be enough to do what needs done,” he said with a nodd, he would need to change the charge pack when he got home tonight, but this would be fine for now.

“Why not?” she asked, and he looked back at her in confusion not quite understanding what she was saying, “Why don't you use those vehicles?” she asked, clarifying the question for him.  His eyes sparked in understanding, and his face darkened and he hunched over defensively, assuming a posture that bespoke of pain.

“Some things I don't want to talk about,”  he growled darkly turning away from her and starting the bike, causing the machine to hum slightly. She noted this reaction and straddled the bike behind him, opting to wrap her arms around him, she would have to figure this out some other way. “So what are we going to do?”  she asked.

“I need to grab something for a date I am going on, and see what movies are playing so I can get some tickets.”  he said, and she nodded along as they sped, her head resting on his back and her arms wrapped around his torso.

Wait.

She froze, her eyes widening to there fullest, a bright green blue glow radiating within them, slowly turning red.

What did he just say!?!?!?!?