Author's Note:
Plenty of magic being thrown around later. Patience while reading thanks! Enjoy the promised ass kicking to those that I already told.
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“I am sorry Mister Ronald, according to our diagnosis there is no problem with your Capsule.” Replied the pleasant sounding voice on the other line. Winter frowned at the answer. That was not what he wanted to hear.
Unicorn’s customer service was allowed to monitor their caller’s status and details to better serve them though they have a very strict confidentiality clause , but in return they were well compensated..High pay in return was given. A couple seconds passed before Ronald thought to say something. He was convinced that the calibration he went through screwed up his avatar, giving him increased sensitivity to pain. But he was not willing to say it, lest the pleasant sounding girl on the other line thought he was a big chicken!
“Say, I recently received 10 day period calibration sequence or something. I am wondering what was that about.”
“Wait one moment, Mister Ronald.”
Ronald did not wait long.
“I have a detailed status here. There is indeed a record that you went through another calibration lasting 10 days 5 hours.” Ronald waited for her to continue.
“The data here says that I have to contact the Sixth Technical Department for inquiries. Should you be interested to do so, we will get back to you since this will take a while.”
Nothing annoyed a customer more than delay in receiving answers. Usually when that happened, you have two options. To persist seeking your answer or just drop it and purchase their brand new product. As the problem was probably imaginary and Ronald felt no other changes from the calibration aside from his perceived sense of pain, he thanked the customer service representative and cut the call.
He would ask Daniel too first chance he got. There must be a reason for the ten day long calibration. Ronald was right. He was going to call the Unicorn Corporation customer service line again when he thought better of it. There would be time to do that later when he knew for sure there was a problem. Besides, his stomach was growling. Thus, Ronald left his questions alone for now, planning to get back to it another day. Little did he know that he would not receive the answer for quite a long while.
Meanwhile, Suzanne was about to close the customer account details, locking it away until another customer called again, allowing her to open another window to their inner universe. It was the reason she liked her job. It allowed her to take a peek into a player’s details. She has always been the curious kind. When she was ready to close the account with a mouse click, she saw an oddity that made her eyes bulge in her sockets.
She had seen plenty of customers’ data when she received inquiries. All of their pain threshold were in the range of 1.00% to 1.60% something on average while a few exceptions were over 2%. Suzanne has a theory that the higher the level the higher the percentage. But her supposition did not pan out as there was one low level mixed among the few exception so she never gave it much thought. Unbeknownst to her she was half right.
The account closed off automatically within 30 seconds of a customer call ending. Suzanne did not notice that Ronald’s data was locked. A chirping from her desk phone however startled her back into work mode. Suzanne would forget the anomaly soon. She was sure someone in the technical section would fix it.
Winter’s pain threshold was set at 5%.
xXx
“Geez! That was another close one!” Winter exclaimed to himself. This was the fourth time he killed Zorya.
He sat down on the ravaged clearing where he first summoned Zorya. Winter just summoned her again and was forced to kill her again. Daniel did say that from what he knew it may take more than a few times to get your summon to submit to you. But Zorya was one hell of a tricky monster. Winter thought she was finally submitting to him properly when her mouth suddenly shot out a sticky string. Winter’s automatic response to threats had been honed pretty well. Reflex was activated without any need for conscious thought. All bodily harm was treated with equal first response. That gave him time to think, or at least leap away. It helped immensely too that cooldown period was not an issue now.
Communication appearing to be useless, Winter proceeded to demolish her without giving her any chance to cast any big spells. It was utter slaughter!
The timer ran again at 4 hours. It was a good time to wait for his mana to recover with time to spare. Winter was determined to make Zorya completely obey him no matter what. He worked hard to kill her, dammit! He would make sure he received the benefits from that effort. So winter proceeded to sew a few pieces of cloth, increasing his Tailoring expertise rating. That made him recall wistfully, Adria. He has not done any proper sewing since he left Cosare. It was as good time as any to make a good item. He could use a few upgrades.
Tailoring still at basic level 8, Winter could not make anything worthwhile compared to what he could purchase. His purse content would probably be enough to buy him one worthy piece of item. He felt that was strange, having one piece of good equipment and the rest, crappy. Finishing his sixth pair of leather boots, Winter stood up and resummoned Zorya.
“Bring it on!” He shouted, charging at the screeching form of Zorya.
xXx
Winter felt very uncomfortable right this moment. He had battled the Arachna some 20 times over. As he became more and more familiar with her moves, he made less and less mistakes. The last 3 times he barely got clipped by any spells, moving straight in for the killing blow.
He supposed Zorya was now sort of ready to submit to Winter. Except her spider legs were folded in, unmoving, and her face was buried in her hands. She was crying! And Winter always had problems with women crying! He was always mistaken as cold hearted since he always screwed up his face when women cried to him for one reason or another in the past (most were well deserved since he was a jerk). Truth however, he was clueless on how to pacify or cheer them up. When that happened in the past, he always quickly left the room.
With him taking care of Celine who used to be a crybaby a lot, he figured out a few techniques that worked best. It did not reduce his discomfort at the situation, but he knew what to do at least.
Scooting closer, wary of any tricks, Winter finally arrived in front of Zorya.
Somewhere in her continuous defeat and resummon, she had been reduced slowly from screeching mad monster to an angry one and finally to just quiet resignation before heading to straight crying. She tried a few times to communicate to Winter, admitting her defeat and offering submission, but she played him false a few times too many for him to believe what she said and proceeded to straight out slaughter.
So, her large black spider and human amalgamation rocked by sobs, Zorya finally broke. It needs to be mentioned again that a summonable monster was designed with appropriately higher intellect compared to standard NPCs. They were supposed to be a player’s companion after all. Zorya that was defeated knew she would be bound to the one that vanquished her. That was the reason she came out hopping mad. Defeat after defeat eventually wore her resolve, eventually plummeting her to depression. (Author: LOL to depressed AI)
Winter overwhelmed her completely! To her he was the villain, slaughtering her without any pause whenever she was summoned, not allowing her any chance to entreat him. Imagining being slaughtered and resummoned over and over again, anyone would be depressed.
Zorya was so depressed to the point of not caring anymore if she got killed again. If a player followed a few paths, they would end with her providing quests that may allow her race to rise once more. Her death and being bound as a summonable monster ended all that. As a dark monster, that has always been a possibility, but by the grace of Freya, Zorya has to be saddled with a sadistic master!
There were warmth around her head. Zorya ignored the firm pressure around it. Probably the Battlemage reborn was going to kill her again. Zorya was indeed deceptive, as if she managed to kill her holder three times continuously, she would be released.( Author’s note: few players knew this for a fact, but this happened very rarely and embarrassing enough that it never got to the forum. Only one player ever had the misfortune to date)
But then came the realisation that Winter, her new Master was much stronger, for he was a fully fledged Battlemage, the bane of all dark creatures.
Zorya felt a soft caress on her head. Looking up with her glittering tears falling from six eyes, two large and positioned like normal human and four smaller and narrower in shape above above her eyebrows to the middle of her forehead, she was inside Winter’s embrace.
Standing on a <
“Why do you torment me so, Battlemage?” Zorya asked Winter.
“What are you talking about?” Winter retorted in puzzlement.
“You killed me over and over again, was it not enough that you defeated me, you have to make me suffer. Should I grovel to satisfy your temper? Or should I dance for your entertainment?”
“Woman! You attacked me first! I was just defending myself!” Winter put both of hands on his hip, the position he always took whenever he gave his kids scolding. It was especially effective.
“My apologies. I was angry. Distraught! My plans! All ruined!”
“Again, woman, what are you talking about? Talk to me! Not to yourself!” Winter might have grumbled and said something about ‘women, typical, crazy’ or somewhere along that line, but nobody should be concerned as the only one that might have heard what he said was an AI.
“I am the last of my race. And now I am bound to you. I failed my species.” Zorya buried her face in her hands again, sobbing once more.
Winter thought furiously. No way he wanted a weepy summoned creature! He would be a laughing stock each time he summoned her! What to do! What to do!!!!
“OOkkkayy…. let me get this straight. You wanted to have a few things done but now you can’t since you are now bound to me, yes?” Zorya did not reply, but she might have sobbed harder.
“What if I help you?”
“You will do this for me, Battlemage? Even when I have nothing to give in return?”
“Why not? I am not losing anything but time. And I’ve plenty of that. So, spill. And quit all that crying. It gets on my nerves. I can’t believe I got stuck with another AI that can cry!” Winter was referring to Adria, obviously. He would be shocked to know that all AI in Royal Road have that option.
The system automatically cut off the last part from Zorya, rigidly abiding to the rule of not letting the AI understanding that they were mere construct.
“I need to find my Queen’s nest. I am unsure where it is. The only clue I have on it was its location underneath the earth.”
“That is one very thin clue. Anything else?”
“Yes. She left words to her loyal retainers before our city was overrun by your kind.” Winter could tell she was still antagonistic to him as she said the last word venomously.
“’Six nests I left in your care, for you to resurrect our race once more. Seek it underneath the earth, where death and danger shall always be your companion. The dark shall always be our friend, and water its companion. It all begins from our city, Alekarn.’”
TTRRIIINNGGG!!
Zorya’s Request
’Six nests I left in your care, for you to resurrect our race once more. Seek it underneath the earth, where death and danger shall always be your companion. The dark shall always be our friend, and water its companion. It all begins from our city, Alekarn.’
Zorya requested your assistance to resurrect her race once more. Her Queen left nests scattered around the continent. The only clue available are the last words of the Queen that Zorya recited. Head to Alekarn to find more clues!
Difficulty: B
Reward: Spider Queen’s Treasure Trove
Requirement: Black Widow’s Heart, Zorya’s cooperation
Restriction: Battlemage profession only
Do you wish to accept quest? Yes/No
Winter groaned. He already has a quest and here was another one. Asric’s Bracer quest was nowhere close to its closure and here was another one! And it seemed to require some travel, wherever this Alekarn was!
Though Royal Road only allow maximum of three quests at the same time, Winter did not hesitate to use another slot. That left only one more slot to retain quests. Should he fill that up too, he would be forced to either grind or abandon any of the three. Any other player would hesitate to accept a personal quest with such high level difficulty. Winter did not hesitate to accept it.
Quest accepted!
“Sure, whatever. Now you will stop crying or trying to kill me right?”
“To the Darkness within my soul, I swear it.” Zorya replied solemnly. Winter could have sworn there was a cold wind blowing that made him shiver when she spoke the oath. Must be his imagination.
“Good. Until later.” Winter clicked on the icon of Zorya above his status bars, dismissing her.
Winter was not too bothered should the quests he accepted be even A or S difficulty. Royal Road was but a game. At worse somewhere down the line he would dump it or just keep it in his log without ever finishing it. He played not for keeps. No interest in being the Emperor nor reigning over a piece of land. Ronald played for self-entertainment. Anything to stop those crying girls!
Shaking his head, cursing to himself at whatever trouble with women he always got himself to, Winter hiked back to town. He still has a couple months in-game before either Reki or Rinne got back to town (Samuel was left out in his count). He was not sure what he could do but quest around the city.
xXx
There seemed to be some sort of commotion around Arcanum. No. That was not it. All players appeared to be excited. This has the air of a Public Event. Winter that sensed this underlying current grabbed the first player that passed him and asked him a question.
“Excuse me, may I ask what is going on?”
The player, a merchant was less excited than others. From this alone Winter could tell the quest would not require his class. Merchant class players are polite bunch of people. Every player and NPC they met, they treat as a potential customer and profit, thus, they are typically pretty friendly and accommodating as a standard.
“I am not sure yet. Someone said that there might be a big raid going on.”
Not wasting another second, the merchant bid Winter goodbye and moved on. Merchants were popular when there are raids to be done because they are the fastest way to get large quantity of goods at once or specialised items.
Upon hearing that, Winter checked the nearest notice board for some announcement and found none. Puzzled, he walked to the large Central Square where the crowed appeared to be the densest. With a lot of elbowing, some curses and no apology, resulting in players giving him rude glares, he finally reached a comfortable position to see a few nicely decked players standing on a stage he was sure not there the first time he passed it.
“...we stick together we have a chance to win! The four of us here, forged a temporary alliance to kill Cain.” Some warrior type player was giving a speech. The guy looked like very distinguished in his shining blue armor. To his left was a pretty female priest dressed in white and gold, to his right, an archer type with large crossbow slung on his back and next to him, a Wizard, since he held a fancy staff.
“Yeah!” “We can do it!” “...this time!” “Go! Go! Go!”
Those were responses Winter heard around him, all of them pumping their fists and yelling loudly. Thousands of players! Winter was immediately interested to join in the fun.
He patted the shoulder of a fellow magician next to him, making him turn around while the warrior continued his rousing speech.
“Hi, may I ask where to register for the Raid?” Winter tried to give the player as affable smile as possible. What he received instead was a smile full of disdain! This sparked anger in his heart. He could never tolerate uncalled rudeness (Author: doesn’t the situation sounds familiar?)
The player’s eyes looked him up and down, as if confirmed what he saw and then scoffed. Scoffed! That got Winter’s fist clenched, his expression turning cold that made the player rear back a little. Winter was about to give him a punch to the kisser, and the man knew that. He got his courage back when he remembered this was but a game and attacking someone blatantly in a safe zone to cause injury resulted in arrest and incarceration.
“Sorry. Guild members only. And we are full. Try again next time.”
Not giving Winter another glance, and Winter too, refused to talk to the player again decided to just follow the group and see what got them moving. Winter was not naive. He knew that raids were based on guilds mainly. But there were always guilds that were too small, or loose collections of players that have to band together, cobbling their numbers to form the minimum of a Raid. In old gaming term, they were called PUGs (Pick-Up Groups). Winter specifically aimed for this, but he was not given even that chance by this player. Curbing his temper and giving it another try, he shoved people left and right to make his way to where a few hundreds players already exiting the East Gate. Standing right outside, Winter announced his intention to join a raid. There were tens and hundreds of others standing outside too. Someone threw him a party invite that he was not picky to accept. His minimap was immediately dotted with his raid group members and party view immediately adjusted for raid configuration.
Main Raid chat flashed an announcement that overrode everyone’s conversation, telling all members to head to a specific point in their map. Adjusting the chat to only Party, Winter opened his map and saw the marker, a Dragon’s head!
Whistling at the implication, he read the party chat, scrolling back to previous messages to understand more while his legs walked without a thought to the general direction of the marker.
From his quick read, after referring to the main chat too, the raid was another yearly event. Winter already experienced one in Cosare. It was pretty exciting! But a raid against a dragon? That’s even better!
Apparently some monster player referred in short as ‘Cain’ always passed the outskirt of Arcanum around this time of the year. When Winter asked in the chat for more information, he got a few laugh that he took good naturedly and got his explanation when he said he only got to Arcanum recently.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
A player posted Unicorn URL page that he clicked open. Typically players are not allowed to open any website at all while playing Royal Road. The exception was the Unicorn Royal Road website that has official informations.
It surprised Winter when he did. ‘Cain’ was not a Dragon exactly. The caption above a stern faced human around late 30 in age read “Dragon Mage Cain”. There was not much information in the page, only Cain roamed around Versailles continent but always pass the outskirts of Arcanum in a certain month. Looking up the page directory, Winter could not help but exclaim in surprise. A World Boss!
xXx
World Boss was another antiquated MMORPG term that was still in usage even in modern game like Royal Road it seems. World Boss is a boss character not attached to any dungeon. In the last MMORPG he played, World Bosses were attached to certain area, never roaming at all. Royal Road sure put a twist to it, creating a roaming World Boss. Cain appeared to be one of a kind too, as Winter checked the directory of [Bosses] that were updated with every discovery by players, he was the only human race. Winter saw Lich Bar Khan, Hydra, Scarlet Dragon, etc. All of them looked very nasty compared to Cain.
There was world shaking boom that unbalanced Winter, nearly dropping him on his ass. Plenty of players did.
“Take cover!!!!” someone shouted loudly at distance and another gigantic explosion rocked the ground.
Mouth agape, Winter saw a blast of thunder that levelled players very far from him. Like a kilometer. He once did a magic of that level, <
The shaking this time was much more intense and much longer in duration. His mouth fell open when a gigantic crack that ran from the source of the thunderous blast raced the wave of fleeing players. He swore he could hear the desperate scream of a player falling inside the wide crack. At the edge of his vision, Winter witnessed a party within his raid eliminated one after another. Strong! This humanoid beast Cain wasted hundreds of players in a blow! Incredible!
Winter was not sure if he could even do anything to this Boss. He suspected before he even got close enough to do anything he would be dead. But he wanted to at least lay eyes on this uber NPC. Feeling giddy, Winter jogged to where Cain would be, giving the mass of players very wide berth. He watched as the sky rained ice, and fiery rocks. The air filling with violent churnings of tornados and blasts of thunder at random intervals, killing any players that approached East. Winter met a few players that had the same idea as him too. He nodded to a thief class player that overtook him and joined a few warriors that ran in a group.
It did not take Winter and the loose collection of players he met on the way to crest a hill. What they witnessed could only be described as both beautiful and terrifying.
Winter was sure that THAT mountain was not there though he has never been to this part of the territory. For one, it looked very jagged and rough, as if it just erupted from the ground. From half kilometer distance, Cain looked very small. But whatever magic he cast from his hands were not. There was a flash of green and a large area in front of the jagged rise, including the players rushing up was squashed down like a foot of a giant suddenly stepped down from heaven and stomped its foot. The claw shaped indentation in the earth was probably fifty meter long!
“By Freya! This is crazy!” one player exclaimed. Normally, most people would glare at diehard role players like him. Now, however, others murmured their agreement too.
Winter had never faced a world boss before. But he has no doubt he would never make it there alone, if ever! This Cain fought alone and overpowered everyone that swarmed him. Surprisingly there were pockets of players that got to the foot of the jagged hill. They eventually surrounded Cain with sheer numbers, like soldier ants attacking, fearless of their death, only to take down their target.
Winter understood the mentality. This was a game, and here was a worthy enemy that killed their comrades. If he was down there with them, he would probably rush forward too, ignoring deaths around him, to just land a blow at the bastard that smacked everyone like a gnat.
While the players rushed up the hill, climbing the jagged rocks with difficulty, what Winter could only describe as a superstorm was brewing right on top of the hill. The ominous gathering of clouds, instead of collecting should be said as smashing together, as if God pulled them together in haste. Quickly it rotated, flashing thunderheads emerged en masse but did not reach the ground. That told Winter that whatever coming down would be much much harder than the bolts. And there it was.
Winter swore and dug his feet as he and the players around him saw a pillar of wind from the cloud slowly descended. A few smarter players ran for cover while he and some stabbed their weapons to anchor themselves. Before long, the gray pillar of wind touched down the base of the hill, sucking in everyone. Winter saw the whipping long brown hair of Cain, his hands extended to the heaven, the wind he summoned not affecting it overly much.
Even from where he stood, he was feeling the pull. It slowly got stronger and stronger as the pillar expanded. Feeling a cold dread, Winter dropped flat on the ground and began summoning blocks of stones to cover his whole body. It was a good call as all of a sudden the expanded pillar of wind exploded violently. Slicing blades of wind ripped to every direction and height.
Limb Severance! -30% HP!
One of the wind blades sliced his stone cocoon in half neatly. It severed his left arm nearly to his shoulder. Winter screamed in pain, cradling the stump with his other arm. Gritting his teeth, he rolled on the ground. He could not remember limb severance to be this painful! What the hell!
Finally the pain subsided enough for Winter to be able to pick himself up weakly. Dismissing the coffins around him now was as simple as a thought, something he discovered recently, not even needing a touch anymore. He was not very good yet at dismissing specific blocks without any contact or proper concentration. But for complete dismissal, he was good for it.
Standing with only one arm felt strange to Winter. He felt a little unbalanced. So he did not try. He could not stand anyway when he saw the scene of utter devastation in front of him. The whole ground up to a couple hundred meter radius was scoured clean, leaving crisscrossing scars on the earth bare of grass and trees, as if some mad patissiere used the ground as a practice for decoration.
All the players that stood beside him was no more. He quit his raid as he was literally the last one standing. What was a jagged hill of rocks was now a flat plain, completely round without any blemish. And a figure could be seen standing right at the center. It could only be Cain. He was slightly stooping. If it was real life, Winter would equate the posture with exhaustion. He guessed it was possible even for an NPC to get tired though he never really observed that possibility. If he was throwing that much magic around, enough to waste everything around him, with that much quantity, he would be lucky not to kill himself from miscast. He also wondered if one day a player would be strong enough to obtain such magic!
There was a ping of an update. Looking at the source of the sound, Winter saw that the Unicorn Web page he opened was still there. He forgot to close it and was too busy gawking to do it. The page on Cain was updated. Scrolling down to the last part, he read them quickly and was astonished at the informations. Grand Magics!
’Cain is a great magic user, on par in strength to even a Dragon though that was not the origin of his title. He was recently observed to cast numerous amount of Grand Magics.”
The word Grand Magic was highlighted. When Winter clicked on it, a short description of it appeared. It was described as a magic with great powers not available to human. It began at Tier 13 and ends at tier 16. It was mind boggling to Winter as Wizards were known to only reach Tier 12 and so far none got there yet! He saw Drek casting <
Scrolling down the listing of magics Cain uses, there were <
As much as he was in awe, he could not miss the roaring sound that came from the direction where Arcanum was. Organised columns of players raced forward in even steps, eating the distance to Cain’s position. There were hundreds of them! Quick count netted him approximately eight hundred with warriors in neat rows marching together, swords and shields drawn. A conspicuous player in blue armor was at the front, leading the charge.
It was a heroic sight, and a smart choice, letting the dumb players to sap Cain’s strength before they attack.
Winter dared himself to get closer, but not where the combined guilds were massing for their assault. A mostly buried rock was at halfway distance to Cain. It was a large enough cover for him. Calling up <
As expected, Cain did not throw more high powered spells. A visible blue glow wrapped his body. Winter was clueless what Cain was doing, but he expected the Boss to give a good account of himself. Cain did not disappoint. He exceeded it.
His left palm, pointed to the approaching players shot out a wide cone of whiteness. The effect was instantaneous. White frost covered the ground. Winter never seen the magic yet and few Wizards even know of it yet. <
His right hand shot upward and ejected a mass of white substance that immediately coalesced to a white cloud that even Winter could tell will be cold. Howling blizzard formed right above players, stopping their steps completely. A good number was even frozen on the spot. Wizards knew about <
Clapping his hands, a wave of force spread out. Winter could not see it, but he could feel the vibration in the air. The frozen players that were turned into ice statues cracked and crumbled while those that survived was busy being healed, the moment their ice coverings were shed by the whatever Cain did. They were much less enthusiastic now though.
In a blow Cain had reduced their number by at least a hundred and tied up their support healers to cover the leftovers. Arrows and spells flew. The raid finally got within engagement distance after taking their losses. Cain had a look of contempt in his face. His feet and arms braced, Cain’s bluish aura expanded a couple feet. All projectiles, be it spells or arrows shattered against what Winter could only describe as Aura.
There was a lull in the combat where both side eyed each other. Winter gulped from his hiding place, his head peeking out. The whistling wind was the only one dared to make a noise. The warrior with the blue armor roared heroically, rallying everyone. He charged forward without fear, followed by all warriors still alive in a surge of steel wave that would put cain at a great disadvantage should he let them got close.
“CHHHHAARRRRRGGGGEEEEE!!!!!” Winter heard the warrior in blue yelled when he was close enough. Winter winced when with a wave of hand a hammer made of air smacked the warrior aside. He landed with a crash ten meters away, somehow not quite dead. The outline of the hammer with blue tinge disappeared. Random assortment of AOE spells and single targets were unleashed. Cain was not giving the Raid group an inch. Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, even a few that Winter could not tell what was hitting the players that still closed in slowly despite their losses. It gave Winter the image of Meat Grinder, the famed battlefield during one of the olden world war. He was probably wrong, but it sure looked like a bunch of players attacking a freaking machinegunner and he was cutting them down as quickly as they approached him. Not quite.
Shield wielding players formed a tight wedge that protected others behind them. As fast as they got healed, the solid formation still took losses. But they inched forward, slowly. Spells and arrows were still raining on Cain without much effect, all of them repelled by the bluish aura that surrounded him. Was it Winter’s imagination or it shrunk?
The melee players managed to close within 20m! They took horrendous toll however. Winter did not count them, but if there were a hundred warriors still alive, he would be amazed. The ranks of bulkily armored warriors were small compared to their support players.
Winter was not sure if any of the spells they threw at Cain actually have any effect. It probably did as the mage he saw standing with the blue clad warrior at the square yelled encouragement to the ranged assault groups.
The female priest in white and gold was very visible in the dirt colored flats they were standing on. Winter idly thought on how she could possibly kept her clothes clean but quickly remembered that they were in a game.
He could not find the player with the large crossbow when he did a quick search.
“He is weakening! Keep it up!” The blue armored warrior that somehow managed to get behind the battlelines to receive healings yelled loudly, making all players more alert. Hope always did that. Somehow Winter was not surprised with Cain dashed their hopes with another display of magical prowess.
Cain’s blue aura indeed had shrunk noticeably under the continuous assault.
“Conceited adventurers. Begone.” He spoke slowly enunciating each word.
There was a flash of blue, as if Cain’s body exploded. Winter saw blue and then it receded as quick as a thought. While everyone stood around dumbly, waiting for something to happen, Winter that had been using his <
Calling up a stone coffin he jumped vertically as high as he could. For a single second he thought he was too late. In his sight he saw incalculable amount of magic circles forming on the ground. Winter that was familiar with this effect knew what would happen, but not at this scale! Every square centimeter of the ground they were standing on was covered in it. They radiated outward from Cain as his body flashed earlier.
There was a hollow crunch as if the world cracked and tall bone white spears rapidly thrust out from the ground. They were so sharp that even the rock he was hiding behind was pierced. Probably as tall as a normal human if they stand straight, the bone white spears left only Cain untouched. Winter’s <
Winter heard a ping on his window but he ignored it, enjoying the last few seconds of the view. He knew the moment he dropped down he would be impaled to death. There was no safe ground to stand on. The spears were packed so close together that he doubted he could get even his foot in between the gaps. His mind recording everything, Winter plummeted to his death. He only hoped it would not be too painful.
xXx
Damn, it was painful!
Winterexited the Capsule still feeling the residual pain, or maybe phantom pain? Who knows. He sat up and conked his head on the capsule’s surface, eliciting a further groan of pain plus a lump on his head. It took a minute or so rolling on the Capsule bed before he felt fine enough to step out of it.
In his mind he could remember every single details clearly, as if it was burned into his mind. The beginnings were fuzzy, the middle well remembered. But the last, they were unforgettable. The vision of Cain standing with his arms spread wide, looking up to the heaven as if in a scream in the middle of the forest of spears. Winter heard people say that some works of art could make their viewer feel a sense of happiness or some sort of near orgasm. He felt that the first time he drank his first cup of most expensive roast beans he ever bought. This felt even better!
It was already late and Winter did not feel like eating the food left in front of the door, another delivery from the Italian restaurant. He put them inside the fridge and immediately went to bed. He dreamt of a white thorn hill.
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Author's Note:
Folks! Thank Colltion for sparing time to edit my latest chapter. He does good work too, changing very little and pointed out quite a lot of typos and wrong words!
I hoped to write longer than this for the current chapter. But I thought the end is appropriate. I was both unmotivated to continue this chapter since it is of sufficient length and sort of drew a blank.
So, enjoy! I am releasing the chapter after holding onto it for two days, thinking I should add something. Sorry folks, I added nothing! Hope you like this chapter!