A hooded figure ran through the dark streets of Gargantuan City. Night had fallen within the virtual game world of Sigil Online. Light posts shined around, but light had difficulty reaching the many alleyways between the large and numerous structures that stretched towards the sky.
The figure’s footfalls splashed as they dashed down an alley. The rain was still falling, pattering against the figure’s shoulders and covering everything with a glistening sheen.
A flash filled the night sky as a bolt of lightning streaked miles away. Thunder boomed seconds later, followed by another flash of lightning and another rumble.
Fingers made of pale white bone, curled around the edge of a nearby roof. An avian skull lifted and a pair of dark purple glimmers of light peered out from hollow eye sockets.
The skull turned slowly, those purple specks following the hooded figure’s movements. Another boney hand lifted to brush along the balcony it was peering over. Its movements were fluid, as it was spurred into motion, moving swiftly along the roof. Long bone-tendrils clicked quietly and propelled the creature along. The tendrils looked almost like a human spine, ending with a sharp clawed tip. The monster’s appendages seemed to hover inches away from a central rib cage that seemed humanoid in nature.
As the hooded figure slipped down another alley, the bone-creature pulled itself from over the ledge of the roof. The taps of its tendril tips were drowned out by the sounds of rain and thunder. Each bolt of lightning illuminated and shined off the monster’s form, but the figure below didn’t appear to be aware of its presence.
After another lightning strike, the creature leapt from the side of the brick wall. Silently, it plummeted. Then, with a multitude of loud cracks, its clawed tendrils pierced and broke the concrete ground as it swung a lengthy arm out. Its fist closed and smacked the running figure against the nearby wall.
The runner didn’t have any time to react as the monster assailed him. His body thudded against the nearby brick wall. He grunted with the impact and fell down onto the wet ground. His hood fell back. His head lifted to see his assailant.
The monster’s bone-tendrils clicked against the concrete as it positioned before the fallen young man. The creature’s tendrils extended out, closing him in.
“Nowhere to run,” a screeching voice emanated from the beak of the avian skull. “When I was a player killer, I would’ve at least tried holding you up to see what loot you’d give me for not killing you. But as a monster, killing you is just so much more rewarding for my progress,” the monster cackled as it brought one of its many tendrils back into the air, prepared to strike the rising player.
The young man slowly rose from the ground. Another lightning strike lit the alleyway and illuminated his face, showing off his longer black hair and his soft androgynous features.
Just behind his hip, his fingers moved rapidly in a predetermined pattern.
“You think you’re a monster?” his voice rose up in defiance to the monster surrounding him.
With one final movement of his fingers, a small white sphere materialized in his palm, outside of the monster’s line of sight.
The young man stood upright and stared into those purple pins of light in the avian skull.
“You have no idea what it means to be a monster.” With that, his hand clenched and shattered the translucent white sphere. The ensuing sound of breaking glass, was hidden behind another roar of thunder.
The young man’s body changed rapidly. His clothes and skin seemed to meld together and transform into a chitinous hide, almost like the bleached bone of the monster before him.
The bone-creature let out another horrendous screech and drove that readied tendril into his chest.
But the transformation only needed a matter of seconds to complete. The clawed bone tip clattered back and rang off the impossibly hard exoskeleton of the being that now stood before it.
Instead of a young man wearing a hoodie, something else entirely was standing before the bone-creature.
A pair of dark black eyes, almost like black holes, stared back at those pinpoints of purple light. It was still humanoid in appearance, but with its chitinous exoskeleton, it resembled something between a man and an insect. Its appendages were elongated and the pale white matched that of the bone-monster.
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There was no mouth. But he didn’t need to speak.
“You’re a monster too!” came the screeching voice of the bone-monster. “But why were you—” its voice cut off as its form noticeably shifted back and away from the humanoid insect before it. “No!” it screamed. “I thought the White Weevil was—”
A clenched fist smashed into the avian skull, cutting the sentence short. The bone-monster’s body crashed into the nearby wall. Dust and bricks fell as its large body broke partway into the structure, but it wasn’t finished yet. Not by a single attack.
The White Weevil dropped to the ground, after leaping and smashing the monster in the face. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he darted for the bone-creature.
The monster pulled itself out of the wall with its many tendrils. It swung at the fast moving insect. Its large fist—easily the size of the other player’s torso, was deflected by the White Weevil’s arm. The Weevil’s fists clenched and one after another, they pummeled the bone-creature’s ribcage as its tentacles thrashed around in an attempt to deflect and pull away from the insect.
The Weevil didn’t relent. He landed blow after blow upon the monster as his arms deflected the oncoming tendrils.
As the Weevil’s arm pulled back for another swing, the bone-monster managed to pull away, digging its clawed tendrils into the brick wall. It propelled itself upwards, its purple eyes brighter than they’d been before. Those sharp bones crunched into the wall, but it suddenly came to a halt and was pulled back to the wet ground below, as long pale white fingers clutched one of its spine-like tendrils and yanked it back.
“No!” the monster screeched as it came crashing down upon its back.
The Weevil leapt upon the fallen monster and drove his fists down into that avian skull.
Crack crack, crack crack, crack!
As the last blow landed, the beak broke off. A second later, every bone that comprised the monster’s body, broke apart into thousands of glimmering white particles.
The insect-like player dropped through the defeated monster’s body. His feet smacked against the wet stone ground. Another lightning strike lit up the alley, followed by a thunderous boom a second later.
In front of the Weevil’s feet, rested an item, left by the dead monster-player.
He bent over and picked it up with those long, thin fingers. He held it up to his eyes, turning it over and side to side. It looked to be a piece of the monster itself. One of the sharp clawed tips of its spine-like tentacles.
Above the item, a readout appeared for the Weevil’s eyes only. It read:
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Claw of The Pale Impaler
?
?
?
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The Weevil’s shoulder’s slumped. He shook his head and gestured with his fingers to bring up an inventory screen. After a couple taps to various buttons on the overlay, the claw dematerialized and a new icon appeared within his inventory.
He turned his head and looked around his surroundings. There didn’t appear to be anyone else around. He turned and continued running the way he’d been going, before the monster had jumped him.
The rain pattered against his exoskeleton as he darted through the alleyways. Eventually he reached a larger street, but he remained in the shadows out of sight. He lifted his hand and brought up a status-screen for his character. He tapped several times as miscellaneous icons. When he was finished, the screen disappeared. A moment later, his chitinous body began to fragment. The pieces broke fell away like the shell of a hatching animal. The white bits of exoskeleton dissolved on the ground, leaving no trace of what he’d just looked like. He was now an unassuming young man, with a hoodie. He pulled the hood back over his head and went into the street. The closest pedestrians were dozens of feet away. He was confident that no one had been watching him.
He was surrounded by tall buildings, but ahead of him was a pair of doors with blue neon lighting. Above the doors, was a orange neon sign that read ‘Neon Nest.’
He reached the door and pulled the metal handle. He headed inside without further incident.
Inside the Neon Nest were various tables, stools, recliners, couches, anything you’d find in a more relaxed and social bar. There was a long counter with a bartender behind it. He was a bald man with bright pink eyes. He was chatting with two people sitting at the counter. There were at least a dozen other people sitting around, chatting.
No one paid him any mind as he went to a doorway that led to a stairwell that descended down. He went down what would’ve been about two floors, before he reached a door. He opened it and went down a short hallway. At the end of the hall was a simple blue door, surrounded with blue neon lights. He opened it up, seemingly not needing a key of any sort.
Once inside, he pulled his hood back. There was a bookshelf with only a dozen or so books upon it. There was a simple bed across the room, along with a desk and other bits of furniture. He went right for the bed and laid down. He lifted his hand and gestured to bring up another holographic display screen. He tapped a button that said ‘menu.’ Then, he tapped a button that said ‘logout.’
The screen disappeared. In its place, was the number ten.
It changed to nine, then eight.
He closed his eyes and waited.
“Now I’m going to be late,” he murmured in a soft voice.
The countdown reached zero, and the game world faded away.