This was her third teleportation in nearly as many minutes, but it still surprised her. The same ringing noise and static in her vision was there, as she had expected. What she didn’t expect was the forceful rush of the frigid night air that assaulted her from every direction, nor the deep, intensely rich smell of manure.
Only a few minutes had passed since she was sat comfortably in the therapists office. All of her senses were being overwhelmed. It took her a moment to realise it was now night, and that she was stood in a field.
There was something new from the system in the edges of her vision, but she was too distracted to look at it. Instead, her eyes followed the curvature of the massive translucent glowing dome that surrounded her and covered her view of the night sky. She could see that the centre of that dome was connected to the ground by a large, towering black structure, spanning the entire gap.
It was hard to figure out the scale and distances involved but she was quite close to the edge of the dome, far from the tower itself. She was unable to see where the dome touched the ground because of the hedges that surrounded the field she was in. Emily realised she could see at least four more of these domes and towers outside of the one she was currently in.
While she couldn’t see anyone else, she began to hear multiple shouts around her, presumably from the people she had seen before, in the glowing white void. They all called out to each other.
“Hey!” she shouted. “I’m over here!” she yelled, joining in with the others and repeating herself a few times, hoping someone would hear her. The last thing she wanted was to be alone. That was an unusual feeling for her, but this was an unusual situation.
She eventually honed in a voice that was louder than the others. She hoped that meant they were close, so she sprinted towards the row of hedges in that direction. Emily was surprised at how quickly her legs moved. She hadn’t invested any points in to Dexterity, yet she felt noticeable nimbler and faster.
She glanced at her vision, studying it properly now.
> Cohort 37: 647/647
> Mission: Clear the ground floor. 58 minutes and 17 seconds remaining
’Clear the ground floor’, so it seems like we will have to fight something, and a time limit? As if this situation wasn’t stressful enough! Is that how many people there are?
She shouted to the person on the other side, having quickly reached the edge of the field. Their voice was much clearer now, clearly belonging to a man.
She just had to make it across this hedge.
Emily examined it. It was a lot taller than her, perhaps two meters high. She tried to lift herself up and climb over, but quickly realised it couldn’t support her, so she tried forcing her way through it instead but the branches and thorns were catching on her clothes and cutting her skin, slowing her progress.
Oh, wait!
She tried activated her first and only skill, Barkskin. It was similar to viewing her status screen. It activated just by thinking about it. A layer of brown bark quickly started forming around her and, surprisingly, it extended to her clothing as well.
She pushed her way through the hedge with a lot more ease now. She stumbled out on the other side.
Where she was met with a kick to the face.
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He shrieked and kicked again, knocking Emily to the ground. Her bark crunched and crackled, portions of it falling to the ground where his kicks landed.
“Stop! What the hell are you doing!” she screamed, scrambling away from him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Oh. My. God. I am so sorry!” he said after a moment, letting his brain catch up with his ears. “I thought you were some kind of creature! Why do you look like that!”
“Well what did you expect me to look like you colossal moron!”
“Jesus! How about a woman and not a fucking walking tree!”
She thought about it for a moment. "Yeah. Okay,“ she said in resignation and took another moment to catch her breath. “I guess that makes sense."
“Of course it does! You scared me half to death!”
“You kicked me half to death!”
“Call it even?” He said, hopeful, and extended a hand towards her.
Emily ignored his offer and climbed to her feet by herself, then looked at his hand after a moment, shook it, and sighed. “Let’s just forget about it. I’m Emily.”
“Stuart. Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you too badly, did I?”
She rubbed her damaged bark. “Yeah I’m fine. Actually…”, she drifted off when she thought about looking at her status.
> Constitution: 5.3/6
So that would be my heath, I guess. It’s different to what I expected.
She felt her skill fading slowly. She wasn’t sure exactly how much longer it would last for, but she decided to cancel it early. The bark slowly crumbled to dust, before it turned in to ethereal motes of light and faded away, revealing her face.
“Oh shi-”
This time it was her turn to kick him.
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They walked around, shouting and trying to locate more people. Stuart was an adult, tall and lanky with a bald head and a long beard. Emily learnt that he was from New Zealand, and he invested his attribute point in to Intelligence. He said he wanted to be a wizard, not a fighter.
Maybe don’t kick people then!
She had to admit though, Stuart did look the part. He picked The Way of The Pig, a common Integration Perk that allowed him to remain calm under pressure. It clearly hadn’t worked.
They realised their phones were gone, so they couldn’t call for help, or use a flashlight. The glow from the translucent dome overhead gave off a faint light, but it was still quite dark. After a little while they crossed a couple of fields, through a gate this time, and found another group.
There was Taruna, an old man from Indonesia, and Maisie, a middle aged woman from Scotland with brown hair. Taruna focused on Constitution, like Emily. He hoped it would make him feel young again. Maisie on the other hand focused on Strength. She said she didn’t want to be weak. Emily understood.
10 minutes had now passed and they couldn’t spot anyone closer, so they decided to head towards the tower. Taruna and Maisie had tried the domes edge earlier, but it was like a solid wall.
“Did you try digging underneath?” Stuart asked.
“Not for very long, but yes.” Maisie said. “It’s in the ground too. I think it must be a spherical shield, trapping us inside.”
“Or perhaps it is to keep something out,” Taruna said. “We saw people in the other spheres.”
“What! What happened!” Emily said.
“Nothing. I don’t think they noticed us,” Maisie added. “We tried to get their attention but they couldn’t hear us.”
“So it’s airtight as well. That could be bad for us. Let’s hope we’re not stuck here for long,” Stuart said.
The group headed towards the tower, all the while disagreeing on its purpose and that of the barrier. Why were they brought here, who or what could have caused this, was this really Earth? Would they find their friends and family soon? If not here, then perhaps in the other spheres nearby?
Then they heard a blood curdling scream in the distance.
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Emily’s heartbeat pounded in her chest. They looked towards the direction the scream came from, which was closer to the tower. This whole area was filled with small fields lined with hedges so it was hard to get a clear line of sight on anything.
An agonizing moment passed with the group temporarily frozen in surprise. The screaming continued. “We have to help them!” Emily finally shouted, running towards the noise.
“Emily! Wait! We need to be smart about this and…” She heard Stuart start to say, before his voice drifted off in to the distance.
Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay. She thought, as she activated Barkskin again and bulldozed her way through hedges, leaping over fences and ditches. She was discovering that not only could she run faster, but jump further too.
She looked at the counter from before.
> Cohort 37: 565/647
Does that mean.. nearly one hundred people… are dead?
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It was darker now that the light from the sphere was further away, being closer to the tower. She made it past the final row of hedges that blocked her view and spotted two people. Someone was on the grass screaming in pain, and the other was wrestling something. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it was big.
She closed the distance as fast as she could. The figure was pummeling the horse-sized creature constantly, their fists lighting up briefly on every hit. The creature screeched and bucked to try to dislodge them from their grapple.
As she got closer she could smell the blood. She had to focus. The creature fell to the ground, partly crushing the person attacking it, and they screamed out.
She could see it better now. In front of her was a giant tusked beast with black fur. It reminded her of a wolf, if a wolf had 6 legs. It backed up and got ready to lunge. Although it was injured and slowed, she knew she wouldn’t reach it in time.
“Hey!” she shouted. The beast noticed her, and turned to face the newest threat rather than its earlier, now prone, attacker. Then Emily blinked, and it disappeared.
Where did it go!
She caught up to where she last saw it and spun around. A few moments later she spotted something. The creature was materialising out of a shadow on the ground. It pounced out, like a fish breaching the water. It lunged at Emily with its jaws wide open, ready to bite.
She jumped backwards and tried to dodge. Instead of crushing her skull, it bit through the bark on her right shoulder. The bark weakened the creatures bite but it was still able to tightly clench her body in its jaws. At the same time its left tusk pierced through her sternum, just below her neck, with Barkskin offering no resistance this time.
Emily screamed.