CHAPTER XVIII: ONLY NICOLE
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{21:55 LOCAL TIME 13TH MAY 1ME}
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LONG BEACH
PRIME
“You see those title bonuses make you an even more perfect tank. We have to get you some armor ASAP!” Soto said after Colonel explained his titles, and their bonuses to his teammates. He didn’t share with Bour or Adia since they said never to share your HUD prompts with anyone outside of your teammates.
“I can’t wear armor actually.” Colonel broke the news to him.
“What!?” Soto said eyebrow raising.
“Yeah, I know right, weird for a tank.” Sugar said looking at the prompts.
“Not just weird, it is super ill-advised. A tank, or melee character with no armor is just a target on the battlefield that can’t take any damage.” Soto looked at Colonel like he was crazy.
Colonel shrugged at Soto’s look of incredulity. “It was a title bonus actually, so I assumed it would be better, but I don’t know if armor would be preferred or not. I like it, but the armor may be even more dope, and I might be jealous, but it can’t be helped. I got what I got.” Clyde said yawning and stretching.
“What kind of bonus takes away armor?” Soto complained.
"A unique one."
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{UNIQUE BONUS: Defensive Bonus; Natural Armor+
Natural Armor removes the Legacy’s Armor Rating pool from their Character Sheet, They can no longer wear armor, Instead, their Defensive Rating rises with their level instead of tier, and regeneration is reduced to per second instead of per minute. The + adds a slight chance to replenish the DR pool per attack.}
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Soto’s mock horror-filled look was hilarious causing Sugar and Adia to both chuckle. Bour was looking at Colonel like he was some kind of rare flower.
“You do have DR though. What is that? I saw it on the specialized ghouls.” Sugar asked when she stopped chuckling.
Soto smiled at seeing her feeling better. He thought, ‘Mission accomplished.’ He looked at Colonel who nodded his approval as well. A young mind was the easiest to break in, but they can also be very brittle, so care was needed. Humor was a good way to lighten the air around them, and their job. Comedy would always make the mind more pliable.
During the after-action report or AAR, the team was taking advantage of the Colonel’s Tool tip. They looked at the Defensive Rating, and Armor Rating prompt again trying to see how they work.
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< TOOL-TIP >
{Defensive Rating}
{Defensive Rating (DR) is the Player’s natural magical protection(Usually becomes available at first specialization), it has to be overcome before HP, or damage is taken. For each point of DR is equal to a max of 1% of the Gaian’s HP. This pool replenishes over time depending on base class type, race, effects, and bonuses. *DR takes less damage from terrain damage outside of combat.*
Example: A Player with 250 hit points and a DR of 10, then your enemy must inflict up to 25 damage, before pain is even felt by the player. This CAN be bypassed by some magical means, critical stealth attacks, and of course overwhelming force.}
{Armor Rating}
{Armor Rating (AR) What armor a Player wears. It has to be overcome before HP, or damage is taken for each point of AR is equal to a max 10% of HP. This pool diminishes over time, and damage is taken. *AR takes more damage from terrain damage inside combat.*
Example A Player with 250 hit points and an AR of 10, then your enemy must inflict up to 250 damage before DR can be overcome or HP are lost by the Player. Can be bypassed by both physical(avoiding the armor), and magical means, but one must always go through the armor.}
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< NOTE >
{** denotes new information.}
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“So, Armor rating gives you more bang for the buck, than Defensive rating. Like a lot more.” Soto said looking at the Tool tip. Is that information about terrain damage new?”
“Yes, it is,” Clyde answered reading the last line of the prompt.
“DR recovers over time while AR is only as good as the current durability of the armor. So while you may not be able to take nearly as much damage as someone in armor, at least in a few minutes you can recover from a near-fatal blow. Or at least defend yourself from another.” Adia said, she and Bour were trying to let the team work through their processes but also wanted to give them as much information as they could without confusing them.
“Which if it was just armor you wouldn’t be able to wear it if it had gapping holes in it. So there is a benefit. But still, not ideal even a person with a twentieth of your armor will be able to take double your damage in a straight-up fight.” Bour said with sad eyes looking down at his own plate armor.
“Agreed, but without class skills, all I have is my general skills, and they lean to melee combat. Some of my title effects and bonuses are also geared towards a defensive role.” Clyde added.
“Really which ones?” Soto asked even though he knew most already, but it was an AAR so information need to be disseminated.
Clyde looked through his titles and brought up a few for Soto and Sugar to see. “War hero, and Retired war veteran both offer defensive bonuses, and pool refill on kills, even the natural armor+ bonus was a chance to replenish my DR. This is mad dope bro.”The Colonel couldn’t help himself he liked to stay serious, but it was all too cool because it wasn’t just words in his mind, but he could feel the power within him.
“Facts!” Soto agreed. “If you build yourself in a way that keeps your DR full, it's like always wearing an invisible armor.
“I don’t think we have a choice on the tank role.” He pointed to Sugar. “No offense, but doubtful that you will be the tank, and this guy is clearly not going to be in the thick of it, even if he always does find himself in the thick of it.” He nodded at Soto.
Soto shrugged. “True, I’m a Sergeant Major in the rear with the gear I say, except when zombies attack and stuff.” He laughed.
“None taken, I haven’t played a tank in an MMO in like ever. I come to games for magic and magic only.” She shamelessly rubbed her staff.
“So armor or no, I think I’m the guy for the job at least currently.” He looked to Bour.
Bour nodded. “Yes, don’t count on us to do much, again to big of a Tier gap we will be taking all of the EXP and we can’t get any from a pre-Runic world. But we won’t let you die in a dungeon.”
“But outside we are on your own?” Colonel asked.
“Yes, we cannot shift the balance of powers on the planet we may become threats to your gods.” He looked at Adia. “And while we do think we can take on a few Expert cultivators if a Master cultivator comes we could only flee. But there is only one Master cultivator in your former country. The Great Spirit.” Bour sighed. “Doubtful she will be coming our way anytime soon.
“She isn’t very happy with how your former country treated her chosen people,” Adia said delicately.
“Yeah, I don’t blame her. She should have seen how they treated all of our people at times.” Clyde said looking into Sugar and Soto’s eyes both of them agreeing with what he was saying.
“Now think, if you were a god, and had power beyond anything you can think of...” Adia looked at the Colonel, “Well everyone but you, you’re probably going to be the exception to a lot of rules to be fair. But I digress. If you had that power, what would you do to prevent that from happening again? What do you think she would do?” Adia asked.
“I would wipe all the transgressors from memory.” Soto said, “Well at least that is the story of the God that we know of.” He shrugged. “Big flood, fire and brimstone, smiting, stuff like that.”
“That is an option, and believe me it happens a lot on runic worlds, but the rules of the Celestial body prevent gods from directly harming humans, if you have godhood. They can of course defend themselves, their land and their people, they can create events, and quest to hinder the humans through the creatures, but they have to have their agents do their bidding.” Adia added.
“Huh, so gods can’t touch us directly? But they can make us juicy targets for other humans.” Clyde asked.
“Bingo.” Bour said, “But they won’t be punished too severely for one human, or even a team of them. So don’t act too callous in front of them.” He paused, “Well that is if they had signed the neutrality agreement. ”
“And if they didn’t?” Colonel asked intrigued, he loved Lore.
“They become rogue gods on the Demon Path. That is who the gods who signed the agreement hunt directly. They spend a lot of their resources on finding and eliminating rogue gods before they become devils. It is why they are hands off, rogue gods are a big problem for Celestials, so once a god signs the neutrality agreement, they have to start hunting down those gods that don’t. The rogue gods don’t pay the energy cost back to the Celestial.” Bour said. “It is the burden of godhood.”
“Celestials give those who sign the agreement a high-rank Dungeon core for their Sky islands if they are Gold rank and below or for their domains if they are Jade and above to use as they see fit.” Adia continued. “Most use it to train up their allies, subordinates, and chosen people. Rogue gods can only hide in their Dungeons. As long as someone doesn’t beat their Dungeon, they and their rogue pantheon can live forever.”
“Are all Dungeons run by gods?” Clyde asked.
Bour shook his head. “Not at all, ninety-nine percent of Dungeons are run and maintained by the Celestial body they are on. But when there are millions of Dungeons in an ever-expanding world they can be hundreds of thousands of rogue Dungeons and ten times that of rogue gods.”
“They often flee before they can be killed in their Dungeon, but that leaves them exposed to contracted gods. So they wait until they are about to lose. They throw everything at their Dungeon divers, hopefully distracting them so that they and their allies can escape.” Adia said smiling. “This is a rogue Dungeon actually.” She waved at the homeless area around them.
“Oh shit,” Soto said. “So we can help out the Great Spirit by beating this Dungeon?”
“You will see that gods rarely care for mortal problems unless it's their chosen people, it's not their fault, Clergy and their gods just have a bond that grows over time and can only be broken by the death of the god, and even then they believe in power over anything, and despises weakness, so even if their chosen people are wiped out, if they were weak, most gods just chose another people to be their chosen,” Bour said looking around. “Most.”
“Short answer she wouldn’t even know that you did it. Plus her anger over the way her people were treated, is still raw. I heard she is perched above your Mount Rushmore building her Master Domain from her sky island.” Adia said before following Bour’s gaze.
“Domain?” Clyde asked after looking at Soto who shrugged back at him.
“We can explain that later, the god of this Dungeon is gone, so you are about to get the proverbial kitchen sink thrown at you.” Bour chuckled. “Survive this, and you will be rewarded in kind.”
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“Shit.” Colonel cursed getting back into leadership mode. “Okay.” He looked at Soto and Sugar. “I have a ton of utility bonus effects that should help me be the tank for now.
“The set piece is going to come together, and you will get an even larger boost to your Defensive Rating once we get all those pieces,” Soto said remembering Colonel’s gloves prompt again. “Mine doesn’t give me DR, but it does give me a little mana back, and takes time off of my cooldowns per kill. Here take a look. This is definitely going to be a game changer.”
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{ITEM NAME: Dark Spawn gloves
ITEM TYPE: Gloves
ITEM RANK: LEGENDARY(set item)
ITEM DESCRIPTION: An archer tab that is a small black piece of leather that covers the player's index, middle, and ring fingers on both hands, usually made to protect the player from the bowstrings. They are NOT considered armor. The player can wear armored gloves over them, but it isn’t recommended. These gloves CANNOT be identified by any skill, item, or ability under mid-legendary.
Bonded to Soto
ITEM EFFECT:(PASSIVE) On target kill gain 1% Mana and a 5% chance to fully refill Mana pool per set piece.
ITEM EFFECT: (PASSIVE) On target kill gain 1 second off all cooldowns, and 5% chance of full reset of all spell cooldowns per set piece.
RARE MOD: 10% increase to Dexterity per set piece
Current%: 10% (Not displayed on CS)
PLATINUM MOD: Locked until 2nd set piece.
DIAMOND MOD: Locked until 3rd set piece.
EPIC MOD: Locked until 4th set piece.
LEGENDARY MOD: LOCKED Unlimited ammo skill}
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{This item has been bonded to your soul it cannot be stolen, or taken away from you permanently. Equip skill will allow you to recall these gloves from anywhere. This item is part of a bigger set. Because of your retired war veteran title, your equipment is unreadable by platinum, and below identification skills, abilities, or items.}
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“Yes I would have to agree, yours are better than mine for sure. This is going to make you lethal there sergeant major, that's crazy man.” Colonel said excited at his comrade being rewarded just as well as he was being rewarded. He reread the prompt.
“The fact that the bonuses aren’t on your character sheet is so ridiculous. No one will be able to judge your power even if they could see your Character Sheet.” Sugar said impressed.
“I can’t change colors like Colonel’s, but they do help my character build a lot. I burn through my Mana like crazy so getting one percent of my pool back every kill is useful, or would be useful if my pool wasn’t so small and my spells didn’t cost so much.” Soto slumped his shoulders in frustration.
“Yeah, but you also don’t have to use a spell to kill something, so you can become more efficient in your fighting style that way. Take it from me don’t overuse your mana in this game.” Sugar patted him on the back. She wiped her hand which was now covered in sweat.
“Sorry, I run hot.” Soto apologized.
“Look on the bright side,” Colonel cut in, “that number will only go up, and a five percent chance to get full cooldown reset, and full mana pool is nothing to sneeze at, every twenty kills should in theory give you a full reset at least once.” Colonel tried to encourage Soto. “Besides don’t you get Luck per level? From both of your classes.”
Soto’s eyes lit up with that realization. “You’re right, with every piece I get, and every level I gain, I will get better, and better chance that those effects will trigger. It already activated a few times in the last fight we had.” He nodded approvingly.
“It did?” Sugar said “Oh! That's why you were able to use your skills back to back before.”
Colonel smiled at Sugar getting back into the game. He knew that they were going to have to talk soon, and she seemed to have calmed herself. They had been distracting her but, it was almost time. The Quest needed to be completed so why not talk about the rewards?
“The same goes for you Colonel. Don’t you get all stats, so you may get a piece that can do the same thing mine does, but yours will just have a crazy defensive effect, over my offensive one. Like HP reset or something like that makes you harder to kill.”
“Actually, I have a few bonuses that do that, until I level up my skills and abilities their effects won’t change, but I don’t think it will be that hard if we are getting a ton of enemies to fight.”
Sugar’s eyes unfocus looking at her HUD.
“Well, good thing we had time for all of this to play out, I would be pissed about the hour MP recovery and the day-long one for HP. That does seem a little excessive now that I think about it. Colonel infers.
“Oh, but when I say it its whining.” Soto huffed.
They all go quiet looking at their HUDs, Bour and Adia look at each other. ‘I wonder if they have their own private team speak.’ Clyde wondered. ‘Of course they do.’
Scanning the map for hostiles, their team continued to go over the last of the prompts of their fights. It was pretty lucrative for them, even Sugar had gained a new class, even without knowing what her previous class spells were, Colonel had no idea what benefit she gained, but she had killed a ton of feral, and lesser ghouls in one engagement, after running from them for hours, it looked like the amount of exhaustion she was exhibiting was gone by being passed out for hours afterwards. He chuckled. She then pushed herself too far again trying to save Colonel, and he was grateful.
Colonel had gotten whiplash from the prompt overload he had from the engagement, clearing them up had taken almost the whole AAR. Then he got one that made him grin widely. “Well looks like I have gotten a class.”
Adia and Bour perked up. Colonel didn’t miss the movement but was too excited to even care.
“Really, wait I thought you already have a class. Just no class spells.” Soto asked excitedly.
Bour started talking right away. “Some races have their own classes. They just...” Adia put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head at Bour. “Right can’t help that much. Sorry lad.”
“No sweat Bour, you have been a tremendous help.” Clyde knew better than to feel disappointed, he would love as much information as he could get, but if it can’t be helped it can’t be helped. He wasn’t one to dwell long on something he couldn’t control.
“Oh?” Soto interrupted his thoughts. “About time, hopefully, you get a good spell to choose from.”
Sharing with the team they all read the prompt. Sugar smiled at how this game really seemed to be about attributes instead of EXP. She voiced that thought. “It seems that attributes are more important than Experience in this game. I got stats for everything so far, and EXP for only killing and quest completions”
A few exclamation points appeared on Clyde’s map alerting him, and then the team that their time of safety was about to come to an end. Even with that information he couldn’t help but smile at his new class. Now that he was in a hurry the information washed over him, but he still read the prompt one more time.
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< CLASS LEARNED >
{+1 to Strength & Constitution}
{CLASS: Fighter}
{Fighters are front-line type players. They put their bodies in between the enemy and their allies. The Fighter can specialize into classes such as Knight, Samurai, and Brawler.
The FIGHTER Class grants: +1 Strength, & Constitution per level. +25% skill point progression.
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{ALL CLASSES ARE ABSORBED BY YOUR LEGACY CLASS}
< CLASS UPGRADED >
{CLASS: Legacy
Legacies are jacks of all trades and potentially masters of them all. They can learn any class, by doing certain actions in a high-stress environment, and they can also learn all skills associated with those classes, they can also choose to not learn certain things for unique bonuses. You have started to walk down the fighter path more options for specialization will be revealed.
Attributes per level:
+1 to all attributes except for magic per tier & +2% Bonus to all stats per tier not printed on CS. Fighter Upgrade grants +1 Strength & Constitution.
Legacies do not get skill point progression from their class level-ups.
LIVE WELL, DIE FREE}
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< FIGHTER CLASS SPELLS LEARNED >
{Increased Damage(Active): When using any weapon or hands, the Legacy can increase the damage of their attack by 10%. Cast time: Instant. Cost: 10 Mana. Duration: 1 attack. Cool down: 10 seconds. Requirements: chant, and/or weapon.}
{DR on Kill(Toggled): When on, every melee kill recovers DR. Cost: 10 mana per second, DR recovered per kill: 1}
{Bulwark(Passive): Increase Constitution by 10% when in melee range of any enemy.}
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< THIS IS BRANCHING PATH >
{You are at a crossroads in your power. As a Legacy you can choose to take all of the class spells, or one of your class spells will become like a Skill-tree that doesn’t count against your max amount of Skills.}
{TOUCH ONE!}
{Class skills/General skill}
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“Yeah, I can see how I can have a cheat character, looking at this.” Colonel stared at prompts with Soto and Sugar who were franticly reading his prompt.
Soto’s face goes through some truly epic facial expressions landing on contentment. “You deserve it, brother, let's have fun with this shit. You need a cheat character, you are great at telling stories, but awful at playing them.”
“Hey!” Clyde said with mock indignation.
Soto laughed at Colonel's sore face. “You’re right, your stories aren’t very good either. Hahahaha.”
“HA! HA!” The Legacy mocked “Whatever, that subpar writing got me my own PAR, which is probably why I probably have a cheat character.” He said proudly
“Likely it was your brother Roger who did both of those things, as he is very aware of your trash gaming skills.” Soto smiled wide. “But never fear homie, I got your back always.”
“No doubt.” Clyde deadpanned.
“Besides I am benefiting from the cheat as well.” Soto looked over to Sugar. “Sugar too, so we can’t complain. At least when she isn’t running for her life, or burning out her brain with consecutive magic bolts.”
“It's called void bolt.” Sugar said, “Soto is right I never thank you for the class change.”
Colonel nodded at her. “I think you repaid that already by saving my life trooper. I only had one hit point at the end of that fight.”
“What?!” Soto asked loudly as Colonel noticed Sugar’s eyes unfocused. “You were that close to death?”
“Yeah, but I just leveled up, and it replenished my pools,” Colonel replied.
Bour and Adia nodded their approval. They knew that early on that works for players as they tiered up that benefit isn’t as useful, however, but some things had to be learned on their own.
Sugar yelled. “Oh shit I got a new ability.” Sugar smiled reading it over. “It isn’t perfect, but it has potential.”
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< YOU HAVE UNLOCKED AN ABILITY >
{ABILITY NAME: Burnout(Passive)
ABILITY LEVEL: STUDENT 0
Description: Once a mage has tapped into their own grit it allows them to cast their class spells without cool down by using their HP as fuel. Once engagement is over depending on the amount of consecutively chained together spells determines Exhaustion Debuff.
STUDENT EFFECT: Reduction of debuff duration per level.}
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Sugar looked up from her prompt to Soto looking at her funnily a few feet from her. She jumped back a little startled. “Hey not so close,”
Soto ignored her. “Are you alright? Do you still have a debuff or concussion?” He looked at her thumbnail. “No. Girl, that ability is dope, it will come in handy in hard fights, and boss fights especially, don’t ever sell yourself short again, do you hear me.” He said seriously. Soto was a girl Dad, and he always knew when a few words could change a whole mood, for good, and for ill.
Sugar looked at him as he stepped away. She subconsciously reached for her glasses. ‘Right, I wore contacts today.’ She thought when she froze her contact subscription was way out of date. “I can see you perfectly.” She said in awe more than anything, of all the things that had happened this made her think the game wasn’t real, she had corrected her vision.
“I would hope so, I am right here,” Soto said while rubbing his goatee. “I have allergies, and pretty sure I should be sneezing up a storm here, but I’ll risk it. “Why haven’t you resummoned your pet?”
Sugar froze, she was trying to keep her fragile mind off the death of her pet, and best friend, and she had completely forgotten she was in a game. She looked at her spell description to see how it had changed since she had leveled.
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{Class SPELL: Summon Void Familiar KUMA(Toggle)
The Void Druid summons a creature raised by them and imbued with the energy of Dark and Death Mana.
Cast time: 10 seconds. Cost: 100 mana & 50 HP -31 Mana per hour. Duration: until death or dismissal. Cool down: 120 seconds. Requirements: chant. Hand Signs & Blood of Void Druid
Familiar has 3 forms, and all do different things: Chibi Form heals and replenishes mana over time in and out of combat, Base Form is for traveling the druid may ride her summon, and Battle form.}
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She smiled at Soto. She could summon her again. She started the chant for the summon her hit points dropped by fifty as she had to bite her hand to add her blood to the incantation when she yelled, “Summon Void Familiar KUMA!”
A portal opened up and Chibi Kuma jumped right into Soto’s arms. And started to lick him.
[Thank you, she was not going to remember without you.] She said in team speak.
Soto laughed “Still no allergies, this is pretty cool. You are real fluffy.” Soto rubbed Kuma’s belly while she wagged her oversized tail of her Chibi body, she drooled with her tongue out.
Sugar looked at her dog in the Chibi form, and got a little emotional slowly morphing into full realization of her situation. Colonel nodded at Soto with unspoken understanding.
“Right, we are in a game...but it feels so real.” She sighed like the weight of the world had fallen off of her shoulders. Then the dam broke, even with the weight removed the damage to her non-survival psyche was already done.”
Sugar had seen things. Crazy unexplainable things. Her eyes widen in terror, abstract unexplainable terror. “I have to get out of here...Now!” She said looking around franticly.
“Things are spiraling.” The narrator conveniently narrated in a sing-song voice.
Sugar looked at the two teammates with cold eyes that had no familiarity in them whatsoever. “How do you know my name?” Sugar said in a dead serious voice. “And my dog’s name? How is my dog even here?” She started to pace back and forth, Kuma jumped up and started pacing seriously with her hooman, in the process she turned into her Battle form.
“I’m Colonel, this is Soto, we saw you at the convention center. So I assume if we can make it back there, we can log out of the game we’re playing.” Colonel said calmly. They were in trouble, Sugar’s lights were on, but nobody was currently upstair. Instead, there were three minds fighting for control of her body in the basement.
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< CONGRATULATIONS >
{Glimpse Upgrade Complete}
DIAMOND BONUS: Glimpse+; 99% chance to see through subterfuge. The + adds a visual representation of the subterfuge. Hopefully without transporting you halfway across time.
{THIS BONUS CAN NO LONGER BE UPGRADED}
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“Stand down Soto,” Colonel said sensing him tense up and sighing inwardly in relief when he didn’t raise his weapon. He looked at Sugar pace back and fought like a mad person talking to themself. He could have punched his battle buddy for what he said next though.
“Sugar you okay?”
“Of course, she wasn’t okay. If the Colonel didn’t have his military composure he would have face-palmed himself. Naturally, words spoken can’t be taken back...” The narrator added right as a silent bolt of golden lightning slammed into the Void Druid and her dog, blinding the two soldiers in the darkness of the parking lot.
As the light cleared, Sugar stood stock still, her head turning to the side from left shoulder to right, and back. Each motion made the sound of a massive pendulum swinging in a grandfather clock. Her eyes slowly turned orange like a dying flame, but one that someone had just thrown a little more kindling on, the glow getting brighter by the second.
Kuma’s form changed as well, her black fur turned into golden braided locks, her tail and body expanding, her Akita face regal and deadly, eyes golden like the sun. She suddenly was equipped with metal armor that glowed brightly in the dull firelight of the homeless encampment.
In the meantime, Sugar was going through her own impromptu transformation. Liquid metal leaked out of her pores forming a living armor around her. The armor with full-face helm mimics Sugar’s face in metal and was the color red. She opened the helm revealing long Rihanna red hair, as a small metal buckler formed on her right arm and a long metal pike formed in her left hand, and she held it with ease and laser focus.
“Sugar?” Soto asked tentatively.
She closed her face mask, the liquid metal sealing it shut, and the eyes... her eyes were flames. “There is no Sugar here!” A husky voice said in a dark ominous muffled tone from behind the helm. “Only Nicole.”
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< ALERT >
{Sugar has left your team!}
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