Adelynn and Starla rode in the direction of the battlefield. Adelynn touched her earring, “Hey, tell me about Arzuse?”

“It’s a stupid fight.” Replied Starla. “It attacks you and you have to weather the storm and eventually it gives up and leaves you alone.”

“Can it be killed?”

“Sure, if you hit it with something big like a meteor or dark gigablast, but it doesn’t have any loot to drop so there’s not really any point.”

Adelynn thought for a moment. “What else?”

“It tends to break armor and swords, so you might want to try to dodge instead.”

“Sounds obnoxious.” Said Adelynn.

“It can be. We’ll have to find the tunnel entrance and clear out the Cult of Arzuse first, but I know where that is and can help you with it.”

“Alright, lead the way.”

Starla zipped down on her broom and into the woods near the clearings edge. Silver wanted to run full out and stayed out of the forest for now, running parallel to Starla.

“I’m there.” Said Starla after a few minutes of hoofing it.

“Coming.” Replied Adelynn as Silver begrudgingly slowed down to walk through the forest.

Starla showed her a poorly hidden hatch covering a hole in the ground. “Tight quarters down there.”

Adelynn sighed and pulled out her shortswords. A few tunnels and some easy goblin fights later they found themselves in a larger room with the ‘high priest of Arzuse’. Adelynn sighed with relief; the room was large. She drew her claymore and swished it around before looking back at Starla. “Is this a fight you can help with?”

“Yes. How much help do you want?”

“Let me get in a good workout.” Replied Adelynn. Starla shrugged as Adelynn charged into a group of goblins and began to cut them down left and right. Starla picked out a few goblins that looked like they were trying to surround and flank Adelynn and lobbed a spell in their direction. She’d been playing around with combining similar spells into one effect and this was a great time to try things out. She held a fireball in one hand and chanted the spell for a lighting ring to hold in the other. She mushed them together as a child would play with clay and threw them out to create whatever it would. A ring of lightning superheated the fire and pulled it into a fat torus that surrounded the startled goblins.

Starla learned Plasma Ring popped up in her status page.

A goblin tried to touch the ring and exploded into black mist. The others in the ring with him held their ground and didn’t try to move, but pulled out bows.

“This is easier on horseback!” yelled Adelynn.

“Maybe for you.” Replied Starla. “But you’re doing something odd and I don’t know how.”

“I’m just playing the game!” said Adelynn pulling her claymore out of a larger, brutish goblin.

Starla snapped her fingers and the plasma ring around the goblins collapsed in on itself frying them to ash. The leader of the cult joined the fray and swung at Adelynn with a lash made of black lightning. Adelynn felt it wrap around her left wrist and it stung, but wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.

“Is that supposed to hurt?” she asked as she ran towards the High Priest of Arzuse. She swung her claymore one handed since her left arm was currently not able to grip anything. The blade bit deeply into the High Priest and he screamed.

Starla wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Adelynn just swung a two-handed weapon one handed and that usually didn’t work out very well. Even for veteran players, trying to sword and board with a two handed sword was terrible. “Maybe Mythticle thinks she still had her other hand on it?” thought Starla. “Some kind of lag maybe?”

Adelynn’s left arm was suddenly working again and she brought her claymore back through the High Priest in the other direction. He screamed again and exploded into black mist and dropped a bundle of things to the ground. All his followers were startled by his defeat and spent a moment frozen in shock.

Escape is forbidden for all, now that you’re caught in a Force Wall!

A wall of yellow light surrounded the area and shut off all the exits for the retreating goblins.

“Doesn’t really seem sporting, now does it?” said Adelynn.

“If we wipe them entirely out, we won’t have to worry about cultists showing up on the encounter tables for us for a while.”

“Oh. Alright. Can you get them?”

Burning ire burning all, taste the fury of Fireball!

Goblins screamed as they took enough damage to slay a monster twice their level and piffed into black mist. Some dropped packets and others just coin.

Adelynn surveyed the room. “Right. Thanks!”

“No problem!” replied Starla. “You have to do the next fight all on your own and I just want to help where I can.”

Adelynn heard a chime and looked to her status page. She had a new achievement marking the total obliteration of the cult of Arzuse.

“Seems kind of cruel.” She said.

“It’s a game?” said Starla packing things up and handing Adelynn a big bundle. “If they were real then I could see giving them quarter, but it’s not.”

Adelynn took the bundle of things from Starla and put them in her pack. With the amulet off the High Priest they could continue on to the next part. The sun had gone down by the time they emerged from the twisting tunnels the goblins had dug.

“I’ll set up a camp and I need a break.” Said Starla.

“Why did we get a room in town if we were just going to stay out in the field.” Asked Adelynn.

“Oh crap. I forgot I did that. I even paid for five days. Why don’t you give it a shot and we’ll head back to town?”

“Sure.”

“It took me a few tries.” Said Starla.

“Okay.” Said Adelynn. “Glad to know I can screw it up.”

Starla shrugged. “I just didn’t want you to think it was easy.” They walked out on the battlefield and to the place the quest text indicated. “You might want to not bring your fancy claymore.”

“Why not?” asked Adelynn.

“It can break weapons.”

“Even the fancy sword from the giant?”

Starla shrugged. “I’ve seen better get snapped.”

“By this thing?”

“Well, no. I haven’t seen anyone weather the assault ‘for fun’.”

Adelynn pulled out her claymore. “I’m going to figure it out on my own.”

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“Alright.” Replied Starla. “It’s not like you don’t do things you shouldn’t be able to. I’ll be here. I’ll res you if you die, so don’t click the ‘Ok’ button.”

Adelynn smiled. “Thanks.” She turned her attention to the location that she needed to activate the amulet to spawn Arzuse. In the quest she was putting the spirit to rest or at least quieting it down, but Adelynn thought she was ready. She drank a speed up potion and held up the amulet.

“Restless spirit! Emerge and show me your anger!” she yelled while holding the amulet aloft. For a moment nothing happened and she wondered if she missed a step, but then a wind picked up all around her and a fine and beautiful great sword shimmered into being in front of her. Adelynn loved the design; it had shining angelic wings for a guard and a massive amethyst for a pommel; the blade was straight and pristine and sharp.

“Who dares awaken me from my slumber?” it asked as rusty daggers, broken swords, spear heads and other discarded weapons of war began to swirl around it.

Adelynn held the claymore from Gorlok aloft. “I do, bring it!”

Starla remembered those words, she’d heard them a few times. Now it would just attack her relentlessly and Adelynn would probably have to try again.

“What mongrel do you bring before me?” shouted Arzuse.

Starla looked up, that never happened before.

Adelynn was at a loss for words. “You mean my weapon? From Gorlok?”

“Such a disgusting creation.” Said Arzuse. “Prepare yourself.” A message popped up. Arzuse is casting Blade tornado.

Starla was a bit confused. That was his enrage timer cast, for when a fight went on too long and he was starting with it? Not to mention that Arzuse had dialog for when it really didn’t like someone’s weaponry?

Adelynn took a few steps forward and swung at the fancy sword while the casting indicator filled up. Several daggers and a broken shortsword caught her blade and pushed it away. A spear heads and other sharp shards swung at her and she took three nasty hits in her side and back as she was off balance. She backed off and focused on defense. For a moment she seemed like she’d be okay, the blades bounced off hers as she whipped it around with inhuman speed. She was able to get her heavily armored bits in between the blades she missed.

Starla just watched the Blade Tornado cast bar finished and all the weapons in the field swirled around Arzuse in a solid field of death. Adelynn tried to keep up with all the attacks and for a moment she did, but the intensity increased dramatically. She warded things off with her own sword as best as she could, but something got past and struck her. She barely registered the sensation, but her own hit points were dropping quickly.

Several blades hit her claymore in the same location in rapid succession and a crack formed. Adelynn had a moment to register the crack before the whole blade exploded into shards. “What?!” she yelled as hundred of blades dug into her and she fell to the ground gasping.

“You may keep such filthy things.” Said Arzuse before launching the shards of her own sword into her. She collapsed to the ground and Arzuse backed off and dissipated back to where it’d come from.

Starla hopped up and ran over and threw out a resurrection spell. Adelynn was surrounded with a warm light and shards of weapons pushed their way out of her body and thudded to the grass. She pushed herself up on her hands and knees as more bits of steel fell out of her. Starla followed up the resurrection with the strongest healing spell she could cast, but it only just barely topped off Adelynn.

“Are you alright?” asked Starla.

Adelynn didn’t answer immediately. Finally, “No.” said between clenched teeth.

Starla threw another healing spell on her. “I’m at full!” said Adelynn, “I’m just pissed!” she stood up quickly and threw the handle to her former sword on the ground. “It broke my sword! The one I got with you! I really liked it.”

Starla held her tongue. What could she say now that wouldn’t sound patronizing?

Adelynn slumped a bit and opened her status window. “My armor is at less than half durability.” She announced. “I need to get it repaired. Let’s go back to town.”

“Okay.” Said Starla pulling out the flying car.

Adelynn pulled out Silver and got on. “I need a moment to calm down.”

Starla dismissed the car and got on her cute broom. “Alright. I’ll show you the way back, it’s not long from here.”

Starla flew low to the ground and Adelynn followed on Silver who wasn’t going to walk slowly. They were back in town in ten minutes and another five to the room. Starla took Adelynn to the shop that repaired items and she dropped off her armor for a repair. Starla took Adelynn to dinner and she hardly said a word. Starla hadn’t seen Adelynn like this before and she just wanted to help, but wasn’t sure how to.

“Want to talk about it?” asked Starla.

“No.”

“It’s a game you know.”

“Yes.”

“You can try again.”

“Now?”

Starla shrugged. “If you want. You just have to hold up the amulet and call for it. You can do it whenever.”

“I think I just need to shower and go to sleep.”

“Alright.” Together they went to the room.

Starla logged out while Adelynn took a shower. Her thoughts went to that stupid monster calling her first cool sword a mongrel. Her broken sword was sort of a token of her and Starla working together for the first time and it meant a lot to her.

She really wanted to kill the spirit for breaking her weapon, but it was just a game monster. Did it really care? Why would it insult her weapon before specifically trying to break it? Adelynn slammed her hand against the shower wall. The tile cracked under her fist and she was taken aback for a moment. How strong was she now?

She opened her status menu. She’d leveled up to twenty. There were stat points to be allocated and a special maneuver to be assigned. She put her points into speed. She also saw that she had a power called ‘Ein Zweihänder’ but she didn’t know what that meant. On her status page she looked through the list of things she could take and was tempted to take another speed boost or an attack that didn’t require her to be on horseback. She took the speed boost.

She grumbled something aloud and finished her shower. Once she was dry, she climbed into bed and stared at the ceiling for a bit. The fight still bothered her. The strikes didn’t hurt nearly as much as she thought they would and it was only when her hit points flashed red did she realize what was happening. She turned over and tried to get comfortable. Sleep did not come to her.

An hour after she’d logged out Starla logged back in. Adelynn had gone to bed already and Starla changed and climbed in on her side and fell asleep quickly.

Adelynn’s eyes opened when she realized Starla had fallen asleep. She hadn’t slept a wink. She wasn’t going to until that thing paid for what it did. She got up and walked out into the hall and attempted to equip her gear before she remembered it was being repaired. Donning some comfortable pants and a shirt she left the elven hotel.

Her first stop took her to the armor smith who was still working on her armor. She asked if he had anything to block the Blade Tornado from Arzuse. The armor smith pointed to shields and gauntlets and even an early level weapon that was just a dagger with an oversized hand guard. Adelynn picked up some of the armored gauntlets and inspected them. They were for a character of her level and seemed to have good rune slots and didn’t slow her movements like her armor did.

“Screw it. We’re stacking speed.” She said. She purchased a few speed potions and some high-grade healing potions and a few armor potions. The armor potions would increase her defense a tiny amount, but she thought she would need what she could get. She left the shop and called for Silver who appeared before her. She must have looked bizarre in just a shirt, pants and metal gauntlets she rode her horse out to the battle field. She’d plugged some speed runes into the gauntlets that were a lower grade then what they could handle, but she didn’t have any interest in pouring over the auction board for something better.

She chugged her armor and speed potions and held out the amulet to summon Arzuse. “Come forth you bastard!” she yelled.

It arose from the ground. “Who dares awaken me from my slumber?” Adelynn could feel it looking at her. “Ahh, the mongrel slayer.” If Starla were with Adelynn, she’d be surprised that it even remarked on that.

“You’ll pay for what you did.” Said Adelynn.

The spirit of blades and war and death and suffering laughed. It was a noise akin to the whine of metal stressed to its breaking point. “So you say.” Adelynn saw it begin to bring up the Blade Tornado. She marched toward it with only her gauntlets and no weapons. A rusty dagger flew at her and she caught it. A broken longsword aimed for her leg and she snatched it up with her other hand. More things came at her and she batted them away with the rusty dagger until it shattered, then grabbed the next thing.

Blade Tornado finished casting and thousands of shards of broken, twisted metal flew around her. She continued to block what she could and replace the weapon she used with the next one. Small gashes appeared on her and she didn’t flinch or falter.

“You think this hurts!?” she yelled to the spirit. “This is nothing!” the spear head in her right hand shattered from an impact and something embedded itself into her leg. She pulled the blade from her leg and pressed on.

“How?” said Arzuse.

Adelynn pushed through the storm of whirling metal and blood. Her hit points flashed in red. She didn’t stop.

“Your punishment—” she said between deep breaths, “—is to replace what you broke!”

“What?” replied Arzuse.

Adelynn pushed herself forward again and grabbed onto the beautiful sword that was the core of the Blade Tornado.

“What!?” said Arzuse in surprise. Adelynn pulled on the weapon with all her might as it continued to cut and slash her. For a moment she didn’t think it would budge, this monster didn’t drop treasure, so why would this work, but she felt it slipping; fighting against her grip.

“These cuts are nothing compared to what I’ve felt!” she screamed. “I won’t let you win!”

“WHAT!?” the sword screamed as she pulled it from the heart of the tornado that promptly died down. Adelynn fell onto her back in the grass holding the hilt of the sword Arzuse. Her chest was heaving from the effort. She popped open a healing potion and tried to drink it laying down, but only managed to splash it all over her face. Her hit points stopped flashing and that was good enough.

She finally sat up and held the glorious Arzuse as her own. “Nothing to say?” she asked it. It did not respond, but she felt a heart beating within its body.

“Good.” Adelynn stood up and saw Arzuse was in her weapon slot. Its stats were better than the claymore from Gorlok and there was a weird symbol next to all of them. She poked the symbol and was informed that Arzuse’s stats would increase as she leveled up. She put it away and called for Silver who arrived from out of nowhere.

Silver snorted at her as if to say “What did you get into?” and she climbed up.

“I couldn’t sleep until that was dealt with.” She said and rode back into town.