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The Unholy Crusades
Chapter 6. The Calm before the Storm

Chapter 6. The Calm before the Storm

I know it's late, but TIME FOR SOME EXPOSITION. I'm trying to find a balance between the serious and comedic portions at the moment, so I apologize if a few parts seem out of place.

*** At some random office.

"Yo Bob, What's that you're lookin' at?"

"Hrrmm? Oh hey Pat. Just a couple of players."

"Cool, can I join in?"

"Go ahead."

In a brightly lit cubicle, two rather affable young men were staring at a double monitor showing two rather attractive looking girls.

"Is that the Battle Bear? I thought we were saving that for that summer event."

"Yeah, I gave it to her."

"..What?!? Why? You know we aren't allowed to do that."

"It was a long day Pat, and you know the hours we have to put into this damn company is inhuman. So sue me if I wanted to mess around a little."

"Alright, but if you get caught, I was never here."

"Yeah, yeah, now will you pass me a drink?"

The two men watched as the battle bear ended up meeting the bunny, before it started attacking it, firing a dazzling ray of multicoloured light, which caused the wall behind the bunny to explode into hundreds of tiny pieces.

Pat whistled, "Damn, Maybe we increased the specs on that race a bit too much."

The company Nyxramas Industries (great naming sense) had always been secretive when asked about the nature of their game, this was because the company wanted to players to enjoy exploring the world they created, unhindered by the messy interfaces and other needless add-ons to the game.

Although unconventional, they decided that it would be better to let the players figure everything out on their own, to slowly become enarmored with the fantasy lifestyle, thus they removed the health bars, stamina bars, and even names and titles. You could lie about your identity, disguise yourself amongst the world's NPCs and no one would be the wiser. There was no friends list or whisper system, if someone wanted to continue adventuring with their friends, they would have to plan it out in real life or buy a mana clam in the game which functioned as a magic cellphone.

There were stat points in this game, but you had no way of checking what they were without going to a major city or town, and they rose up passively with no notification whatsoever during your adventure. There also weren't any concept of levels. Special skills could only be obtained through quests and certain storyline, unless you happened to be an over powered Tank Bear, then you would have a couple straight off the bat. Each race also started with slightly different stat distributions, although most of the differences were negligible at best.

All in all, it made for a headache of a game experience at first, but the company thought that the players would appreciate the sense of adventure and unknown in the game in the long run. At least that was how it was supposed to go.

The fight between the girls  had gotten to the point where Phanny blew Sera's ears off, and the bunny girl had started to break down. Patrick who was watching the display felt his lips involuntarily twitch upwards, his tight jeans started to bulge in a rather indecent manner, his eyes dilated as sweat started dripping down his greasy greasy temple. Unable to control himself any longer, he started squeezing the bulge, trying to seek relief from the natural urges that plagued him. He jokingly laughed.

"Damn, that little is fine, a woman's tears just get me so hard." He laughed again, and looked towards Bob wondering why he wasn't joining in. He found Bob looking at him with his eyes filled with disgust.

"...Dude...What .....the.....Fuck!" Upon seeing Pat pleasure himself, and at the video of a crying girl no less, Bob felt a mixture of both contempt and nausea. It was honestly a strange feeling, and Bob felt that he was on the verge of puking all over Patrick's nice clean shirt. He managed to hold it in, but he wouldn't have minded entirely if he did spew over his "trash of society" co-worker. He smacked Pat in the crotch and warned him, "Be Serious!" leaving his disgruntled co-worker rubbing his aching tangerines.

They continued to watch in silent as the two girls made up and then received the quest from the giant caterpillar monster in the dank cavern. Pat was getting bored once again until a scene came along where his face scrunched up into something that would've gotten him arrested if he was ever on a children's playground.  Apparently, the black rabbit girl just lead a bunch of her little animal friends into a living hell, and she was just walking away as if without another care in the world. It was when she started to cry again, Patrick felt himself explode. Not even caring about the mess in his pants, he shouldered a confused Bob to the side and started tapping away on the slick keyboard.

"The heck are you doing?"

"We both just saw something good, don't you think that in itself should be rewarded?"

Patrick pulled up a couple of tabs on the monitor, and searched for something that would've been fitting for what he had just witnessed.

"Hrrmmm, I think this will do. " He chose the Black Widow's Stringer, a rather worthless weapon in the eyes of his development group, as it was the cross between a lance and a rapier. It was far too heavy to use quickly, and it was too short to be of any known fact.  Even though it was considered a B Quality weapon in scale of E to SSS, it had mediocre damage and it's only saving grace was it's enormous durability threshold.

"You know that you aren't allowed to give players items, no matter how much they....pleased you"

Patrick just cocked a saucy eyebrow at his companion and grinned, "Just between you and me, ok?"

Bob exhaled, knowing full well that Patrick wasn't doing this out of the goodness of his heart. His co-worker was always a perverse little man, shouting out cheap provocations to woman in public, and staring at young little girls with lewd eyes. "You're a son of a bitch, you know that right?" Although Bob wanted to intervene, it wasn't good to piss off Patrick too much, his father was the leader of the R&D team at Nyxramas, and with but a word, Bob could very easily lose his job.

"You know it"

*** Back to the two weary travellers.

Upon leaving the tunnel, they found themselves in the same blue grass plains, however this time there was a great pine forest in the distance. As they decided that they might as well venture on, the mood returned to a rather neutral tone from their traumatic experiences in the Shadow Butterfly's cave.

"So you can shoot lazer beams and turn into a tank? This doesn't sound like a fantasy game at all!" Sera complained while gnawing on her second carrot. Sera found that she would get hungry very frequently, whereas Phanny didn't seem to need to eat at all.

Phanny who had reverted to her human form, looked  exactly as she did in real life, save for two round fuzzy ears resting on the top of her head. "Yeah, I guess, it was really cool. I just yelled, and suddenly a lazer beam came out of my face!" Unlike Sera, Phanny was having a grand time. It might seem strange to be having fun killing a bunch of woodland creatures, but isn't that what gamings all about? "Although that black stick you've got seems kinda interesting as well"

"Not really, It doesn't really do much. It's really heavy and I don't think I can use it properly" Attempting a practice stab on a clump of tall grass, Sera thrusted her arm forward, the black needle awkwardly swished through the air, completely missing her target as she tripped over her own feet.

"Pfffft!"

"Don't laugh at me!"

The items in Nyxramas were a bit special compared to other typical MMORPGs. For one, they didn't have any level requirements, however the higher tiered weapons and armour were almost impossible to attain if you weren't already geared out or good at the game. Crafting was also incredibly pricey, and it was difficult for new players to become proficient at it.

Sera Sighed as they finally reached the edge of the forest, the trees were easily at least 25 meters tall, with the tallest nearly double that. She wondered how long she had been playing for, it had been at least 5 hours already, and it would probably be time for dinner soon. She was about to ask Phanny whether she wanted to take a break, when a notification popped up.

Warning: Your Bowels are Full. You will be logged out in 60...59....58...

'The heck?'  Sera guessed that  the capsule monitored their real world bodies for them as well. As Sera realized this, the timer ticked 10...9....

"Hey Phanny, I'm logging out now."

"Eh? Fine, I guess I should get something to eat too."

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The two "friends" quickly logged out, not knowing that even if they log out, their bodies would remain in the virtual world, unconscious......vulnerable. And in the distance, multiple eyes had just watched what had occurred.

***

"Haaaaaa!" Derrik groaned as he was doing his business in the bathroom. The capsule wasn't kidding when it said his bowels were full. It felt as if a log just emptied out of Derrik's gut. He was sweaty, shirtless, his face pale after his extensive and excruciatingly painful efforts to clear his colon, his head was foggy as he looked around the bathroom. There was his mini fridge, and his mini digital clock....wait a minute.... The clock read 1:00, he and Panini started playing at 12:00, did they play for a whole 13 hours? Reaching into his pants pocket, he took out his phone and checked the time....It was 1:00P.M! They had only been playing for a single hour.

"Holy Shit!"  

He grunted and hurriedly cleaned and dressed himself before rushing to Panini's suite.

*Bang* *Bang*  

The door creaked opened and a rather tired looking girl poked her head out.

"....What do you want...I thought we were taking a break...."

In his eagerness, took her by the waist, eliciting a small gasp as he showed her his phone.

"We've only been playing for one hour!"

"...Wha? ...wa..WAwa..WHAT??!?" Realization dawned on her as her brain started working overtime, trying to figure out how to comprehend such a discovery. She started rapidly firing off  hypotheses as to how the events which transpired could've been possible. Goddamn Neuroscience major.  "....And maybe somehow the electrical impulses allowed our brain signals to travel fa.....WAIT THIS ISN'T THE TIME FOR THIS, THIS MEANS WE CAN PLAY EVEN LONGER!"

Normally, the diddling duo were never excited about anything, but this discovery was completely revolutionary in both the world of science and gaming.  They guessed that the ratio was somewhere around 5 hours in game to every hour in real life, and they were ecstatic at being able to play 55 hours until the day ended. Somehow, the difficulty of their first experiences were completely forgotten, but even then they didn't immediately rush back into their capsules.

"We should have an early dinner, so we can spend more time playing!"

"Should we go to the convenience store next door?"

"Yeah yeah!" Panini punched the air, as the two ran out of their apartment like young children, raising eyebrows among their neighbors. Ah....Young love...was the general consensus.

Coming to a screeching halt in front of a yellow building that said "Easy Food" on it's windows, Panini stopped Derrik before they entered the building.

"You know, maybe we should try for an actual restaurant. It's been a long time, hasn't it?" She looked towards a nearby steakhouse and then back to Derrik with pleading round eyes.

Not even remembering the last time he had a good meal, he readily agreed. "I'm probably buying aren't I"

Panini grinned, showing off  half a dimple, "You know it!" She pulled him along to a burgundy coloured building with a bunch of wooden tables and chairs in an outdoor lounge. A rather attractive looking brunette was there, smiling as she greeted the two. "Table for two please" The waitress had a rather distasteful look in her eye as she looked at Derrik's rather unflattering physique. Seeing the waitress eye her friend coldly, Panini grabbed onto his arm, pressing her breasts sensually against his soft flabby arms. Derrik and the waitress both raised an eyebrow in surprise, but neither questioned it as they were lead to their table.

Panini still hadn't released Derrik's Arm as they were seated at their table. They ended up sitting right next to each other, and when I say right next to each other, I mean they were touching asses. Derrik was feeling rather uncomfortable as the small amount of softness her her breasts was easily felt through his thin shirt.  

'I wonder what the deal is with her.'

It was not as if Derrik had never been close to a girl before, but he and Panini just didn't have that sort of relationship. His skin was soon littered in goosebumps as the waitress and Panini stared daggers at each other. They both decided to share a Pot Roast since it wasn't that long since they last ate. She finally released his arms as the food finally came, a steaming plate of thickly sliced rare beef, resting on a bed of puffed potatoes and carrots, with golden gravy dripping generously from the meats sides. It was going to be fine meal.

Eating like savage cavemen, the plate of food soon disappeared leaving nothing behind but the sense of satisfaction from it's consumers. The spectacle of smacking lips, noisy chewing and food bits flying all over made the other customers look at them in distaste, but it wasn't as if the two of them cared anyways. During the meal, Panini also returned to her normal non-touchy self. After quickly paying for both their meals, Derrik was then dragged back to their apartment where the two of them literally leaped back into their capsules, greedy for more game time.

You have logged in to Nyxramas.

They had been gone for 40 minutes.

***

Waking in the lands of Nyxramas, Seras felt something odd pressing against her breast. It was squeezing and pulling, and to be frank, quite painful. Her eyes shot open to find a group of elves surrounding her and Panini. There were three of them grabbing whichever body part tickled their fancy. Her awakening was not lost on her captor.

"Yo, she's awake boiiiizz" The elf molesting her called out to his cronies. From his voice, she guessed that he was probably a player just like her...and a young one...maybe 15 or so.

The elves were actually all 15 year old players, and rather lonely ones at that. So imagine the bliss they felt when they first discovered two rather attractive girls whom were unconscious right before their eyes. Afraid that they might wake up at any time, they were rather meek, but after hours of poking and prodding, they started to grow bolder, fondling breasts and feeling up thighs. At one point, one of the elves tried to remove her shirt, but oddly enough it wouldn't come off. Unbeknownst to them, to remove the danger of sexual assault, players had to remove their underclothes voluntarily if they wanted to do the nasty.

"Let Go of Me!" She struggled, but before she could shake his grip, a second elf helped the first pin her down. Their eyes filled with greedy lust as they thought of all sorts of perverted torments to inflict on her.

'Oh god, please don't do this to me.'

And god heard her.

"GYAHHHHHHHHH"

It was Panini (Phanny), she just logged on and did not appreciate being used to satisfy a young boy's , black metal oozed out of her body and started folding and refolding around her limbs until she resembled the Black-Man-Bear-Tank that haunted Sera's dreams.  With a scream, she blew her captors head off with a dazzling beam of multicoloured light. Green gore splatter everywhere, as the two elves who were holding her down  suddenly stiffened when they saw the horror.

Somehow roaring and screaming at the same time, Phanny charged towards the other two elves and with a swipe of her oversized armoured hand, she crushed the head of one Sera's captors, allowing her to pry herself free. Phanny then swung again, smashing her arm into the last living elf.

*Crunch*

He flew a good 5 meters from the blow, landing near one of the corpses of his fallen comrade. It was a complete mess, 2 of their assailants had their heads destroyed beyond repair, while the last living elf was curled up the ground, moaning helplessly. His clothes were completely soaked in blood, and it looked as if half his chest was caved in. His face was scrunched up from the pain as he looked to see Sera getting up. Her shadow blotted out the sun, and he could see were her cold unfeeling eyes. In her hand, she held her needle.

"Kuh..It hurts, I'm sorry, just make it stop...Kurple*" Blood gushed out of mouth mid plea.

Twirling the Needle around so that she was gripping it by the blade, she swung down with all her might, the hilt smashed his head causing it to explode in spray of green goup.  Without any other threats, the two girls looked around at the havoc that they created. Although it was mostly the elve's fault, the scene was still pretty horrific, all 3 of them had their heads smashed beyond recognition, with green elvish blood completely covering the girls head to toe.

Just as they were about to calm down and properly assess the situation, a war horn sounded, and all the trees in the forest began to rustle.

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