The sound of teeth mashing against metal filled the air as Octavia brought her chakram to bear. One rabbit lay unmoving in a growing puddle of blood while another glared at her with small, beady eyes. Its blood wept from its mouth as it stomped its feet into the dirt. The other surviving rabbit dashed around her, no doubt heading towards Derrick, who Octavia trusted to handle the issue. All that Octavia could focus on was herself and the large, angry rabbit in front of her.
Once more, it stomped its hind legs into the dirt and let loose another loud howl as it rushed across the small distance separating them. Octavia grit her teeth as she clenched the blade of her chakram. The fear that held her in its grasp earlier faded away as a small spark of electricity arced through her veins. In that moment, it was life or death, and she loved it.
The rabbit jumped, baring its fangs once more. Octavia’s eyes narrowed as she swung the chakram up. The rabbit crashed into the blade with a meaty thud as the metal sank into its head. Blood splattered against the blade, soaking the woman and the metal flooring.
A shiver tore through Octavia as the rabbit slid down the length of the blade and slammed into the ground below. The pungent smell of copper filled the air as her hands shook. Not once in her lifetime had she thought about taking a life. Even if it wasn’t a human life, it still felt wrong to just snuff it out.
The sounds of fighting tore her from her thoughts. Gritting her teeth, she spun around to look at her team. Julia looked to be fine, battling a rabbit. Derrick, on the other hand, was running around, trying to avoid the bite of another. Judging the situation, Octavia decided Derrick would need to be saved first, as Julia had a shield and was doing well holding off the little monster. With her mind made up, Octavia rushed over to Derrick. Her heels slipped a bit on the blood slick platform, making her stumble.
Derrick seemed to be fine, though, as he jumped back. His robe danced in the wind as he pulled his wand back and pointed at the rabbit. The tip glowed azure for a second before another gout of water shot out of it, pushing the rabbit and drenching the platform. Using that split second lull in fighting, Octavia rushed over, and slammed her chakram into the back of the rabbit that had yet to recuperate itself. A violet squeal left its mouth as the woman slammed her weapon into it repeatedly. All the feelings that she tried to suppress bubbled to the surface. All the frustration at watching her life crumble, and the fear of death.
Meaty thumps filled the air as the weapon carved its pound of flesh. Blood splattered everything in range as the chakram cut through flesh and bone. She attacked the corpse until her fingers ached, and her wrist felt like they were going to fall off.
“Octavia, it’s okay, it’s dead.” Derrick’s voice sounded faint in her mind as she stared at the pile of meat. This was her own fault, wasn’t it? There were other paths that could have been taken. Yet, combat was the one that she chose. But what frightened her the most was the fact that she enjoyed it. In that moment of do or die, it felt like her eyes were opened, and life had a new meaning.
“Come on. Now isn’t the time. There are more coming.” Derrick tugged at her cloak, as she stood up, and turned back towards the forest. More of the demonic bunnies were pouring out of the shrouded forest. At first there were only three, but now easily a dozen were pouring out. All of them howling for blood, and their slain kin.
“Let’s make a run for it. There is no way we can deal with all of them.” Julia spoke up as she backpedaled. The other two could only grunt in affirmation as they made a run for it. The squeals of angry rabbits filled the air as they hopped angrily.
“I didn’t think I’d add a bunny stampede to my twenty twenty-four bingo card.” Octavia growled under her breath as she kicked away her high heels. Were they an expensive brand? Yes, but there was no way in hell that she was going to run through a forest with them on her feet. Not after the show earlier, where she stumbled, trying to save Derrick.
“I wish I could say it could be worse, but here we are.” Derrick huffed as everyone ran off of the platform.
The wind still gusted gently through the forest, carrying the copper scent of freshly spilt blood, and the sounds of angry rabbits as they charged forward. But none of them were watching, instead they all ran the opposite direction, plunging into the forest trying to find a safe place to stay.
It took a few hours, but eventually they found a relatively empty clearing filled with short grass and some large boulders. The sun sat low in the sky and the wind whispered through the trees. She breathed heavily as her heart raced, sucking in the rapidly chilling air. Her fingers ached, and her wrists hurt from swinging her chakram around as hard as she did. Thankfully, the rabbits had stopped chasing a while ago, leaving the three of them alone in the deep forest.
“Today fucking sucks.” Derrick said, as he climbed onto one of the large boulders near by. His robe was slick with sweat and his face twisted in pain.
“Tell me about it. I haven’t had to run like that in years.” Octavia groaned as she climbed up the rock along side Derrick sucking in air, trying to ignore the feeling of her muscles twitching and the feeling of her feet aching from stepping on all the twigs and rocks.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“At least you guys didn’t have to run with a shield and a sword. This shit is heavy.” Julia groaned as she set the tower shield down, leaning it against a smaller rock. Its surface was scratched heavily and covered in a layer of dried blood that was already flaking. Sweat was running down her face, her black hair was clinging to her leather armour.
“We need to get cleaned up and find a place to stay for the night after we rest. I’d hate to be swarmed by another army of rabbits.” Octavia wiped away the sweat on her face and sat up. From the system coming and upturning her life to killing for the first time. She was bone tired, and just wanted to sleep away the stress, but the rush of adrenaline was keeping her alert.
“Yeah. I have no clue how to build a shelter, so we should find a cave or something. Otherwise, we are going to be at the mercy of the elements.” Derrick reached into his pocket, pulling out his carton of cigarettes.
“I don’t think I can move around much more today. I’m exhausted and my feet are torn up.” Julia whimpered as she climbed into the rock with Derrick, throwing herself down.
“Same. If I had known we were going to be fighting for our lives today, I’d have brought my Nikes.” Octavia stood up and brushed off her cloak as she meandered over to what was now communal rock. As she did so, she noticed something flashing in the corner of her eyesight, and when she focused on it, a few notifications appeared.
Congratulations! Your party has slain
A level one Rabid Wolf Rabbit
A level one Rabid Wolf Rabbit
A level two Rabid Wolf Rabbit
A level one Rabid Wolf Rabbit
Experience has been applied to the party.
Congratulations, you are now level 1! Stat points have been rewarded.
Dex:+2 Agi: +1 Perc: +2 End: +1 +1 Free point
Your HUD has been unlocked.
As she read through the notification, three bars appeared in the very corner of her eyesight. The first one was red, the second blue, and the third green, and they were stacked on top of each other. As she focused on them, they grew larger and the numbers denoting them appeared, but the second she stopped focusing, all three shrank until they were hard to notice.
“Hey, did you guys see that notification?” She still couldn’t get over the fact that reality was like a video game now. From stat points to the messages that appeared in her vision. It was so much to take in, and it gave her a bit of a headache.
“This reminds me of system apocalypse web novels I read.” Julia rolled onto her back and stared into the sky. “To think that it's reality now.”
“Tell me about it. I only played games as a hobby, but even then games saturated a lot of mainstream stuff, so it almost felt like we were getting groomed to accept this.” Octavia walked over to the rock and hoisted herself up. The stone was cool under her fingertips, and the loose rocks shifted, pinching into her skin.
“Shit, I’m even worse off than you two. I didn’t do any kind of gaming.” The man spoke through puffs of his cigarette, while he was massaging his thighs.
“Not only that, how do you think everyone else is doing? I mean, for me personally, I don’t really have family on the outside, and you guys are the closest thing I have to a family. ” Octavia laid down on the rock next to Julia and wrapped her cloak tightly around her body to ward off the chill that was gnawing at her exposed flesh.
"I mean, I’m worried about my mom and dad. They are getting older. I’m not sure if they would have picked a combat tutorial like we did, so hopefully they are okay.” A frown crossed Derrick’s face as he took another heavy drag off of his cigarette.
“My parents are in Tampa, along with my little sister. So, I have no clue if they are okay, are not.” Julia sat up and wiped her eyes, the day clearly wearing on her as heavily as everyone else. Perhaps it was simply because of how shell-shocked everyone felt. But silence fell amongst everyone as they sat there in the dying light of the evening sun.
Using the silence to process her new life, Octavia turned her attention to her stat menu, carefully looking at it, trying to decide where to put the new stat point at.
Name: Octavia Rossi
Race: Human
Class: Rogue
Level: 1
Subclass: N/A
Health Points: 80/80
Mana Points: 90/90
Stamina Points: 100/100
Stats:
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 12
Agility:10
Vitality: 8
Constitution: 7
Perception: 12
Will Power: 9
Endurance: 10
Free points: 2
General Skills:
Identify (Inferior)
Large Chakram Usage (Inferior)
Basic One handed Weapon Usage(Inferior)
Class Skills:
Acrobatics (Inferior):
Quick Step (Inferior)
Wrathful Disc(Inferior)
Title:
Precursor