By the time Heather had caught up with the others again, Kylie and Seran were in the midst of a ferocious battle with several of the large dungeon rats they’d encountered before. Seran was yelling and stomping, half covered by the beasts as they jumped onto his back and clawed at him, while Kylie was pointing and putting one beast into a state of paralysis at a time.
Astonished by Kylie’s inattention to Seran’s life, Heather pulled forth her magic and blasted everything with a large ball of flame. Fueled by her anger at being left behind, half a dozen rats instantly disappeared leaving hides, tails, and teeth behind. “Watch Seran’s health,” Heather demanded, as Kylie hopped and yelped as she healed herself from the flames.
“I can’t, you idiot!” Kylie spun around with her quarterstaff to face Heather, face red with irritation. “He’s cursed!”
”Cursed?” Heather asked, puzzled. “What do you mean cursed?” Tossing another smaller arrow of flame, Heather blasted another rat out of existence.
“Me be back,” Seran yelled as he shimmered and blinked out of existence. Several windows popped up informing the group of his death, and several more windows popped up extending Heather’s status as a player killer and increasing the bounty on her head. Several more popped up conveying the same statuses on Kylie, but to a lesser extent as she hadn’t had any previous PvP status effects.
“Dammit! I didn’t know,” Heather yelled in apology.
“Watch these rats,” Kylie warned, as she continued to paralyze any that were moving. “Some of them have a ‘Blackened Bite’ which seems to reverse healing effects. Seran got bit a few times and I tried to heal him and almost splatted him on the spot! He was holding on okay until you blasted us all with that damnable inferno!”
“Dammit, I didn’t know,” Heather muttered again as she blasted the last rat moving into oblivion. “You could’ve said something,” she pouted.
“How?” Kylie snorted. “You didn’t give us a chance to say anything. You walked around the corner and then BLAMO – nuked Seran to oblivion!”
“Well…. Dammit, I didn’t know.” Blushing slightly, Heather pointed to the rats lying prone on the ground. “What you going to do with those,” she asked, trying to change the subject. After all, there’s only so many times a person can tell someone they didn’t know any better. If Kylie kept pressing her, she’d end up having to apologize or something else horrible like that!
“No need to really do anything with them, until Seran catches back up with us,” Kylie shrugged. “I’m happy to just let them lay there numbed and see how long it takes for the effect to wear off, if that’s fine with you.”
“Fine by me,” Heather shrugged, and then laughed. “In fact, it might even be better than fine!” Striding over to the nearest rat, she picked it up gingerly by its tail and then threw it at Kylie.
“Hey! What was that for,” Kylie pouted.
“Safe skill practice, dufus,” Heather explained with a sigh. “It’s a dangerous beast, it’s coming in a leap towards you. You should be able to dodge it and get your skill up somewhat!”
“Maybe,” Kylie said doubtfully, as she bent down and picked up the same rat. Laughing lightly, she drew back and hurled it at Heather as hard as she could. “If nothing else though, it might give some sort of throwing skill!”
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Dodging to the side, Heather tried to grab the rat’s tail as it sailed past her and missed. Hitting the wall and thumping it head first, the rat’s health bar fell about a fourth of the way. “Try and catch it, if you can, while dodging,” Heather laughed as she grabbed up the beast and hurled it back at Kylie, who tried to dodge and snatch it in midair.
For several long minutes, Heather and Kylie continued to toss rats back and forth in a game of ‘Dodge-Rat’, trying to work up their skills. As the rat’s health decreased, Kylie would heal them back up. As the paralysis wore off, she’d numb them again. Occasionally Heather would set a rat aflame as she tossed it, forcing Kylie to yelp and bat wildly at it instead of trying to catch it.
After several moments, a pop-up appeared in front of both girls.
Congratulations! You have unlocked the Merciless achievement!
You gain 1 strength.
You gain 1 endurance.
You gain 1 will.
You now have a 5% bonus to damage living creatures.
You now have a 5% penalty to healing living creatures.
Your compassion decreases by 100!
Your reputation decreases by 100!
“Payday!” Heather shouted, tossing the rat she was holding up in to the air and blasting it into smithereens.
“My ass,” Kylie muttered, crossing her arms in frustration. “This achievement sucks! It reduces the effects of my healing magic!”
“Yeah, but it makes my magic more damaging,” Heather laughed, sticking her tongue out at Kylie. “Sucks to be you,” she teased.
“Yeah, laugh it up chuckles. Just wait until I fail to heal you someday and you die by one percent,” Kylie warned. “Just see if you’re laughing then!”
“Well, I guess that just means you have to work five percent harder now,” Heather giggled. “After all, it was your idea to start with!”
“Well yeah, I guess it was…” Kylie blinked a few times and then kicked the rat in front of her over at Heather. “It was not! It was all your idea!”
“But you have to admit, you were the one who decided to heal them and keep them suffering,” Heather laughed, batting her eyelashes furiously while faking a pout. “You have to admit, that’s pretty darned merciless!”
“Well maybe, but…”
“ME BACK!!” Seran yelled as he ran wildly into the room. Getting in the center, he suddenly spun around and lifted his hammer high in the air. “Me find company!”
“God dammit Seran! How the hell can you be half dead already, just coming here?” Yelling, Kylie tossed a large blast of healing magic which washed over Seran and restored him to perfect health.
“Wrong turn,” Seran explained with a shrug as a set of large black beetles suddenly scurried into the room, making a beeline for him.
“HAMMERTIME!” Laughing and swinging madly in great arcing motions, Seran began splatting bugs left and right…