I heard shouting and screaming throughout the night. Viruses took many opportunities to strike at us. But it was never in hordes. It was a little virus here or there. Striking out in a barbaricly savage way. They didn't care for themselves at all when they dove at us. Like they had gone mad. Henry and Horacio took care of them quickly enough though. My health and stamina had already regenerated and we all understood that we didn't need the points. But killing them is what we had to do to keep going. Dying after all our time and effort here would've ruined my experience for a while. But we kept on. When dawn came it was a subtle thing. The battles and screaming kept going and smoke clouds filled the air vaguely obscuring the crystal sun.
A sound like a gong being struck filled the air.
Persephone sat down with an exhausted sigh.
"Finally!" She said as she breathed heavily. The past half hour had been a bit of a struggle. A hoard of snake viruses had made their way into the grass and surrounded us. These things actually were a little cunning. But thankfully I was the only one who actually got bit here or there. That didn't matter much though due to my immunity to poisons cause well... I'm technically an undead. And if they got too close I actually crushed them using the sarcophagus. That was rather gruesome as they did make a squishing noise that almost made me lose my lunch if I was actually able to eat anything.
Lily, Horacio, and Henry had a hard time on the other hand. The fact that Henry had no weapon made things even harder on him because he literally could do nothing but slow them with his dark mist and rip them apart with his bare hands. Horacio was more lucky due to his shadow cloning ability. Lily used the skeletal hands on the vines, roots, and flowers to catch the snakes. She then would stomp on them or hit them with her staff which I hadn't noticed till now. It was a Greenwood staff. It was straight, covered in flowers, and had a human skull at the top of it with glowing red eyes. It was about 8 feet long and about 2 inches wide. When she swung at the snakes the skull opened it's mouth and bit down biting the snake in two. A red dot shot down the staff and into her after it did so. Any scratches would slowly begin to heal afterwards. Henry had no blood or flesh to scratch so he was immune. Horacio mostly stayed airborne and out of reach. Beth meanwhile had started waving her handkerchief around which spread still wet tears from it onto the surroundings disintegrating the snakes in seconds. I nodded to her and she nodded back. " This form is much more comfortable. I can actually do things with some dignity this way." She said as she went to work.
Her purple tinged miasma was slowing, poisoning, and starting to eat away at any enemy that approached her too quickly giving her enough time to evade. "What rank are you again Beth?" I called over as the tide ebbed away and we all collapsed.
She sat down on top of the sarcophagus. "I'm rank C. I know my abilities are O.P." She waved her hand at me. I shrugged. "So... Are we done in the dome? Was that why that gong sounded?" I asked in hope.
She nodded and laid back on the ground seemingly enjoying the grass. I noticed movement in the grass before a snake lunged at Lilies throat. I swung a blade catching the thing in the head with the end of my sickle and nailing it to the ground beside Lilies face. It wriggled for a moment before going still and disintegrating.
Lilies eyes were a bit wide from the shock as the snake had been nailed to the ground inches from her face. I pulled the chain and the sickle folded back into itself and slid back under my bandaged arms. "Where did you get those reflexes from?" She asked eyeing me up and down.
I rubbed my wrists and nervously looked about. "I had to live on the streets for a while as a kid. You get to know when a surprise is coming and how fast you have to act to deal with it. That was before I was adopted." I said quietly as I leaned back against the "Coffin" as I came to call it.
The gong rang again and I felt myself becoming weightless. "What the!" I shouted as my body started lifting off the ground. I grabbed ahold of the coffin and it rose into the air with me. Everybody was starting to float into the sky.
"What's happening?" I shouted and strapped the coffin to my back. Beth grabbed it and sat on top of it and crossed her legs in a way only a woman can look good doing. "It's the flight of the Victor's! We had the highest score of everyone in here! All because of you!" She shouted while giggling. I rubbed my forehead.
"You guys couldn't have mentioned that earlier?" I said a little agitated. I hated being in the public view. We were suddenly in front of the crystal sun which glowed a bright yellow to the point I had to shield my eyes with a hand.
"We will now announce the highest score in this Battlefield of Fortune session!" A loud male voice announced. It was loud and sounded oddly like that guy off of a commercial I saw years ago. Who was it? Steve Harvey? I couldn't remember. It continued. The highest score goes to The Death Hunters! Having scored 25000 points as a team and hit their cap. Without the cap they would have had 50000 points from the Titan Worm that was slain. 2000 from all the snakes and assorted viruses and have even obtained a rare drop. Coming in second is the Warrior faction. Despite losing 5 people to the night raid virus barrage have managed to scrape together a total of 23000 points for their faction of 20 people. Guardian comes in a close third with 22980 points having lost no people. Fourth is the builder faction with 15000 points with their 20 people. Then is the goblin faction which allied with the vampiric faction. Total of 9000 points." The announcer called out. But it was obvious he was far from done however.
"Now the moment we've all been waiting for. Who was the slayer of the Titan Worm?" It said dramatically. I started to rise above everybody else which made me look around nervously and sweat began to pour off my brow. "Let's give it up for the Anubis known as Silent!!!!" The announcer called out.
I tried to give the best smile I could because cameras really aren't my thing and neither is attention. I heard the roar of people below me and looked down. There in the middle of the plains was obviously the warrior faction. Bellona at the front cheering. I looked to my left and saw the guardian faction. Geb was cheering while Leroy was shouting how I was his brother.
I felt my face change to deep pink in embarrassment. I was then lowered back into the group where my face remained the same color for a while.
"We will now commence the return to the safe area. Please enjoy your week folks and see you next week here at the dome!" The announcer roared. The sun began to shine even more brightly and I saw the world go white. We were all suddenly standing in front of the entrance to the dome. The sky was it's dark electronic self again. I shivered a bit and sneezed. "Man.. I hope you can't catch cold in here." I mumbled. It was then that I was picked up on a set of shoulders. A very cold set of shoulders. I looked down and saw Leroy. "Everyone! Let's hear it for Silent! Without him we wouldn't be able to enjoy all our points!" He shouted out. Every person who was rank E was extremely happy with me. There was only one person who was peeved. And that was Thor. He marched up and grabbed one of my feet hauling me off.
He grabbed my necklace and hauled me close Henry was about to step in but Lily stopped him. "That was supposed to be my kill!" Thor bellowed in my face. He held up his hammer and went to hit me with it. It was then I realized what was next to me.
I hauled the coffin around and shielded myself from his blow which made me skid back. But then an odd thing happened. Thor's hammer looked like it was about to break. He stared at it in shock. The belts of the coffin were wrapped about my arm like a shield and I felt a smile come across my face. I charged and smashed it into him sending him tumbling.
"I killed it by sheer stupid luck!" I shouted. "And you know what it gave me?" I called out to the crowd who had definitely noticed the sarcophagus. "It gave me this to bury your sorry hide in after you went and pissed it off!"
I called at Thor while patting the Coffin. His face turned red and he went to charge. Unfortunately he was suddenly pinned down by a butt made of rocks and dirt. "Now now. Calm down you! I saw what happened with my own two eyes. That worm made soil out of you after you smacked it with your hammer. Btw you should probably get that looked at."
Geb rumbled out as he pointed at the cracked mjolner (thor's hammer). Everybody had made way for him without Thor seeing or hearing him coming surprisingly enough. He grinned at me. "Leroy and I got this man. You go and enjoy your victory. We owe you one anyway." He said as Leroy stepped up to Thor while cracking his knuckles.
"Don't beat him up! Just take him to get his weapon fixed!" I shouted as everyone from Death Hunters started pushing me down the ramp toward the living area spire. I realized they had all changed back to their civilian forms and I quickly did the same. Horacio wrapped an arm around my neck.
"Hahahaha! You'll be the talk of the server now! You excited? Maybe we can get you a girlfriend now huh!" He teased me as he gave me a noogie. I wrestled my way out of his hold and Henry patted my shoulder. "Not bad for your first Dome run kid. Not bad at all." He said.
We entered the spire and there was a massive cheer that went through the room. Suddenly a wave of people flooded towards us. Lily grabbed me by my scarf. "Run!" She shouted and we all bolted.
More like me being dragged by Lily while Henry grabbed my feet so I would keep up. We made it to the elevator and the doors barely squeezed shut before people were banging on them. "That was close." Lily said as she let out a sigh of relief. I looked at her like she was acting strange. "I thought you wanted to broadcast good things about our faction. When's a better time than now?" I said gesturing to the floors below us.
She shook her head. "Crowd PR doesn't go far or do well in the long run. Not to mention it's your fame not ours." She leaned back against the elevator wall. I nodded in understanding at what she had said. She was right. It wasn't long till we heard a ding indicating we made it to our floor.
We exited the elevator and found a small crowd waiting for us. A clear path was laid out so we could make our way to our faction house. Though the crowd didn't extend far enough. Not to mention nobody actually knew where our faction house was located. So they just made a channel up to the faction area and let us go from there. It was then that Lily had us do our waving and cheering.
I was still nervous as hell and blushed nonetheless. Not that anybody could see under my scarf. A white colored woman came towards me. Standard no eyes but the way she dressed said it all. It was a dress that hugged her body and she had good curves. It was obvious which goddess she was though. She wore a white dress with black trim. Red hearts covered her like polka dots.
"My name is Abbey! Call me!" She said as she ran away after handing me a cube of some kind. And we started our lonely journey back to the house.
We went inside and I flopped onto the couch. Dealing with people and running from people is exhausting. I held up the cube wondering why that girl handed it to me. As I was inspecting it Henry approached out of nowhere.
"What's that you got there?" He asked with a smirk.
I blushed a little as I fiddled with it. "I dont know. A girl gave it to me and said to call her. I have no idea what it is though." I said as I tossed it to him. He looked at it and smiled. "Plug it into the wall and you'll see." He said knowingly.