"Get down! It's about to fire!!"
I heard right before I saw a scorching hot ball of flames, that nearly melted my face, fly right over my crouched body. After seeing how far they were gonna go, I began to prepare my own spell. It was no Fireball, that's for sure, but it was still gonna be enough to take them all out in one fell swoop.
I waited until my hands reached the maximum temperature without taking damage, then I stood up and let loose a barrage of flickering lightning bolts from my fingertips. I closed my eyes because I was afraid that I would lose control,
"Aaargh!" "Help me!!" "I'm burning!!"
but instead, all I heard was the screams of my enemies as they were vanquished by the buzzing streams of lightning. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a huge patch of dirt, ash, and corpses where an army of soldiers and mages was just standing only moments ago.
"How the hell did you do that?!"I heard a voice from behind ask.
When I turned to see who it was, I saw one of the Players standing there, all the other Players that I had taken this quest with were standing behind him in awe, not even one of them had participated in the battle that I just ended.
"What's your Username?"The same man asked in high hopes of adding me to his Friends List.
"I don't have one," I said.
"Fine, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," he answered, upset that he couldn't add me.
"But thanks anyway for helping us beat this quest," he said thankfully with a smile.
"No problem," I said with a smile, even though I was completely out of mana.
We all went back to Rosecrest City to collect the rewards for defeating the Redcliff army. I got the most gold because I delivered the final blow, besides there was no way that those low-tiers were gonna do it by themselves.
After we had collected the bounty, the Players started logging off. No one said goodbye, they just left. But this was not the first time people who I thought were friends had left me, in fact, I wasn't even surprised, and that is what scared me. I had been doing this for years, and yet I never found a friend that stuck with me, and it was at that moment that I realized, 'I am truly alone.'
That was five years ago. Nowadays I live in Ash Forest, AKA; The Dark Forest, it got this name due to all the pine trees being black with ash. I used to go around helping noobs, getting them gear, and assisting on quests, but after a few years, it just got too lonely.
After every quest I did, the players would just leave. I never made a true friend, and most times they would just use me to get higher levels, then they would leave and I would never see them again. I don't hold any grudges though, I don't see any point. Instead, I decided to live far out into the Dark Forest, but if anyone came into my territory, I would kill them.
After a year or two people started to call me the Blood Reaper, and I like the way that sounded, so I kept it. They thought I was just another monster.
I leveled up so many times that I stopped paying attention to my stats, and I hadn't lost a single battle since entering the Dark Forest. No Player in all of 'Hells Blight Insignia' would be able to beat me now, and that's how I wanted it to be. But today was different, a Player that was my level, maybe higher, has entered the dark forest.
"Whoosh!"
I heard the wind erupting past my ears as I sped through the tall black trees towards the spot where I sensed the enormous magical energy.
'They're the same level as me!'I said in my head as I got close enough to use the full power of my skill 'Dark Eye'.
'Dark Eye' allows the user to see all the skills and stats of anything that they can see, it also lets the user sense someone's magical power from up to a distance decided by your skill level.
As soon as I could see them I started analyzing their equipment with my 'Dark Eye' skill. They had a speed enchanted longsword made from high-tier metal, half-plate armor that is enchanted with durability, and various accessories that have been enchanted with many combat-oriented buffs.
All of the equipment was made from the same bright silvery metal, but my 'Dark Eye' was not able to tell what it was, maybe it was so high-tier that even I wasn't able to see its stats.
After looking through their equipment, I decided to check their stats, I had only looked at their level before. So I did.
Stats
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Level: 480
Name: Abigail Rose
Race: Half-Elf
Gender: Female
Class: Fighter, Swordswoman
HP:18,360
Mana:4,950
Strength: 973
Agility: 994
Stamina: 898
Magic:495
Charisma:786
____________________________________________________________
'Daamn!' I said in my head.
This guy's stats were definitely no joke, his Strength and Stamina were higher than mine!
'But what's with his Race?' I said in my head again.
Being a Half-Elf gives you 15 extra Magic and 10 extra Agility points when you start, but by the look of his stats, he doesn't use any magic, so why choose Half-Elf when you could go with Human, which gives you 20 stat points when you start.
I pondered the thought for a few seconds while staring at him, then I noticed something that I hadn't before, his physique was very weird for a man and his breastplate was weirdly shaped.
I pondered for a second before rechecking his stats, and when I saw it, plain as day, I instantly relayed to myself in my head, 'It's a girl you daft cunt!'
I felt so embarrassed for thinking it was a man, but what can I say, Elves have a very skinny body, even for men, plus her black hair barely made it past her pointy ears.
After beating myself up for the misconception, I decided to take this opportunity to cast a spell.
The spell was called 'Fog', it's pretty much what the name implies except this was magical fog, when the fog rolls in it will disorient any enemies hearing, as well as decreasing their render distance to 10 feet.
After I conjured up enough magical energy I let it spill out, a couple of seconds later a dark fog began to roll in through the trees and cover the entire area, but she didn't show any sign of concern. Once the fog had completely taken effect, I shouted in a deep voice,
"Who dares to enter my domain?
My voice came from all directions because of the 'Fog' spell that I just cast, so she couldn't tell where I was at, and the spell also made it hard for her to see me in the tree right above her.
"My name is Abigail Rose," She said seemingly unconcerned about her situation.
'That cocky bitch,' I thought, slightly annoyed by her attitude.
"Why have you entered into my territory?" I said back to her in my still deep voice.
I was honestly curious about why such a high-level Player like herself was out in the middle of nowhere and in the Black Forest of all places, like this is literally at the edge of the world.
"I came to kill you." She said with no hesitation whatsoever.
This startled me because I was hoping to avoid combat due to her being such a high-level Player, but if she insisted then I would have no choice but to accept.
The fog in front of her started to swirl up into a tall cone only a little taller than her, then I stepped out of the cone of fog and stood as confidently as I could even though I would be pissing myself if I could.
This is a skill called 'Dark Telepotation' and it allows the user to instantly teleport to any shadow that they know is there even if they can't see it, this makes long-distance travel very easy. In this case, I manipulated the fog to cover the spot that I teleported to as to make it look cooler, but I didn't need to do that because the trees had already created plenty of shade covering almost the entire forest.
Once she saw me she paused and then spoke "So you're the famed 'Blood Reaper', huh?"
I quickly answered back, still keeping the forest guardian facade, "I am the last thing that you will see this spawn!" I then laughed wickedly in a deep voice.
This seemed to startle her, yet I couldn't figure out why. 'She had been so cocky up until now and I doubt a cliche remark like that would scare her, so why was she afraid?' I thought to myself while keeping a serious outward appearance, though I didn't really have to because I was wearing a long black leather jacket that reached just past my knees and a mask made of a deer skull, so she couldn't see my expressions.
After a few seconds of silence, she spoke, "Are you a Player?" she said looking very confused.
I stood silent for a couple of seconds sweating buckets, 'How can she tell!?' I wondered with great worry. I know that I'm not a Player, but she still figured out that I'm not a monster either! This was not good.
I didn't know how she knew so I did the obvious and I asked "How could you tell?" I asked, no longer worrying about my facade.
"Three reasons," she said almost immediately, "One, you used a spell that only players can obtain, 'Dark Teleportation', two, you mentioned spawns which only Players know about," she paused before continuing with the criticism, "and three, because you just told me."
I was taken aback when I heard these things, I felt like tearing her to shreds for talking so badly about my acting, 'I have been working on my acting for almost five years! Then this bitch comes along and starts criticizing me!?' I was so furious but somehow kept my composure under my mask.
"I'm guessing you play a lot then?" I asked with a polite tone despite my immense anger.
"I've been playing for six years now," she said, boasting.
"I've been playing since the game started," I said, ruining her pretty smile and trying to contain my laughter.
"If that's true then how come we're the same level? Do you just suck at the game or something?" she said trying to get back at me.
But she was right, 'Even though I've been secluded I still get my fair share of Exp, so why is she already at my level after only playing for six years?' I said in my head, trying to figure out why.
It took me a few seconds to respond, so Abigail took the initiative after also pondering and staring at me for some reason, "So you're not a monster...." she paused to once again stare at me, which was starting to get on my nerves, before continuing, "but you're not a Player either, are you?" she said with a serious tone.
'How the hell is she this fucking smart!?' I said in my head.
I got so worried this time because she had seen through me not once, but twice in a row.
"But of course I'm a player, what else would I be?" I said trying to sound sincere.
"I don't know but I do know that you're not a Player," she said in the same soul-tearing voice.
At this, I did what any sane person would do, forget about diplomacy and fucking kill her.