"Think fast, think fast, think fast, think fast, think fast!" Himari psyched herself as she plummeted toward the ground. She shut her eyes tightly and grit her teeth till thousands of wireframe images started flashing before her at high speed. Each of these images that represented several possible ways to break her fall, were crossed out with the word 'FAILED' in red and simultaneously accompanied by DD's voice echoing the word.
Then, just moments before Himari crashed into the stampeding beasts, she instinctively shot out her fists toward the earth below. A wireframe image that looked like exploding fists appeared before Himari.
"SUCCESS", DD's voice uttered, just before Himari's fists started glowing bright green.
BOOM!!!
Two energy beams blasted out of Himari's fists, causing an earth-shattering explosion. The shockwaves from that explosion sent several giant bison flying toward different directions as a mushroom cloud rose from Himari's point of impact.
Himari coughed and spat out sand as she lay on the ground. She tried to rise from the ground but quickly fell flat on her back again. She could barely see her own hands through the dust cloud.
"Too weak" she thought.
Her health bar was red and blinking at 10 percent. The ground was still trembling, as thousands of heavy hooves could be heard from a distance. While the dust was still clearing, a bright holograph of DD in party hat, appeared before Himari.
"CONGRATULATIONS!!!" she yelled before throwing confetti around and blowing a party horn.
"You managed to break your fall with that last minute FYBER blast. Impressive. I never thought you would be a copycat." DD continued.
Himari glared at her from the floor.
"Of course... A holograph. Maybe she anticipated I would try to hit her if she appeared in her first form. I can barely move now, though. Getting pissed at her would just be a waste of energy at this point." She thought.
"How... do I get my health back?" Himari tried to ask as she struggled to get up again.
"Look around you." DD answered.
The dust had cleared up enough for Himari to notice that she was lying in an enormous crater left from the explosion she made earlier. She also noticed what looked like shards of scorched bison flesh lying around her. She immediately puked rainbow colors in response to the sight, then glared back up at DD as she wiped her mouth.
DD smiled "Don't look at me. You chose this spot. You know what to do."
"Disgusting!" said Himari, as she reached for one piece of flesh near her, still trying to hold back vomit. However, she noticed that the pieces of flesh had rocks attached to them. She took in a deep breath. Then, with one swift movement, she bit into the flesh, ripped it off the piece of rock and gulped it down. She kept her hand over her mouth as she gagged a few times and swallowed hard.
"It's just data meat. It's just data meat. It's just data meat." She kept telling herself in her mind as she forced it down her throat.
When she finally managed to swallow it, she noticed her health bar rising to 50 percent. She took in another deep breath and proceed to gobble down more chunks of meat she found around her. Suddenly, the words 'LEVEL 2' appeared above her head in blue, accompanied by sparkles and a chime sound effect. A panel also appeared before her, which read:
NEW ATTRIBUTE ACQUIRED
HARDBODY
Her health bar was already full at this point.
"What does this mean?" Himari asked DD.
"Hardbody is an attribute of the Rock-bison. You gained that attribute after eating their meat. It's a very useful defense attribute that enables you to tank all sorts of attacks without taking damage." DD responded.
Himari's eyes widened. "I guess this isn't so bad after all. For some reason, it's beginning to taste good too. "
"If you consume more Rock-bison meat, you will gain more upgrade options that will be unlocked as you level up. Most high rankers with this attribute have made it to the Diamond upgrade. There's only one who has gone beyond that." DD continued.
Himari sat up. "That reminds me! I'm supposed to meet someone here! Can you... sort of... scan the area for other players?" She asked DD.
"Sure" DD replied as a radar appeared in front of her.
"It appears there's an extremely powerful ranker in the area, just about 200 meters from here. From this point, I can only tell it's a ranker because of their FYBER readings. I can't tell what rank they are or any other information about them. That's the red dot on the radar. You're the green dot, other players are the yellow ones and the bison are grey ones. As you can see, the bison are heading toward this ranker. " DD continued.
Himari watched the radar closely. "Are the other players avoiding the ranker? And why is the ranker just standing there? Wait... No... No way... Are the bison disappearing after colliding with the ranker?"
Himari gasped.
"What did you expect? Do you have any information about this person you're supposed to meet?" DD asked.
Himari shook her head.
"Then just pray that this ranker is the person. With every player you meet, you have 2 options. The first is a PVP, meaning Player versus Player combat. And the second is an alliance. If this ranker is the one you're supposed to meet, it's safe to say that you wouldn't have to fight them. And you'd have the advantage of establishing an alliance with them. However, if that's not the case, you have nothing to offer a ranker at your current level that would be of benefit to them if they establish an alliance with you. That means, you'd have to fight them. And that means, game-over for you." DD bluntly stated.
Himari shuddered as she pondered over the whole situation.
"So, if this person isn't the one you have to meet, I suggest you run now before you get detected. Once, you're detected by another player, there's no turning back. You'd either have to engage in combat or form an alliance. And we both know how it's likely to go." DD continued.
"Ok. Alright. Are you done with your wet blanket analysis now? I'm trying to think." Himari interjected.
"It's very likely she's the one Big Sis sent me here to meet. If she isn't, I'd get my butt kicked. Game over. Then I'd have to endure more hardcore sparring sessions with Big Sis, which are actually beat-down sessions. If I run, I'll very likely be straying from the meeting point. And I will miss this contact person. And that equals a big-sis-beatdown. Hiding would most likely waste time, which means I'd eventually miss the contact person since I have a time limit. And that definitely means a big-sis-beatdown... AAAARRRRRGHHH STUPID BIG SIS!! WHY'D YOU HAVE TO GO AND MAKE THINGS SO COMPLICATED! YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST GIVEN ME A LITTLE MORE INFO ABOUT THIS PERSON!" Himari thought as she violently ran her hands through her white hair, now turned dirt-brown by the dust.
"I'm even wasting time thinking about this." she thought, coughing through the cloud of dust she had scratched up.
"Heads up. It looks like you're now a target for some of the bison." DD announced.
Just then, some Rock-bison started charging into the crater towards Himari.
"WAIT... WHY... WHAT DID YOU DO?" a shocked Himari asked.
"Why would you even think of blaming me for this? They're here because you've consumed enough Bison meat for them to acknowledge you as a threat. You're now their sworn enemy." DD responded just before her hologram disappeared.
"WHY THE HECK ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS NOWWW?" Himari yelled as she jolted up.
She quickly turned and made an attempt to bolt off but...WHAM!! She smashed into an invisible FYBER wall.
"AGAIN WITH THE STUPID FYBER WALLS?!" She screamed as the 25 rock-bison approached her at top speed.
"The rules I mentioned earlier apply to NPC's too. Of course, you can't form an alliance with the bison at this point. It's not like you could ever form one with them anyway. But once they are locked on to you, you'd have to stand your ground. There's no running away from this till the battle is over." DD's voice responded.
Himari sighed.
"Who made such crazy rules? Haven't they heard of running to fight another day?" She sulked.
Then, she took a deep breath as she assumed a Muay Thai stance.
"Might as well apply what Big Sis has been beating into me this whole time. I guess this is my chance to test out this Hardbody attribute and experiment with FYBER too." she thought as she released her FYBER.
Her fists, elbows, knees and feet began to glow bright green. Then she launched straight at the first bull with her right knee aiming for its head. BANG!!! The bull's head exploded upon impact with her knee.
"Sweet! Better than I expected!" She thought as she spun and landed her left heel in another bison's head, causing it to exploded as well.
"Wow. These bison are actually weaker than I thought."
She struck down another with her right knee and proceeded to unleash a barrage of punches, dismembering a bunch of them.
"Or did I get stronger by eating their meat? I'm just a level 2." she pondered as she fought on.
She grabbed another bison by the horns, swung it around it around and swatted the others with it.
"WHHHHHAAAAT?! Ok... is this supposed to happen?" Himari asked herself. But noticed that a bunch of them were still alive.
As one charged at her in blind rage, she crushed its skull with her elbow, killing it instantly. Then, she broke off it horns. This seemed to enrage the other bison even more. But before they could reach her, she blasted her way out of the crater with FYBER beams from her fists.
"I need to control it this time. I can't afford to get exhausted again." She thought, as she propelled herself about 50 feet above ground level.
"They are heading in that ranker's direction. This is it. Make or break." She thought, right before blasting herself in the direction the bison were headed.
As the force of her FYBER blast waned, she kneaded the FYBER from her hands into tangible blades and drove them into the back of the bison she was just about to collide with. The bull went wild, jumping and kicking to get her off its back. In its frenzy, it got rammed by other bison, sending Himari flying.
"NO!... This is bad! And I've got to save FYBER!" She thought in midair.
As she descended, she curled up into a fetal position and focused her FYBER to harden her body. She ended up in the path of another bison and was sent flying again before she could hit the ground.
Then, WHAM! she smashed face first into what felt like a brick wall.
"Ow ow ow." She cried as she tried to get up.
Blood started dripping from her nose, and she suddenly felt waves of pain spreading across her face. It was oddly silent now. She looked up to the dirt brown rock-hard surface she slammed her face into. As she squinted, she noticed a pattern that looked familiar.
"Abs?" she asked herself audibly.
"A statue? Why is there a statue here?" She thought, as she glanced up across the frame of the dirt brown figure in front of her.
Overall, the figure appeared to be clothed. But for some strange reason, the fabric covering stomach area was in shreds, revealing the rock-solid abs Himari slammed her face into. The wide hips and large bust of this figure, gave the impression of a female. Himari also recognized the style of clothing that covered the figure's upper body. It seemed to be a hoodie, but its sleeves were tattered as well. One of its chiseled arms was balancing what looked like a large hammer on one shoulder. The face on if this figure seemed both perfect and out of place at the same time. It was a very pretty and innocent looking face that didn't suit the body of the female soldier it rested on. The smile on this face was so gentle and lifelike. But its piercing gaze had a little too much life in it.
"Wow... such a glorious looking statue." Himari thought to herself as she gazed up at the figure in awe.
"Psst! Fartan!" DD's voice whispered Remember the ranker I told you about? Well, she's actually the current rank number 1" DD whispered.
"And this is …" DD attempted to continue.
"Her statue! Aye aye captain obvious!" Himari interrupted, also whispering.
"Yes I'm Abs. But how did you know my name?" Said the 'statue.'
The most deafening unpleasant squeal came out of Himari's mouth she kicked and backed up from the 'statue' lady.