Jake got up off the girl who sat up holding her neck. "How… my shield…" She started.
"Won't protect against official healing injectors." He tossed her the overly complex injector, coded so tech armor would allow it to inject the healing medicine. She let it fall to the ground and glared at it before looking down at one of her arms. The blistered and burnt flesh was already healing. Even her burnt hair was growing back rapidly.
"This changes nothing. I will kill you!" She snarled.
"No, you won't. I'm sorry, more sorry than you can imagine for what happened. But, I can't let you kill me. Not while so many depend on me. Just give it up." He pulled the burnt remains of the bolo from his wrist and then jumped up towards the hole. At the peak of his jump, he vanished to reappear higher then vanished again to disappear above ground.
While walking back Jake examined the changes to his gauntlets. They now fully covered both arms and the burnt wood texture spread across both shoulders. When he retracted them he was shocked to see that they didn't become fingerless gloves. But seemed to seep into his pores, leaving only burnt flesh behind. Both arms from his shoulder to the tip of his fingers were seared. It had a wood grain texture pattern to the burns and he was just glad they were already healing. The last thing he wanted was the burn that formed the swirls and knots of wood to remain, they looked too much like some wild tattoo.
Entering town he again cashed in his cores drawing far too much attention to himself. Forcing him to leave the mutagen processing before escaping from the flood of group invites or barely veiled implied propositions. Like always he entered the logout room and sprawled out on the logout table. Darkness consumed him as he transitioned back to "reality". The darkness lasted a long time, far longer than normal. He was just about to get worried when it dimmed like normal and he sat up in his own bed. He pulled off the visor and froze when he looked down. He wasn't wearing the old T shirt he had logged in with. Normally all his equipment disappeared and was replaced by what he had been wearing before.
Only this time, his armor was still here. On reflex, he materialized his gauntlets, and beads of dark material bubbled from his pores. It merged together into his gauntlets.
"This... this isn't right." There was a knock on his door and he panicked just as his father opened it.
"Did you say, something son?" His father asked, noticing his son was sitting in just some sweat pants on his bed. "I was just coming to see if you wanted something for dinner?"
Jake glanced down at his bare chest, nothing strange other than the few scars that remained after his near death experience fighting the Uniques. "No. I'll make a sandwich in a bit."
His father just sighed. "You should eat something other than a sandwich for a change. Let me make you something before I go to work." When Jake started to complain his father put his foot down. "I'll call you when it is ready. It won't be anything too fancy, but I'll find something to make."
Once his father closed the door Jake focused and managed to pull out the armor in the same way he did his gauntlets. After a little experimenting, he found his helmet was also merged into his body. His boots were not.
*********
The next morning Jake logged in as had become his normal. School was to start back up next week. He only had one pack of Maws left to hunt, unless he had missed some. After this, he would either need to move or start looking for a new hunting ground. He wasn't sure how he was going to do that with school. Again, he considered taking up the mayor on his offer to not attend school anymore. But finally decided against it.
After absorbing the mutagen from the previous day and waving away the notifications without even looking at the most likely horrible ratio he headed out. This time he was on guard for another ambush. But no voices were carried on the wind nor were there any random fissures leading to underground caves. He finally admitted to himself that his path had intentionally moved closer to the area from which the Gigatortoises had emerged over time. With that he also forced himself to face the truth. They weren't coming back. That admission hurt him more than he expected and the pain turned to rage.
The Maws that day never knew what hit them.
Jake was examining his burnt arms as he walked back to town. The night before he assumed the damage to himself was because his elemental shield was depleted. This time though, it had burnt him without his shields going down. His only guess was that it was somehow considered inside his shielding. He traced his fingers down the rough burns that were mostly healed, they hadn't faded as fast as before. With his luck, they would start leaving permanent scars if he kept this up.
Just as he entered the town, he froze. For the second night in a row, a female voice carried on the wind. He recognized it this time, it seemed she had gotten out of the hole. Shaking his head he intended to ignore her but her angry and… scared tone stopped him. With a sigh of annoyance mostly at himself, he headed in the direction it was coming from.
"Let go of me. I told you, I would pay. I just can't pay today. You can have the armor back." Nira snapped. Jake paused in the shadows of one of the last buildings of the hub. Nira was standing between two tall men, one had a hold of her upper arm. Both made her small frame seem even smaller, they were definitely strength types. Both were Tech types based on their outfits. While one looked to be in his late twenties, the other appeared to be in his early thirties.
"That armor had to be configured to let a magic type use it. It can't be worn by anyone else. So no returns. If you are that desperate return the staff and the astral bindings." The one holding her arm sneered at her.
"I can't!" She snapped back, Jake saw her try and pull her arm free but it didn't budge.
"Well, then you have to pay up. The minimum payment was two hundred and fifty thousand credits. So either hand over credits or cores worth that much. Or we use payment plan B." Jake could guess based on his leering expression what that might be and felt his stomach turn. Really? He thought. They were probably twice her age, did they really troll a game for something like that? He thought of a few of the offers he had received recently and could sadly believe it.
"I'll get you the money!" She started to sound on the verge of panic.
"Not how it works. You made a deal, now it is time to uphold it. Besides, it is just a game. No reason to be so serious. Isn't that why you were so quick to agree to payment plan B?" He grinned disgustingly. Then flinched.
"Fuck was that?" He looked down to see a small round object on the ground.
"Payment." Jake moved out of the shadow towards them. In one hand he held his container for cores. When he got close to the group they shifted to face him, still holding Nira between them. He poured out his cores on the ground. "Twenty seven B rank cores. That should cover the payment. The talker sneered ugily at Jake. This close Jake could see the old acne scars marking his face.
"It isn't your debt to pay." He finally said.
"Why does it matter where the money comes from?" Jake replied flatly.
"Besides there is no way these are all B rank cores." He reached down and picked one up only to freeze when the info box confirmed that it was indeed B rank.
He looked from the loose pile of cores to the girl in his arm then at Jake as if sizing him up. "Don't try it." Jake's mask closed over his face and his gauntlets formed on his arms. "Safe zone just means when you die I get charged the resurrect fee. But I assure you. It will hurt." His right gauntlet started to glow like an ember.
"Cal… That's the demon. The player killer." The other guy whispered. Why he bothered to whisper when they all could hear him Jake didn't know. The guy, Cal, eyed Jake a moment more before letting go of Nira and dropping to scoop up the cores.
"Your next payment is due in a week. Don't forget. I look forward to collecting." He leered at her once he was far enough down the street he felt safe. Ignoring the rumors, standing before the Demon had been unnerving. There was something off about him.
"Did you really borrow money? How much?" Jake's mask slid away merging back into his flesh as he asked.
"Five Million Credits." She said, her tone sharp as she glared at him. "Not that it is any of your business."
"What… so much. Do you realize how much that is? No, never mind. Just go log off. Don't bother logging back in." He turned his back on her. She obviously didn't want to talk to him and he didn't want to talk to her.
"Fuck you. I have to take care of my town. You aren't the boss of me." She snapped.
"I'll take care of the town. You don't need to bother logging in again. Unless you are expecting me to pay for your debt?" Jake paused to look at her, she just glared at him so he turned to leave again. Something hit him in the back of his head. He turned to see a core rolling on the ground.
"I don't need your charity, murderer. Mind your own business." She whipped around and stormed off. Jake just picked up the lone B rank core. He guessed they had missed one. With a sigh, he headed towards Clive's bar. He would have to ask the game master to keep an eye out for her, he didn't trust those two loan sharks.