Mark: "Steven. Can you read anything from him?" – He takes a better grip on his axe.
Sorvak: "Ah-… 'Dark Strider', there's nothing special, he's level seventy-five, Arcane-Scout and… Trickster." – His eyes shine yellow.
Mark: "So, he's hiding his attributes. That's fancy for a new mob."
The three of them firm their footing while staring at me.
Elay: "The Ogres were level one hundred and twenty, right?" – she says recollecting herself.
Mark: "So, if he's a boss, he can be even higher than that for all we know."
I keep looking at the three of them alternatively, the entire scenario spinning around me.
"I am not - the boss - of this dungeon," – I say slowly. – "You guys need to listen…"
The rules of the Orb come back to me.
"If I die, I won't come back. I-… I don't know what happens. My character is deleted, but if I'm the character…" – My vision doubles with anxiety. – "This- This is real, it looks real. If I die, I might just as well die for real. So please, don't do this, this is serious."
Tears fall to my cheeks without me realizing it. I look down, at my hands shivering uncontrollably.
Mark: "Same formation as always."
"Aren't you understanding me!? Don't you see? I'm right here talking to you!!"
{ [DArkstrider: WHY DON'T YOU HEAR ME!?] }
I look at them with pleading eyes, heavily gasping for air.
"I'm not lying… j-just look at me.…"
Elay and Steven appear in doubt, but a step comes forth behind me. I turn to see Mark charging forward with his axe, cutting the air downwards in a strike. I jump back and manage to evade it by a hair, the metallic axe hits and bounces off the stone floor.
My feet slide to a stop as I draw one of my daggers.
"I don't want to do this!"
I point the dagger at him, holding it with both my hands to minimize the shaking.
Then a fireball is shot from Steven's staff, it almost hits me in the face, its heat burns my cheek and instantly evaporates the tears from my right side before exploding on the wall. I instinctively lift my shoulder to protect my face, but it only makes me feel the pain from my slightly burnt skin.
"You don't want to talk…" – I relax my arms hopelessly, holding the dagger with only one hand, – "You don't want to hear me, …o-okay then. I tried, I tried to make you understand."
I can't think straight. The more I try, the angrier I become at all of this. I'm angry at this game for bringing me here, at this maze for being so damn annoying, at these idiots who can't fucking listen to me, and mostly at myself for picking that useless piece of shit of a unique item.
All of it pisses me off.
Mark runs towards me and swings his axe sideways to my neck, I bend down to evade it and I dash forward to swipe the dagger into Mark's side, a splash of blood flies with it. I almost lose my balance because of the sudden inertia but I slide my feet to a halt, being able to turn to face Mark and the others behind him.
Mark: "STOP HOLDING BACK, ELAY!" – He glares at me from over his shoulders. – "He damaged me, that's it, he's not an NPC."
Elay: "But--" – she says staring fearfully at me.
Mark: "LET'S DO THIS!"
He lifts his axe, making an arc above his head and descending its blade to me, I don't even need to move for it to miss, but as soon as the blade touches the ground a brown magic circle engraves into the stone, I go a step back, but spikes pierce the floor from below and tear the skin off my right leg.
I land outside the circle, and the spikes dissolve in thin air while the broken ground slowly regenerates. I stagger back, feeling my legs burn in pain.
That's how I'm going to die? In this stupid place?
My entire world is shaking, blood drips off my dagger to the floor.
I look at my pants torn under my knee, blood drenching its cloth and oozing into my boots. A light shines in the top corner of my vision, Steven is conjuring one more red circle on the tip of his staff, readying another fireball faster than before.
Inside this ridiculous game that I spent four years of my life playing. To random dumbasses who can't listen to me.
A smirk comes to my face, a disgusted smirk.
Huh, I don't blame them. I would try to kill the hell out of me if I were them too if I were being honest. Who would believe a weak-ass story like mine? Transferring inside a game? Hah- I never even read what NPCs had to say, why would this be any different? I wouldn't even think twice.
That's exactly why I'm in this mess in the first place, after all.
Elay walks forward with confident steps and a serious face of a warrior. Mark takes his axe off the ground, twisting it with fire bursting behind its blade, and dashes at me. The only thing I do… is close my eyes and breathe in.
"Three versus one. Nowhere to run. And with my worst side character," – I mumble dryly. – "What a damn luck I have."
From within the darkness of my mind, a white pointer made of light spins like a clock, leaving a fading trail where it passes and falling faster than going up, almost stopping when reaching the top but having just enough momentum to fall again to another turn. Then it repeats, just like the heavy steps I hear outside, again then again, and at the fourth round, once the pointer finally reaches the top for its last time, the clock brightens and the pointer disappears. That's when I open my eyes.
"I won't die without fighting," – my voice cracks with anger.
Seeing the fireball coming from one side, the axe from the other, and the blond princess in front. The entire world warps and Mark's axe cuts nothing in the air. The wall molds itself behind my back and the mage's cape appears in front of me. My eye turns golden, a grey wave travels forward, and I see the name [Sorvak] hovering in front of me.
I draw my second dagger, and in a swift move, both my blades sink into his back. Just for a moment, a popup opens with his skills and items, but then it was gone, together with Steven that also blinked away, but instead of fragments left behind, some kind of swift energy beam transferred him a few meters from where he was.
Sorvak: "Shi--, that scared me," – he says while retreating.
I stare with a murderous aura at him.
"You have the build to keep using the same skill to be faster."
I sigh annoyed and straighten my back, disgusted with what I just saw.
"You'll spam fireballs like a fucking idiot, anything else and your combo breaks. I don't even need to see your skills again to know exactly what each one of them is."
Elay dashes from my side, and in mid-air, she conjures a giant hammer almost bigger than herself made of electricity. It swings down, but I step back twice to evade it, wind supporting me to go even further away as my boots are now enveloped with blue magic and a pair of wings.
"Ultimate of Arcane, Fighter, and Shaman, isn't it?" – I continue to think aloud, as I'm used to when playing the game, the only difference is that now I need to evade two other real attacks from the raging Elay. – "Turns your weapon's damage into elemental and greatly decreases its weight, but to equip it you need to spend some energy per second. Ah, that's why you're the out-combat healer, you have more regeneration."
My eyes twitch searching around, updating my position and of my enemies.
"But again, I already knew that when you were carrying me back then… Now, there's only one left."
Mark runs towards me and swings his axe, but I move back just as before, almost jumping with each step. But as soon as his attack hits nothing, I jump forth and raise my arm to touch his muscled shoulder, so the same type of window appears.
I hesitate, taking a moment to think and remember what each skill is, together with any special items that I need to worry about.
Mark lifts his axe over his head once more, turns his body, and in an arc hits the ground with everything he got, a single step back is enough to go out of its range. But when the blade touches the floor, another circle is engraved into it and a wave of exploding dirt travels forward, I jump away and it breaks down in the wall behind me.
"A front fighter, you're not following any skill builds I've heard before, but I see the logic behind it. It's to keep getting more energy, do bleeding, and keep luring mobs, isn't it? But it's still a bit off, there are way better builds than that."
With three more steps, I reach the furthest wall from them, and the moment my feet touch the ground for the last time, my speed boots fade away. And then, my body fades with the ambient and disappears in the air.
"Then we have a DPS caster with some focus on divine vision, and a DPS fighter with some focus on out-combat healing…"
Mark: "Where is he?" – His angry voice echoes in the closed room. – "Steven, can you see him?"
Sorvak: "Uhm…" – His eyes turn golden as he looks around. – "I can't. He just disappeared."
Elay: "Trickster has a skill that improves invisibility against divine vision, doesn't it?"
Mark: "But why would someone –or something– spend a slot with that upgrade?"
The three of them glance around in worry, getting closer to each other's backs in the middle of the arena.
"Someone that isn't here to fight. I'm a scout, after all."
They stop, each one looking outward of their spaced circle.
Mark: "It won't last forever, keep your guards up. Just don't get too close, he might AoE us."
Then, there's nothing but silence, one second after the other.
With no more steps, only their breathing echo in the arena.
For a moment, it was like I wasn't even there anymore.
"But again, you are forcing my hand."
Elay and Steven side-eye to something in their peripheral vision, and turn to face my character who is simply standing in the middle of the room and between them all.
Sorvak: "There he is!" – The mage points his staff and conjures one more red circle as he walks back.
All of them turn, Mark and Elay go forward with their giant weapons ready to attack, but all I do is stand still, my character emotionlessly looking forward unresponsive to their advances, focusing on something that isn't there.
The fireball bursts forth and explodes in my back, scorching my dark cloak and pushing my spine forward; the axe swings and cuts me sideways in half; and Elay's hammer comes down splatting me into a pulp on the ground.
Steven: "We got him!" – he says thrilled, pointing his staff forward with heavy breathing and preparing another fireball; before realizing the faint blue smoke coming from below Elay's hammer.
Mark twists his axe to a following swing as Elay takes her hammer away, but he halts mid-attack once he sees there's nothing for him to aim at.
"That was an illusion."
My invisibility wears out when both my daggers ignite into flames and I trust them into the mage's back.
Sorvak: "H-He's behind-" – he says choking on his words.
I slice him three more times before he teleports away. Everything is in a greyish tone with my eyes in their golden form, seeing Steven's health decreasing as it hovers above his head, not even midway yet. Elay dashes towards me while Mark hits the floor to send one more of his earth-waving ranged attacks.
Sorvak: "That was close-," – he says before the world warps and his face reappears right in front of me. – "Offensive blink?! No, he--"
Mark's attack explodes far behind me and another couple of my wide slashes cut the mage's cape even further, each attack spreading and increasing the flames covering his body. Steven points his staff forward and loads another fire circle, now way slower than the previous ones. But I keep moving to the sides, dancing in harmony with each hit and following the mage's retreating steps, making Steven miss and throw his fireball to the floor.
I glance at the two status bars hovering above his head, seeing his health dropping near to a third. I lift my right dagger near my eyebrow and the other in a reverse grip on the side of my hip, both pointing toward him.
"Die."
In a powerful burst, my daggers shoot forward at bullet speed, swiftly going through his chest and abruptly stopping by the ribbons' limits, my gloves heat up from the friction, faint smoke coming out from my grip.
Steven's character looks at himself with scared eyes, his own blood painting his face as he burns, until his health reaches zero.
Sorvak: "I- I died? That was so fast-"
-His body transforms into blue flakes of energy that magically hover in the air without gravity, they slow down to a stop, and they transform into a shooting beam upwards and disappear. Just like when a character dies in the game.
I fix my posture, breathing heavily from the exercise. I look over my shoulder, seeing Mark and Elay halting a few steps behind me, with worry on their sweating faces. Without much of a hurry, I walk to my daggers and pick them back from the ground.
"Two left," – I mumble from the other side of the white screen, inside my dark room. – "My energy is at seventy, plenty enough to kill them." – I smirk, gripping my mouse to aim at them. – "I just need to--"
I halt, feeling something viscous and warm in my grip. I slowly flip my hand, seeing blood oozing between my fingers and the plastic of the computer's mouse.
Huh--?
I look at my other hand gripping a dagger covered in blood, from its blade to the ribbon, everything is stained red. A cold electric shock spreads throughout my body, freezing me completely as if I had just woken up from a dream, seeing both daggers in my hands and the light-grey stone ground below me.
Everything shakes, my legs' pain remembers me of how weak they are to stay standing, Steven's body burning reappears in my mind, the dagger slicing and piercing him, blood splashing everywhere.
I slowly rub my shaking hands on my long sleeves, trying to clean them off, but it just makes things worse. It was everywhere, from my wrists all the way to my shoulders, below my torso, hips, legs; even my boots were dripping blood to the ground. From outside my cloak to my pockets, everything is heavy with warm blood. Everything stinks of rusty iron.
I can't look up, I can't move. I can't stop the chaotic ringing in my ears.
"I- I-"
My eyes won't focus, my throat closes shut, and my breathing suffocates me. I want to take my clothes off, to rip them away and clean myself, but I'm only able to stare at the bloodstains while the entire world shakes in red around me, my hands transforming into something that isn't mine anymore and my own body distancing away from my control, I can't feel the blood stains, they are not real, they are not real, these bloody gloves aren't mine, this isn't my fault, not my fault--
Elay: "Okay, I know, Steven, I know--" – Elay says annoyed, muffled in the background. – "You're dead, now shut it."
I stare at her with wide eyes for a couple of seconds.
"Ah--"
The world fixes itself, as if I suddenly remembered how to breathe again.
"I didn't-- really kill him… that's good."
I breathe heavily, blood dripping from the tips of my daggers.
Elay: "Yeah, yeah, he has incredible animations, let us focus on the fight now, okay? I don't want to lose my items here," – she says never breaking her stare at me. – "Huh? Your items? No, they didn't drop, maybe the boss took it."
"I thought I wasn't in the game for a moment there. That scared me a little. But it's okay now, I won't lose focus anymore."
I lift my chin, shaking the blood off my daggers to the ground behind me.
"Hah- The fear of losing items," – I mumble, calming myself down. – "I know that feeling. That's why I have scouts in the first place. …and that's why I'm this weak."
I stand upright.
"But you guys are so courageous. ~Coming here blind with your strong characters~..." – I say waving my voice in irony. – "But even so, instead of trying to finish me off, you guys are staring at me and letting my skills refresh."
A trembling smirk comes to my face.
"How kind… keep staring at me all you like."
Mark: "What the heck it is talking about?" – he says growling.
Elay: "'Keep staring at me'?'" – she thinks out loud. – "…he's taunting us."
Mark: "What a cocky boss." – He opens a smile, readying his axe to the side. – "What do you say? Let's take him down, you and me."
Elay nods.
"I played this game for four years. I know more than one trick to kill stronger players."
I open my smile wide as they charge forth with heavy steps.
"And to tell you the truth… you guys kind of suck."